The below was written in 1999 and 2000, long before the U.S. started to bomb Afghanistan in Bush's effort to supposedly rid the world of terrorism (please tell me when we start bombing Ireland and Israel, anyone). So, by now most people who aren't living under rocks do know that life for women in Afghanistan sucks. They might not know that it has been that way for a long time, since way before the Taliban took over, and they might not care that it is not getting any better right now either, Taliban or not. Because women are still without power in that country. So for more updated information on the situation of Women in Afghanistan please click the buttons above.
The conditions of life for women in Afghanistan are atrocious. This should be something we are all familiar with, from multiple reports in magazines, newspapers, and on television. Yet, most Americans have most likely never heard about it at all. The same could be said for most of the rest of the world. These human rights violations have not been the center of much media attention, in part because it is difficult for reporters to get inside the country and gather accurate information. However, another reason I believe most of the world does not know about this, and the countries and organizations that should be doing something to stop it have not done anything adequate at all (the United States, the United Nations, etc.), is because we do not care about human rights violations of women in a country that is not important to us.
The people who have cared and have tried to spread the word about the conditions these women live in are a small number of human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, and many feminist organizations, such as the Feminist Majority Foundation.
In the beginning of April, 2000, the Feminist Majority Foundation's Feminist Expo was held at the Baltimore Convention Center. There were several seminars held during that conference about the plight of Afghan women. Small pieces of light blue fabric with a safety pin attached were given out to all who attended the conference, as a reminder of the lives these women used to have, when they were allowed to wear colorful clothing and sew beautiful garments. During at least one large symposium at the conference, a couple of young women who escaped Afghanistan with help from the Foundation spoke about their lives there. I remember one of these women in particular. Her words were very moving. She talked about how much better life used to be in her country, before the Taliban's reign of terror, and about how she had to come all the way to the U.S. (and is very fortunate that she was able to do so unlike most of her peers) in order to fulfill her simple dreams of getting a college education and the opportunity to use her mind and have a career. She received a scholarship through The Afghan Women's Scholarship Program created by the Feminist Majority Foundation. The kinds of things we all take for granted here are simply not allowed for women like her in their home country. She wanted us all to know and remember that.
For more information see these links and the ones at the end of my report:
The Feminist Majority Foundation's Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan pages have an overview of the situation, updated news, information on their program to offer college and university scholarships to Afghan women, a page of seven things you can do to help - including postcards you can send to other people to alert them to this situation, and products produced by Afghan women which you can buy (100% of the proceeds go to refugee women from Afghanistan).
The Revolutionary Assocation of Women in Afghanistan is an incredible organzization of brave women, and anyone remotely interested in this topic should see their site which has reports, updated news, and pictures that tell you the reality if their lives.
Amnesty International's Afghanistan reports page and be sure to see "Women in Afghanistan: Pawns in Men's Power Struggles" from November 1999
United Nations Commission on Human Rights report on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan from Feb. 1996
Write Net Report, "Afghanistan: The Forgotten Crisis" from Feb. 1996 and also see the March-November, 1996 update of this report
The following is a report I wrote for my women's studies class at the Community College of Baltimore County, Essex, in May, 1999. At the time it was very up-to-date. Unfortunately, not much has changed since then for Afghan women, so this information is still accurate now (July, 2000).
Women in Afghanistan:
In 1996 the Taliban, an ultra-conservative, fundamentalist Muslim sect, took control of Afghanistan's capitol city, Kabul, and began issuing strict religious directives to all citizens. The rules imposed on women are by far the most oppressive human rights violations. Women in Afghanistan have no rights. They are under siege in their own country. They are treated like prisoners, punished for the crime of being female and alive.One of the first decisions made by the Taliban government was to deny women the opportunity to get an education. Nearly all the schools in Afghanistan are closed to girls. Women are also not allowed to work, except for a small number who work in healthcare. They are forced to remain in their homes most of the time. Yet, their homes are like solitary confinement cells. All the windows of houses where women live must be painted black, so that the women cannot be viewed from the outside. There are a small number of buses that women are allowed to ride. In these buses the windows must also be covered, and a curtain must hide the woman from the male driver. Boys under the age of 15 are hired to take the busfare, so that women will not be in contact with grown men.
The Taliban's reasoning says that by allowing any of their flesh to show, women are corrupting men. They force all women to wear dark-colored burquas, which are long veils that cover their entire bodies, with mesh holes to see and breathe through. The burquas are heavy and also dangerous, since they allow only a limited amount of vision. Burquas are expensive too, so some poor women cannot afford them. Yet if they go outside without one, they will most likely be beaten, subjected to severe lashings by the Taliban, or even stoned to death. So poor women who do not have burquas suffer the consequences by staying inside, even when they are ill. One woman's daughter died because she did not have a burqua and could not leave the house to take her daughter to a doctor. There is also at least one reported death of a woman who could not leave her home when she needed a doctor herself, because she did not have a burqua.When women go out in public, besides being covered in the burqua, they must also be accompanied by a male family member. They are not allowed to speak loudly or laugh. They cannot where brightly colored clothing under their burquas, or white socks or shoes. Women can be beaten if men hear their shoes click when they walk. Taliban men have beaten women in the streets for supposed immodesty. The Taliban's punishment for adultery is stoning the woman to death. Women are forbidden medical care at most clinics and hospitals. The Taliban's Ministry of Public health has changed its rules about women's healthcare several times, but they have always made healthcare extremely difficult for women to obtain. In September of 1997, they ordered all hospitals in Kabul to be abruptly closed to women. Some women were removed from maternity wards while they were in labor. The Taliban have made birth control completely illegal, and meanwhile, Afghanistan has an infant mortality rate 140 times that of the United States. The one hospital in Kabul designated for women was still under construction in 1998. When they do receive medical care, women must be accompanied by a male relative. Even then. they must usually been seen by a female clinician, very few of whom exist. Doctors are not allowed to look at or even touch the women's bodies, which obviously circumvents the possibility of receiving adequate care. A woman cannot have surgery with a male surgeon, although nearly all the surgeons in Afghanistan are male. One woman with burns over 80% of her body was denied treatment, because it would have required her clothing to be removed. Many of these restrictions have been especially harmful to widows. Due to twenty years of civil war, there are 30,000 widows in Afghanistan's capitol city, Kabul. Without being allowed to work, these women have no way to support themselves. Many have resorted to begging and selling all their possessions. The Taliban has decreed that women may not receive medical care unless they have a husband, father, or brother with them. Those who have no such male family members have an incredibly difficult time getting any medical treatment.In 1998, a group called Physicians for Human Rights conducted a survey where they interviewed 160 women in Kabul. Their findings showed that 97% of the women fit the diagnostic criteria for clinical depression. There have been reports that the suicide rate among these women is now remarkably high. In the survey, 21% reported contemplating suicide frequently. Anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder were also very common among these women; 81% reported a decline in their mental health.It is difficult to obtain factual information about what is happening to the women in Afghanistan, since the Taliban does not usually allow human rights groups to be in the country. Any humanitarian aid that is allowed can only be allocated to men. The Taliban does not allow women to receive any aid directly. For the most part, human rights organizations, such as UNICEF, have not been able to do much to help the women. The Revolutionary Association for Women in Afghanistan, a grass roots organization, says that the atrocities in places like Bosnia pale in comparison to what goes on in Afghanistan, but the world does not seem to know or care much about this. RAWA reports that women have been abducted and gang raped by Taliban military men, and sometimes murdered, but crimes are not investigated. Little girls and women are also bought and sold as property. Trafficking is encouraged by the widespread poverty of the population. Selling a daughter or niece is a way some men earn money to feed the rest of the family. Since women are not allowed to work and have no autonomy, a woman who cannot support herself might also be sold by a male family member.
The situation of women in Afghanistan has received attention from some feminist groups and human rights organizations in other nations, but for the most part, very little has been done by other governments to intervene on behalf of the women. In May of 1998, the United Nations made an interesting decision. A "Memorandum of Understanding" was signed by the UN and the Taliban, which basically allowed for the human rights violations of women to continue, under the idea that progress could come slowly. In March of this year the UN signed a peace agreement with the Taliban regime, in attempt to reach a cease fire between the Taliban and warring factions in Afghanistan. Yet, there was no indication that women's human rights would improve under the terms of this agreement. The atrocious violations of human rights that have gone on since 1996 will most likely continue to destroy the lives of Afghan women until something is done to stop them. Yet, not much has been done by the world at large.Works Cited:
AFP; AP. "Taliban, Opposition Ignore Women's Rights Issues in Peace Agreement".
Feminist Majority Foundation Online. <http://www.feminist.org/afghan/news.html>. (22 March 1999).
Amnesty International. "Women in Afghanistan: The Violations Continue". Amnesty International Report. <http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1997/ASA/31100597.htm>(June 1997).
Block, Max. "Kabul's Health Apartheid". The Nation. 24 Nov. 1997.
Frontier Post. "RAWA Pledges Continued Fight for Afghan Women's Rights". Feminist Majority Foundation Online. <http://www.feminist.org/afghan/news.html>. (16 April 1999).
Palmer, Caitriona. "The Taliban's War on Women". The Lancet. 29 August 1998.
Reuters; AP; NNI. "Taliban Lashes Women Over Affair". Feminist Majority Foundation Online.
<http://www.feminist.org/afghan/news.html>. (19 April 1999).
Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan. "On the Situation of Afghan Women". <http://www.rawa.org/wom-view.htm>.
"Reports from Fundamentalist Stricken Afghanistan". <http://www.rawa.org/reports.html>.
U.S. Department of State: Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. "Afghanistan
Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1998". (26 Feb. 1999) <http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1998_hrp_report>.
