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Monday, July 23, 2012

Afghanistan - Life and times of women

The first Afghan ruler to establish a recognised modern state was Emir Abdul Rahman Khan who during his rule (1881-1901) he abolished many anti-women laws, giving women property rights, divorce rights and ending the practice of forcing widows to marry their deceased husband's next of kin (called baad, like the Punjabi practise of 'chadar chadhana').
 His wife, Bobo Jan, was the first Afghan queen to appear in public without a veil.
Amir Habibullah Khan(son of Abdul Rahman Khan) who succeeded him furthered his focus on women's rights, establishing the first school for girls.
When Amir Habibullah Khan was assassinated in 1919, his son Amanullah gave Afghanistan its first constitution (1923) that enshrined equal rights for men and women.As a result, by the 1970s, 40% of doctors, 70% of teachers and 30% of the civil service were women.
Russia invaded Afghanistan and set up a communist regime in 1979.Unpopular reforms by the Soviets, forcing women out of veils and out of their homes for party meetings led to a conservative backlash that bolstered the Taliban.When the mujahideen drove the Russians out a decade later, and the Taliban seized power in 1996, women's rights were set back by more than a century.
According to Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission,President Hamid Karzai government have been so focused on the Nato pullout and reconciling with the Taliban, they've turned a blind eye to women. In the past four months of 2012, the AIHRC received reports of 52 honour killings and summary executions, up from 20 in the same period last year.



Women leaders too are more threatened. This month(July 2012) minister for women's affairs in Laghman province, Hanifa Safi, was assassinated, targeted for not wearing the veil.
 Presidential candidate for 2014, Fawzia Koofi has already survived several attempts by the Taliban to kill her.

Violence against women in Afghanistan is widespread all over Afghanistan.
 
Protest March against violence against women in Afghanistan
 


A woman marches with a banner to protest the recent public execution of a woman
 
 

Taliban Treatment of Women in Afghanistan


Afghan women were forced to wear the Burqa at all times in public, because, according to Taliban, "the face of a woman is a source of corruption" for men not related to them .

 

Women were not allowed to work, they were not allowed to be educated after the age of eight, and until then were permitted only to study the Quran.Women seeking an education were forced to attend underground schools, where they and their teachers risked execution if caught.

From the age of eight, females were not allowed to be in direct contact with men, other than a close blood relative, husband, or in-law.

The photographing or filming of women was banned as was displaying pictures of females in newspapers, books, shops or the home.

 


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