1. Women StudieS 420:
AfghAniStAn
By: Matt

2. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Geography:
Capital: Kabul
Terrain: mostly mountain and
desert
Climate: Dry with cold winters
and hot summers
People:
Population: 28.396 million
Annual population growth
rate: 2.6295
Languages: Dari, Pashto
Main ethnic groups:
Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara,
Uzbek, Turkmen
Nationality: Afghan
Literacy: 28.1%(male 43%,
female 12%)
Government:
Islamic Republic
Independence: August 19,
1919
Constitution: January 4, 2004
GDP per capita: $800

3. A Nation of Islam
Religions:
•Sunni Muslim 80%
•Shi’a Muslim 19%
•Other 1%
•Islam is the 2nd
most
popular and fast
growing
religion in the world
with
over 1.5 billion
followers
•Afghanistan’s people
believe in one God and
his prophets including
the 1st
and last prophet
Muhammad
•Islam is a religion of
equality, unity and peace
•Afghanistan
government is an
Islamic Government-
Islam plays a key role in
the people’s daily lives

4. Women were abused in a far greater
degree while Osama Bin Laden and
the Taliban reigned in Afghanistan.
Women were prohibited from seeking
employment, medical attention, or
from doing anything outside the
house without permission from their
husband or father.
Restricted to wearing a burqa when in
public, which conceals their identity
and covers their body from head to
toe.
If women were formerly employed
prior to the Taliban’s takeover in 1996
they were fired.

5. Burqa Stigma- Justified?
Women are not required by law to wear the Burqa
but due to tradition women would be socially
outcast if they didn’t.
Worldwide the burqa along with the chadri (another
garment, which conceals a woman’s identity) are
viewed as tools of degradation that bar true equality
from ever being accomplished in Afghanistan.
The Taliban while implementing the law requiring
women to wear the burqa, did not start the custom.
In order for true change to occur, the psyche of
highly esteemed and respected groups in Afghany
culture such as the Jirga and Shuras would need to
have a change of heart.
AFGHANISTAN GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BAN THE BURQA LIKE THE FR

6. Life for Afghan Women in Wartime
Since the arrival of American
troops:
A constitution has been written
and established for
Afghanistan stating: “the
citizens of Afghanistan,
whether man or woman, have
equal rights and duties before
the law.”
Women have been able to find
employment and reestablish
themselves in careers they
previously held prior to the
Taliban takeover.

7. ACTS OF TRUE
BRAVERY BY
AFGHANY
WOMEN.
United States
ambassador to
Afghanistan,
said the women
who stood in
line to vote on
election day
were
threatened “by
Taliban
remnants” that
they would be
killed if they
did so.
(Washington
Post)

8. Prevailing Problems
Every 30 minutes, an Afghan woman dies during childbirth
87 percent of Afghan women are illiterate
30 percent of girls have access to education in Afghanistan
1 in every 3 Afghan women experience physical, psychological or sexual violence
44 years is the average life expectancy rate for women in Afghanistan
70 to 80 percent of women face forced marriages in Afghanistan
(Afghanistan Online)

9. Government vs. Family Law.
Differences based on tradition
About 300 mostly young women gathered in Kabul to show their opposition to a
recently passed law that forbids women from refusing to have sex with their
husbands and requires them to get a male relative's permission to leave the
house.
About 1,000 people opposed to the protest surrounded the women and threw
gravel and small stones as police struggled to hold them back. The group of
counter-protesters included both men and women. (CBC News)

10. To Critics of the War on Terror
The repression of women is still prevalent in
rural areas where many families still restrict their
own mothers, daughters, wives and sisters from
participation in public life. They are still forced
into marriages and denied a basic education.
Numerous school for girls have been burned
down and little girls have even been poisoned to
death for daring to go to school. (Afghanistan Online)

11. Work Cited:
“Afghanistan”. U.S. Department of State. Web. 11 June 2011.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5380.htm
“Reelect Bush, Faults And All”. The Washington Post. Web. 11 June
2011. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10804-
2004Oct29.html
“Afghan women pelted with stones during rape law protest”. CBC News.
Web. 11 June 2011.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/04/15/afghan-women-
protest015.html
“The Plight of Afghan Women”. Afghanistan Online. Web. 11 June 2011.
http://www.afghan-web.com/woman/

12. About Me
If you have questions you can contact me through e-mail or else
you can always add me on Facebook. Good day, God Bless.