Blog 5: Who Will Protect Afghan Women When the U.S. is Gone?

Afghan women worry: Who will protect our rights after the U.S. is gone?

On Valentine’s Day dozens of Afghan activists marched in Kabul to denounce violence against women. As the U.S. prepares to withdraw from the war, Afghan women fear that their rights will be taken away. On Tuesday’s State of the Unions address, President Obama announced that 34,000 American Troops will be returning home from Afghanistan over the next year which will bring the war that began nearly 12 years ago one step closer to an end. However, nothing on Obama’s fact sheet mentioned anything about Afghan women. When Afghanistan was under Taliban control, women lived in hellish conditions. They were forced to wear a Burqa at all times, banned from leaving the home without a close male relative present, banned from going to school, among other restraints. Punishments for going against any of these rules including whipping, beating, verbal abuse, and sometimes even public stoning. Once the Taliban was driven out, life improved considerably for Afghan women. The Constitution of Afghanistan was ratified, putting in to place equal rights for men and women (at least on paper).  Which soon led to more girls enrolling in school, more midwifes being put in place, and an increase in women in office. Although the rights of women are progressing, few people in government or anywhere else have seemed to notice. Without proper acknowledgement of improved rights for women in Afghanistan, advocates fear that their newfound rights are in danger of being forgotten as quickly as they were reclaimed. Unless women’s rights are specifically included in policy discussions moving forward, Afghan women will be particularly vulnerable one U.S. forces withdraw. Women and other activist believe that once the war is over, the Taliban may have a chance to regain control.

This article proves that the newly improved rights of women living in Afghanistan do have the chance to be denounced as soon as the U.S. ends the war. If the Constitution of Afghanistan is not followed there is a chance women will lose their new found strength. It is heartbreaking to see how the women’s new found rights were almost completely ignored by society as a whole.  If more people/ organizations were aware or paid more attention to this, perhaps there would be more promise for the women’s rights to stay in place.

11:41 AM, 2/27/13

Alice Gunning 

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/15/afghan-women-worry-who-will-protect-our-rights-after-the-u-s-is-gone/