Situation of Women and Children in Afghanistan
The story of Afghan women and children over the preceding quarter-century, and especially during the past five or six years, is one of extremes: from relative tranquillity and emancipation to violence, privation, and oppression - and lately at least the first steps back again. To put the current situation in perspective, it is worth noting that the degree of oppression suffered by women under Taliban rule was an aberration in modern Afghan history. It is true that, before the Taliban took power in 1996, Afghanistan was a traditional society where women often had a subordinate role. Nevertheless, in the 1970’s, women made up a significant proportion of all teachers in the country, and a smaller but significant percentage of all doctors and civil servants.
Most women in Afghanistan are without adequate food; do not have jobs or economic livelihood; have little or no access to health care, especially reproductive health care services; have had limited or no access to education; and have experienced violence to themselves or their families.
Discrimination against and exploitation of women and girls will not change
overnight, and rapid imposition of outside agendas can cause a variety of
problems for women. Numerous [Afghan] women interviewed reported feeling
concerned that rapid changes in gender equity might actually worsen their
already precarious economic and social conditions. Rapid change can also
evoke backlash from men and increase the risk of violence against women,
particularly in the home. Far from being reasons for inaction, these are
reminders that the work on this key protection issue needs to be long-term,
situation ally appropriate, and designed to limit first the most harmful
practices.
