Research for my project

In today's post I would like to focus on expanding my information regarding my sign off project. I will start my research by studying the historical context in Afghanistan in order to better understand how female journalists are treated there.

Afghanistan is a country with very little respect for women's rights, and the situation of women is among the worst in the world. During its 100 years of recent history, Afghanistan has experienced extraordinary change and catastrophic upheavals. Kings came and went. Most women in Afghanistan, therefore, are trapped in the culture of the patriarchy, afraid to have their own voice and to oppose anything. Here, women are pushed down the social hierarchy. Their access to education, decision-making and financial resources are limited. In conservative environments, women have almost nothing to do with their appearance, education, husband or future. The Taliban took their Indigestible Right from them, they enjoyed the rebate earlier, and this mentality is still very strong. They are not allowed to work, study, be brought up from home without a husband or relative, enjoy entertainment or even go to the doctor. Men were taken for them. 70% of Afghan women are forced to marry, many of them still children. 

It is worth looking at the interesting history of women's rights at different times in Afghanistan's history to better understand what is happening now. The first king in the modern history of Afghanistan to try to change the situation of women was the "iron emir" Abdur Rahman (he ruled from 1880–1901). He abolished the custom of forcing a woman to marry the closest man in her family after her husband's death, increased the age for marriage, and gave women the right to divorce under certain circumstances. His wife, Bobo Dżon, reportedly appeared in public without a hat. She rode horses and taught her servants the military craft. Immediately after he was appointed emir, the legendary battle with the British was fought at Maiwand near Kandahar, in which the Afghans were victorious. Tradition says that it happened thanks to the brave Malalay Shepherd Dog. As the morale of the Afghan troops began to wane, she threw off her scarf, picked up the banner dropped by a wounded soldier, and led her countrymen to victory, even though she herself was hit by a British bullet. Malalay is a role model for many Afghan women. Many hospitals and schools are named after her. Abdur Rahman's son, murdered by opponents of his policy, Habibullah Khan (1901–1919), founded the first college and military academy in Afghanistan. He invited teachers from India, Turkey and Germany, built hospitals and hydroelectric plants, roads and factories. He brought into the country from exile progressive thinkers, among them Mahmud Beg Tarzi, considered the father of the modernization of Afghanistan and the emancipation of women in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Tarzi was an advisor and friend of the heir to the throne, Shah Amanullah, who married his daughter Soraja Tarzi, who was considered by some to be among the first feminists in the Muslim world. Amanullah (1919–1929) tried to introduce reforms that were bold for the contemporary historical moment. With an eye on the West, he wanted to quickly modernize Afghanistan - he ordered Afghans to wear European costumes, women to throw off their chadors, free choice of a husband, fought polygamy and abolished the fiancée fee. He sent girls to study abroad, introduced co-education. He publicly proclaimed that Islam does not require women to cover their face. Queen Soraja actively participated in political life and encouraged all women to be active in the service of the country. During the royal couple's journey across Europe in 1928, mullahs and tribal leaders accused the king of compromising Afghan values, religion and women's honor, calling his reforms pagan. To prevent a civil war, the king abdicated and the couple went into exile. For the next thirty years, successive rulers put women's rights aside so as not to irritate the clergy. The emancipation of women accelerated when Mohammad Daud (1953) became prime minister. At the end of the 1950s, Afghanistan received enormous financial aid from the USSR, but also from Japan, the USA and Germany. Numerous investments and rapid economic development have also created a demand for female labor. In 1964, the new constitution gave them the right to vote. Women's organizations were established to fight illiteracy. In 1977, 15 percent of women were in the highest legislative bodies, and until the early 1990s, they comprised 70 percent of teachers, 50 percent of government officials, and 40 percent of physicians. This is the time when women in big cities wore miniskirts, smoked cigarettes, went to parties and to the movies with men. When Daud overthrew the then King Zaher Shah and became president, he accelerated reforms echoing King Amanullah's reforms: women's equality, mass education, abolition of wife fees, minimum age for marriage, sixteen years, lifting of face veils. Once again, history came full circle - the style of introducing the reforms and their radicalism were one of the reasons for the outbreak of the civil war and the subsequent Soviet intervention in 1979. These novelties became, in the eyes of the clergy, an "unacceptable interference in family life", an anti-Islamic challenge to the authority of men, especially as they were sometimes forced into life by force. At a time when women in the cities made up the majority of employees in universities, private companies, and airlines, it might seem like the "golden age" of the fair sex, a period of anarchy and destruction and persecution for the entire state. It is also ironic that during the Soviet intervention, most women in the cities continued to enjoy their newly acquired rights and opportunities without much restriction, studying and working. But soon. The international community has not taken active steps to support the rebuilding of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of the Soviet troops, which created a vacuum that was occupied by war commanders and Islamic fundamentalists. These holy warriors fighting the foreign invader turned into power-hungry warlords with different views on the form of the future state, and unleashed a civil war. Women very quickly became the target of their activities. It was then, and not under the Taliban rule, that unprecedented acts of violence and attempts to limit women's rights began. While the West persisted in the romantic myth of the invincible, freedom-loving mujahideen, especially the Northern Front, the leader of the Masud Front and his opponent Hekmatjar slaughtered thousands of civilians: women and children. During the civil war of 1992–1996, they killed a quarter of a million people and forced half a million to flee abroad. The Taliban regime only aggravated the already plight of Afghan women. The repression of religious fundamentalists was the result of ignorance rather than genuine knowledge of religious law. Certainly, the women were not saddened by the fall of the Taliban, but the return to the provisional government of the former mujahideen, which followed the US invasion after 2001, was also not welcomed - they had too much blood on their hands. Women are no longer flogged in the streets, as did religious fanatics in the Department for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Violence, but it is still done in the privacy of the home. In the province of Herat, where Ismail Khan was the governor, with his own army and unlimited power, militia patrols were allowed to detain women in the streets and conduct virginity tests. In 2004, Khan was removed from the position of governor and in exchange for this position he was given the position of energy minister in the capital.

Bibliography:

En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Women in Afghanistan. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Afghanistan> [Accessed 16 March 2021].

Amnesty.org.uk. n.d. Women's rights in Afghanistan. [online] Available at: <https://www.amnesty.org.uk/issues/womens-rights-afghanistan> [Accessed 16 March 2021].