Afghanistan already is a suppressive environment for females. But The New York Times reported on Friday that the Afghan government is drafting rules that will ban girls and women from dismissing themselves from abusive home environments.
The women’s societies throughout Afghanistan are far and few apart, beneficial to the country in some eyes and detrimental in others.
The conservative Afghan government has made it known that it isn’t in support of the recent aid that has been doled out to the women of its society.
The same article said that the “very existence [of shelters] at best encourages girls to run away from home and at worst are fronts for brothels.”
New rules require that women, rather than making a decision of their own free will, will have to present themselves in front on a panel consisting of eight men, which may be awash with Taliban influence, to plead their case.
More often than not, the women are sent back to squalid homes where their helpless voices are muzzled and they are often accused of adultery, a crime of the highest degree in Afghanistan.
This comes at a time when, not too far away, liberation and freedom are being commemorated. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak officially stepped down after roughly three weeks of protesting by Egyptian citizens. His resignation brings the sweet taste of victory and alludes to a future that is riddled with liberties.
Tunisians, Algerians and the Yemenis have all followed suit.
If liberation is so near and clearly possible, why are the Afghani women and so many others denied the same rights other countries have fought so hard to attain?
Without making a diatribe of what America’s presence in Afghanistan has led to, an article in Rolling Stone elaborates on the corruption that Gen. David Patraeus has instigated while there.
Patraeus uses warlords, with hatred fueled by their hopes to take down Afghanistan, as pawns in his maneuvers. Rolling Stone’s Michael Hastings worded it well: “In Afghanistan, however, arming local militias means, by definition, placing guns in the hands of some of the country's most ruthless thugs, who rule their territory with impunity.”
Another fault in U.S. tactics is a failure to recognize and respect infinite conquests, cross-cultural experiences and long-time presence of invaders and their effects.
Afghanistan is wayward; ideas do not coexist, the country merely exists. A pepper-smattered salad, with shades that vary slightly, is symbolic of Afghanistan. What the rest of the world fails to realize is that the shades are significant and tastes are different.
A melting pot of sorts, Afghanistan is chaos at its finest. Neighbors have varying beliefs that could be the difference between life and death, and it is this intricate detail that we fail to recognize.
The Afghani people are walking backwards. Progress would welcome both their next visitor and enemy along with more conflicting values.
Women will be silenced and rules will be drawn.
Reach the reporter at brittany.morris@asu.edu
