Author: yourid

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Winter Semester
March 2013
Team Odyssey

Oppression of Women in Afghanistan

Written by Team Odyssey:
Madelyn McCallum
Evan Clendening
Andrew Kotikovsky
Spencer Huss
Jeron Lee

Northern Michigan University
HL 322 International Health Studies
Winter 2013

What does it mean to be “oppressed”?

The term oppression means the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner defined by Online Etymology Dictionary (2013). Though the lack of empowerment amongst women is an issue being battled globally, our attention here is in Afghanistan. In regards to the misuse of power against women it is a broad term to describe. It was voted the “worst place to live for woman” by CBS (2011), and continues to plague this Islamic nation despite efforts and intervention. Some of the areas of oppression against woman outlined by the Afghan Elimination of Violence Against Woman (EVAW, 2009) laws are: violence, baad (forced marriages), rape, degradation, intimidation, persecution, forced isolation, lack of preventative and supportive measures , and lack of human rights of equality.

Women under the Taliban Rule Forced to Cover all parts of their body (Photo taken from San Francisco Chronicle:Imprisoned by the veil)

The Background

Image from the rawa.org

Executive Summary

The Background	1
Health Interventions	2
The Impact	2
Costs and Benefits	3
Lessons Learned	3
References	3

Since the 1800’s women have struggled for human rights in Afghanistan. The extremist Islamic interpretation of the Qur’an brought by the Taliban influences many of the people to treat women as less than men. Women have been forced to cover their whole body’ except for their hands and eyes, marry at extremely young ages with no chance of divorce, and either work as nurses, teachers, or no work at all. They are often treated as second class citizens and are told to never make eye contact with a man because it is disrespectful. These objectifying practices have led to the oppression of woman.
Though some of these practices have been engrained in the culture for many years, women have slowly been given more rights as the years go by, this is mostly related to the change in leadership. By the late 1960’s women were in the workplace and the veil was becoming less and less mandatory for women to wear. However, when the Soviets took over, the primarily Islamic culture struggled to adapt to the changes in laws such as abolished bride prices and mandatory education for women, and revolted. A war erupted and lasted until the Soviets were forced out (Joya, 2010).
The Taliban then took over the government and imposed its harsh laws pertaining to its strict interpretation of the Qur’an. Women were treated worse during this time than any other time in any other culture. They were the target of many oppressive practices like covering up head to toe, not being allowed to work, commonly stoned publicly, and couldn’t leave home without a male escort, to name a few. The United States then invaded in 2001 and took control of the country. Although the US and other partnering nations have helped the Afghan government many women still struggle to fully gain equal rights. Afghanistan is a country with 80% of woman in forced marriages and more than 87% of woman reporting abuse (Sajoo, 2010), Influences from past eras still haunt Afghanistan and women continue to be victims of injustice.

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Oppression of Women in Afghanistan

The Intervention

EVAW logo

“While 85.1% of women have no formal education,74% of girls drop out of school by the 5th grade.” Women for Women Foundation

Women in Afghanistan are facing many problems dealing with human rights, education, employment, health care, and overall empowerment. But there is hope, organizations, law makers, and women themselves are working towards an equal future. Organizations such as the World Food Programme (WFP) are finding innovative ways to get women to go to school by providing them with food rations. This program works on empowering women by teaching them to read and write. As an incentive to keep them educated they also teach them how to grow a garden and plant vegetables. This program is working towards improving women illiteracy and hunger to ensure that they have a bright future.
Another aid-based program is the Afghanistan Midwifery Project which provides women with medical kits, education, and midwife training. Since Afghanistan is still under the rule of the Taliban this prevents a lot of women from going to school. There is also a taboo about women becoming doctors. The AMP is working to help educate women and provide them the needed tools to deliver a healthy baby. Once one woman is trained in midwifery she can better aid her fellow neighbors, friends, and family.
An organization called the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) is working in changing the judicial system for women in Afghanistan with what they call EVAW Law. EVAW law criminalizes child marriage, forced marriage, selling and buying women for the purpose or under the pretext of marriage, baad (giving away a woman or girl to settle a dispute), forced self-immolation and 17 other acts of violence against women, including rape and beating. It also specifies punishment for perpetrators. This organization is changing the fundamental laws in Afghanistan. The more support and recognition they get, the more protection women will have on human rights. The effort of the EVAW will help give women equal opportunity for a better future in Afghanistan.
The presence of war has been prominent in Afghanistan since the early 1970s. There is a focus of many organizations to provide “relief” to those families in Afghanistan that have been impacted by the war. Whether that impact means providing a place for orphans to live or giving women resources to seek help with any psychological distress they have. Organizations such as Afghan Women’s Mission and Women for Women Foundation provide these types of relief to women. The Women for Women’s Foundation is a special organization that enrolls women in their one-year program in which they learn job skills and business training so they can earn a living. The program model they use is over the course of a year. The result of entering this program is to educate women on what they can do for themselves and what rights they deserve.

The Impact

Violence Against Women campaign in Afghanistan and the Taliban.

Since EVAW was enacted in 2009, there has been some progress with administration and execution of the policies; however, there is still a lot of work to be done. Because of the lack of information, communication, and difficulty in uprooting customs EVAW laws has been poorly enforced. Newspapers are still full of violence and injustices amongst woman that have not been handled according to EVAW policy. (Kabul Press, 2011)
United Nations’ forces in Afghanistan have been effective in keeping the Taliban and other insurgents in check. The status of militaristic forces has been under debate however. Many believe the remainders of Taliban forces have time on their side by waiting for troops to pull out so they can regain power. A poll taken by Afghan woman reveals a 70% approval rate of US forces in the nation, yet many feel that the bombings will continue –there was a 30% rise in Taliban Killings in 2010, (Sajoo, 2010).
As a back to school campaign led by United Nations 2002, 3500 gender schools were created in Afghanistan. These schools however had faced several threats, violence, and insufficient security. Because of this many woman were afraid to attend school, and by 2006 there had been over 2000 reports of threats, arson, and killings in schools. Nearly 80% of the schools in the southern provinces (more Taliban-dominated) were closed in 2006, (Sajoo, 2010).

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Costs and Benefits

Oppression of Women in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s overall GDP is 19.8 Billion dollars ranking them the 109th country on the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) scale. A majority of this money is made through agriculture, industry, and services. Although Afghanistan produces a variety of goods that range from fruits and nuts to products such as textiles or hand-woven carpets the profit from these industries pales in comparison to that of opium. The profit made from opium extends into the billion (~1.4 Billion) often making up about one tenth of the country’s total profit. This money from opium goes to drug lords or certain groups of people often funding self-sustaining operations such as producing more opium/refining heroin and terrorist efforts. Unfortunately, the money from these illicit drugs does not really make it back to the economy as a whole, and does not help women’s needs.
This corrupt system of monetary control can be deemed one of the leading factors for the poor economic system that Afghanistan currently has in place. Afghanistan’s economy runs on a import and export system just like the rest of the world often importing far more then they export causing them to be in debt. The country’s current debt is around 1.3 billion with last year’s revenues totaling to 2.3 billion while their expenditures extend into nearly 4 billion (CIA, 2013).
Afghanistan has attracted much attention throughout the years with foreign aid being a large aspect of this attention. With this aid Afghanistan received 15.7 Billion dollars in 2012 alone and awareness still keeps growing (CIA, 2013). Unfortunately, it has only been recently that foreign aid has begun to focus on intervening on the specific issue of women’s rights leaving limited data on the economics of these specific interventions. Although some foreign aid has gone to help women, they are still treated as second class citizens. The human costs of this are tremendous.

Photo: UNAMA

Lessons Learned

The complexity of the issue facing the gender inequality in Afghanistan exemplifies how deep and interconnected many of the world’s problems are. Much of the injustice in the world seems as though it can be solved by fixing one aspect, such as legislature or giving aid, but often that does not impact the entire problem. To solve a problem like this, then, there must be a perspectives and expertise drawn from many paradigms, and input from every angles. After reviewing gender inequalities in Afghanistan or globally, a few lessons to be considered are:
1.Empathize- One of the best first steps in solving an issue within another culture, such as the oppression of woman in Afghanistan, is to Empathize. In order to clearly see what exactly the issue is, and how the issue is affecting the people, one must be able to walk in another’s shoes.
2. Break the paradigm- A common error in diagnosing and fixing a problem comes with taking it at face value. Many issues may seem isolated in one domain or another, like legislature or environment, yet usually there tends to be overlap. The example here is the EVAW laws. In Afghanistan, EVAW laws were intended to treat violence against women solely as a legal problem, yet much of oppression has risen out of communication errors, individual power struggles, and cultural beliefs.
3.Tap into outside resources- topics like the one of gender inequality can strike one to want to act, but don’t forget that these topics are way too big for one person or organization. To help make a difference, one has to spread their interests over people of all backgrounds and professions in order to tackle the issue from all angles. Simply sending military forces to an area, for example, is not enough. Employing nonprofits, education systems, and multimedia platforms will also help combat the fight.
4. Starts with thy self: Let’s face it, it’s not the easiest to make a huge difference in a country thousands of miles away. Even bigger than the difference made by traveling internationally is the impact that can be made on the home front. If the issue of gender inequality is bothersome, then stand up for equal rights in your own life, community, and country first. As the saying goes “be the change you wish to see in the world”.

References

CIA. (2013), Afghanistan, Retrieved from Central Intelligence Agency website: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html on March 15, 2013
"Implementation of the Elimination of Violence Against Woman law in Afghanistan has a long way to go." Kabul Press. Ed. Kamran Mir Hazar. Kabul Press, 23 Nov. 2011. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. <http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article88802>.
Joya, M. (2010, January 20). A History of Woman in Afghanistan. In the commune. Retrieved March 3, 2013, from http://thecommune.co.uk/2010/01/20/a-history-of-women-in-afghanistan/
Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) (pp. 1-11). (2009). Kabul, Afghanistan: Nation of Afghanistan. Retrieved February
oppression. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/oppression
RAWA Organization. (1997). On the situation of afghan women . Retrieved from http://www.rawa.org/wom-view.htm
Sajoo, E. (2010). A Brief History of Afghanistan [Online video]. Vancouver: Simon Fraser University. Retrieved March 10, 2013
World Food Programme. Retrieved February 12, 2013, from www.wfp.org/countries/Afghanistan
(2011, June 14). In CBS News. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20071178-503543.html