Qazi (2009), states “Many Afghan women have played very important and influential roles in the history of Afghanistan. There are women who shaped the country history, like most other countries' histories, Afghan history is filled mostly with the stories of men and their actions”.Violence against women is pervasive throughout the world. Approximately one in three of the world’s women will experience violence in her lifetime, and especially Afghanistan is one of the main countries without any woman rights.
Women are the most and first victim and still there is much violence against them. Killing of women is like killing a bird today in Afghanistan. There too many cases of domestic violence including forced marriages, suicide, burning, murder and sexual assault had been happening all over the country. According to Times Magazine “what happens to Afghan women if ‘we leave Afghanistan’ that tragedy already occurred to one of the afghan women called Aisha. Aisha had unsuccessful marriage in very early age, and abused from her family members. Aisha tortured, escaped at age of eighteen to defense her woman rights, but in Taliban decree her punishment had her nose and ears to cut off.” Aisha was an example of the hundreds crime on afghan women in their daily life.
The blame for this is a cultural where arranging marriages happens all the time not religion. Islam is allowing every girl and boy to marry the person they want or they like. So forced marriages mostly are not something related to a religion, but in some countries where they respect their culture. They give their girls and boys the person they want, and the boy and girl can't reject who their relatives selected for them.
Taliban decree abused women in the name of religion Islam, which is not true and male and female are equal in Islam religion, for example health care for Afghan women and girls is virtually non-existent since male doctors may not care for female patients, the windows of homes occupied by women must be painted to prevent women from being seen. Women are forbidden from speaking in public, and adolescent girls and women are prohibited from speaking to males who are not close relatives.
One big reason is poverty. Many parents marry their daughters off to wealthy, older men when the girls are very young, often when they are underage.
Another reason is where a family resolves a dispute with another family by handing over one of their daughters. The girl usually gets treated really badly by the second family or others may be beaten up very badly by their husbands.
60 to 80 percent of marriages are forced in Afghanistan and more than Afghan women married before turn 16.
for example Rukhma is an Afghan women, she doesn’t know her age but she looks younger than twenty suffered from husband, she escaped her house in Pakistan got kidnapped and raped. A woman feel domestic violence or accusing a man of rape herself often ends up the guilty party in the eyes of judges and accuser.
Women in Afghanistan are suffering from many major depressions, sadness, pains and frequently think of committing suicide rather a than divorcing their partner. This is because Afghan families think that a woman should not be divorced, whatever she goes through, she should be patient and put up with it. She should die before asking for a divorce.
An example is the story about the women destroyed from her husband and in-lows family and getting beaten every day, her decision was to die rather than suffer.
According to Gowan (2010), “There was a time in Afghanistan when women were stronger and they had freedom to go to school, office work, teach and etc. After Taliban, girl’s school closed, women covered by burqa and not allowed to go out. What happened to Afghanistan? Asks Time magazine. The magazine editor would have show a greater sense of history about Afghanistan, since Mujahedeen came on board on 1980, everything has been forbidden for women as they thought this is Islam tradition and Washington supported Islamic reaction by Mujahedeen. 1995 there is nothing good to say about Taliban”. Most of the woman in Afghanistan are not educated they have been denied these rights either by official government decree or by their own husbands, fathers, and brothers. During the rule of the Taliban (1996 - 2001), women were treated worse than in any other time or by any other society. Therefore they cannot stand up for their own rights and become a main target of violence. There never been proper government to support woman’s rights.
What is the social significance of the question to society?
Sharing these thoughts is also very important for every woman in society, to understand how important it is to stand for your own rights.
I hope that one day we can be in a position to help other women in the world, so that we will no longer be seen as the women the rest of the world sees as helpless. We are not helpless; history has forced helplessness onto us.
In order to answer the question Why are afghan woman always the main target of violence? I want to find out more about the other aspect of violence as well as arranged marriage. Some of these ideas are about men’s power in Islamic society. The effects of war and no education for women.
References:
Gowans, S. (2010). Women’s right in Afghanistan. What’s left. Retrieved August 10, 2010 from
Qazi, A. (2009). Afghan women’s history. Retrieved August 30, 2009 from
Wing, N. (2010). Time magazine cover explains what happen what happen to Afghan women ‘if we leave Afghanistan’, but that tragedy already accruing. Retrieved July 29, 2010 from
Sengupta, K. (2010). Increase in Taliban brutality against women. Retrieved August 18, 2010 from
Tytler, C. (2009). Women’s right in Afghanistan today. Retrieved February 3, 2009 from
