E – Rickshaws: Advantages and Disadvantages

Women in Afghanistan

The life of women in Afghanistan is like a hell, especially the Muslim women. Islam means the submission of humankind to the will of god and not the submission of women to the will of men.

The afghan Taliban’s announced that girls should not be sent to school, women should be thrown out of their jobs. This news really saddened the American Muslims as it came as a shock wave. Prophet had said that search of knowledge is compulsory over every Muslim, irrespective of their gender (male or female).

A letter from afghan women. Please go through it:

This is an open letter for all Pakistanis and the Muslim world. I want to expose certain criminals and unveil their ferocious atrocities, to all of my Muslim brethren.

I am an Afghan Muslim woman of Hazara origin. My age is 44 and I am reasonably educated as compared to most of the women in Afghanistan. I was living in Mazar-e-Sharif with my husband and two children, a son and a daughter. My husband had a leather shop in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Two days after the fall of city, persons belonging to the Taliban regime forcefully entered my house, six in number. They asked my husband about our religious background, when my husband couldn't answer them, they started beating him with their rifle butts. I started calling for mercy but all in vain. My son couldn't resist and tried to stop them, one of those cruel persons shot my son twice. My son died on the spot. He was just 19. Seeing this, my husband tried to kick the person who shot my son, they immediately shot my husband as well.

This all was so much shocking for me that I started shouting and crying. Seeing this, two of the persons came to me and slapped me and my daughter and then kicked us. After that they left. When I turn towards my husband, he was already dead. They annihilated my innocent family for nothing. We kept on crying and shouting for two days, there was no one to help us. There was no one to bury them.

A day later, I got another shock of my life, the cruel Taliban brutally killed my father and two brothers. My mother couldn't bear this butchery of her family members; she too died a week later.

For a few days I lost my senses. I might have died too after such a big tragedy but perhaps for the sake of my daughter I am still alive. There was no one to listen to us and give us justice in Mazar. I have to beg in the streets of Mazar for food. I used to tell the tragedy to every passerby but I was usually asked to keep quiet otherwise we will meet the same fate as of my family.

One day while I was begging I came across a foreign journalist. I told him the story. He was a kind person. After some days he took me and my daughter to Peshawar. My host in Peshawar is a nice person. He is taking care of us.

I was told that Pakistan is an independent country and unlike Afghanistan, press and media here are free and there is no need to fear, therefore I am sending my tragic story to you.

An Afghan woman.

There are thousand of afghan women who meet the same fate. The question arising here is: Who will give them justice? There are no sons left who can listen to their mother’s cry and no fathers who can console their daughter.

From a report, I saw that a particular group of people said that there has been some improvement in the education system for women but it was far from sufficient. The western press has sensationalized the situation and used it to attack Islam.

The Taliban’s have also introduced another rule for the women, i.e, and the burqa (to cover from the head to toe). Girls start wearing the burqa when they are 12 or 13. Severe poverty is the main problem for the afghan women.  

As I had said beforehand, Islam had given equal rights to both men and women(right to vote, right to choose the right person to marry)  but now at present; the condition of the women is not the same. The rights that were bestowed upon them are denied by their own husbands, father and brothers. Women who were teachers or those who were into some high-quality profession were forced to quit their jobs.  Women were not allowed to leave their home without a men escort. Such rules were prevalent during the Taliban rule (1996-2001).

Taliban rule had its fall in late 2001. The recently adopted Afghanistan Constitution states that all men and women are equal in front of the law. Today, women can go to work and its not compulsory for them to wear the burqa. Despite all these changes, some rules still exist. But in some areas, still women are forced to marry at a young age and are restricted from attending any public function.

According to IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Network):

·         Every 30 minutes an afghan woman dies during childbirth.

·         87% of afghan woman are illiterate

·         44 years is the average life expectancy rate for women in Afghanistan

·         70 to 80% of women in Afghanistan face forced marriages.