Davalos 1

Alondra Davalos
Professor Bieber
English 115 HON
06 October 2015
Summary Five
In the article Afghan women gain education and rights but still face abuse, forced
marriage Pamela Constable argues that the past several years have brought both legal advances
for Afghan women and a political backlash against them as well. Constable claims that Afghan
women are absorbing new ideas about freedom and rights but still live in a deeply traditional
society where male elders decide their fates. Constable argues that womens expectations are
crashing headlong into present pre-Taliban traditions, including child marriage. She states that
this change is leading to frequent and sometimes violent clashes within families over arranged
marriages, love affairs, incest and poisoned relations with in-laws. Constable states that girls are
often married off because their families cannot afford to support them; many are sold as teenage
brides. She claims that even after the overthrow of the Taliban Afghan women are branded as
bad women for fleeing intolerable domestic conditions.

Davalos 2
Alondra Davalos
Professor Bieber
English 115 HON
06 October 2015
Summary Six
In the article Liberation eludes Afghan women / Forced marriages, beatings, suicides
persist despite Taliban's fall Ana Badkhen claims theoretically women have constitutional right
equal to mens in post-Taliban Afghanistan but the reality is their lives have improved little since
the demise of the Islamic regime. Badkhen argues that the conservative generals who run
Afghanistan provinces support strict rules that obstruct women from public life. She states that
parents continue to sell their daughters into marriages that often resemble imprisonment, turning
girls into housewives who rarely are allowed to step outside their husbands estate. Badkehn
claims that leaving relationships continues to be socially unacceptable for Afghan women and
they rarely seek divorced because typically it would leave them homeless. Lastly Badkehn says
that desperate to get out of abusive marriages, women are increasingly turning to suicide, a sin in
the Muslim faith.

Works Cited

Davalos 3
Badkhen, Anna. Liberation eludes Afghan women / Forced marriages, beatings, suicides persist
despite Taliban's fall SFGate n. pag. 16 April 2004. Web. 4 October 2015.
Constable, Pamela. Afghan women gain education and rights but still face abuse, forced
marriages The Washington Post n. pag. 25 September 2013. Web. 4 October 2015.