7.

03H Marginalized Groups

By: Aubrey Hovan
 Topic:Women's Rights in Afghanistan
The issue is the way in which Afghanistan women are
living their lives. They are being treated the same as
slaves would be and as though their only peropse is to
do mans bidding. Girls at the age of twelve are
considered to be of age and are forced to get married,
but there are even worse things than this. Many end
up being married off to random men, kidnapped, or
even raped. Womens rights do not even begin to
compare to those of men, and are not allowed to gain
any form of education unless it is regarding household
duties. In the event that a woman wishes to go
outside, it is mandatory that they first cover almost
their entire body. From a very young age, women are
treated with absolutely no respect. In addition to this, if
a woman is unable to reproduce, they are instantly
shamed by society.
The majority of methods and strategies they are using consist of joining different organizations. Women
were joining organizations like RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), founded
in 1977 by Keshwar Kamal, a woman who was fed up with having to just sit and watch the mistreatment
of so many women. RAWA helped many women fight for their rights. Together, they all went and fought
against the government, demanding for equal rights. They started a protest that managed to get the
government's attention, however, it was not successful.
The American social movement was very similar to the Afghanistan women’s social movement in many
ways. Both groups of women were experiencing very poor treatment and were not given the same rights
as men. They both had to protest and fight just to simply be heard. In addition to all of this, they also were
seen as a joke at first, but they were resilient and didn’t let that stop them. The American women has a
greater number of people, both men and women on their side whereas the Afghan women had far fewer
and worked mainly on trying to increase their numbers. The time it took Afghan women to gain their rights
was far longer than that of American women.
To this day women are still viewed differently than men, but have also come so far and made substantial
progress in fighting for their rights as well as gaining them. Women continue to fight for their rights and
will not stop until they are no longer being discriminated against, all because of their gender. Women will
always have people whose goal is to discourage them and try to get them to stop fighting. Many doors
will be slammed in their face, but change does take time and time & results is better than no time & no
results. Women in Afghanistan are starting to be seen as more and more important, but there is still much
further to go until they get their very deserved, fully equal rights.
Citations:
About RAWA…

RAWA

A Brief History of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan (alittlebithuman.com)

Women’s rights in Afghanistan | United Nations in Afghanistan

Gender-alert-Womens-rights-in-Afghanistan-en.pdf (unwomen.org)

Women More Educated Than Men But Still Paid Less | YaleGlobal Online