Women in Afghanistan

When Taliban were in power, women were treated like animals and even
worse. In Afghanistan,
women had no importance in Taliban eyes. For those extremists, the fair sex’s
only function was to produce children and to satisfy men’s sexual needs. Women
had almost no rights. The rules they had to follow were very strict. For
example, they couldn’t get out of their own houses without a mahram (man in the
family), they had to wear a Burqa, which covers them from head to toe and they
could not look at strangers. There were about a hundred rules of that kind
imposed to the afghan women. If they disobeyed any of those, they were
seriously punished. They could have been beaten or stoned in a public place.
Women’s situation during the Taliban reign was very hard and inhuman. For those reasons, canadian
involvement in Afghanistan
is absolutely necessary. Now that Taliban are not in power anymore, Canadians
must stay in that country to contain those people. In those circumstances, they
will not get back to power and afghan women will be freer. Indeed, since the
fall of the Taliban regime in 2001,
a glimmer of hope has emerged in the afghan women’s eyes.
Some advances have been made since that event. During the winter of 2004,
a new Constitution was entered into force, proclaiming the
equality between men and women of Afghanistan.
This Constitution gives even some political rights to women. Therefore these
women can continue to defend their rights and their individual freedom.
However, because a lot of people still believe in the tradition that men are
superior to women, the equality and right of women remain unchanged in several
areas. For example, many family crimes committed against women are still not
punished, even though the Constitution has been established in 2004.
Unfortunately, because there is no system in place across the country to
enforce the rules of this document, the majority of the rights and freedoms of women
are not respected. Finally, canadian soldiers must be in Afghanistan
to help the country to recover from the harm done by the Taliban, as well as to
advance the position of women in the afghan society.

References :

“ La situation des femmes afghanes”, on the website Le réseau INTERRE-ACTIF, [online]. [http://www.in-terre-actif.com/53/dossier_la_situation_des_femmes_afghanes] (March 19^th 2011)

“Some of the restrictions imposed by Taliban on women in Afghanistan”, on the website RAWA, [online]. [http://www.rawa.org/rules.htm] (March 19^th 2011)

MACKENZIE, Jean. (October 5^th 2010). On the website global post, [online]. [http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/afghanistan/101004/afghan-womens-rights-taliban]

(March 19^th 2011)

Marie-Joëlle Vandal