Before democracy began in Afghanistan, the Taliban imposed oppressive laws. I was just a little girl, living in the capital of the country, secretly studying at home, while my mother and the rest of my family faced the daily fear of terror. Or to go back: My mother graduated from university thirty years ago, and she hoped that her children would achieve a high level of education. After some time, the Taliban emerged in Afghanistan like monsters. I was a four-year-old child when my parents taught me primary education at home. When the time came that I should start school, the doors closed for girls. My mom, who had been a principal before the Taliban’s emergence, was an expert in education and completely familiar with school subjects and …show more content…
Silence overshadowed the house. The Taliban intruders searched furiously but found nothing. Suddenly, one of them saw the religious books on the table. Thinking they had come to the wrong house, they snarled, threatening my mother, “If we hear you are guilty of teaching girls, we will kill you and your family.” With that, they left the house.
After that, there were times when no one came to class, and I was very sad and missed my classmates. So did my mother. Clearly, the girls were afraid of the Taliban too. That is when we decided to move to another house nearby and start the class again. The home school continued for three years, hidden from everyone except the students’ parents. Finally, after three years, the Taliban’s period was over, and the period of democracy began.
The schools started up again, and every girl and woman could once again go to work and school. Many girls had to start the first grade even though they were twelve years old. Fortunately, my sister, my classmates, and I took the competency examinations and placed in the seventh grade even though we were nine years old. Not only were we back to our studies, but we were considered advanced. Now I am young and living in a peaceful environment. Still, those horror memories haunt me. I remain anxious for the girls who are still living in that situation and don’t have anyone to help them. I was one of the lucky
In Morris Glietzmans heart breaking but remarkable book Boy Overboard, he shows how the corrupt government in Afghanistan has forced out many of its inhabitants making them try to leave the country by avoiding the government and staying in refugee camps until they can leave is in the country. Morris Glietzman shows the pressure put on the families in Afghanistan through similes, metaphors, and humour. The Afghanistan government or the Taliban as they are called, are very harsh and unfair with the laws that are in place in Afghanistan and are not nice to the families in the country. Woman are treated very unfairly in Afghanistan for minor crimes, and are whipped or killed for a crime such as showing there ankles in public or not being with a male person of there family while outside.
Rumors spread to Najmah that “woman wearing henna on their fingertips had their fingers chopped off”(Staples 12). When Najmah heard the clink of bangles under a woman’s burqa and the click of her heels on the pavement, the sound created an unsettling sensation within her. Suddenly, Najmah recalled how the “Taliban would whip women whose shoes made a sound on paving stones (Staples 180).” She wanted to warn the woman, for her mother had told her that “women risk their lives by hiding their jewelry” (Staples 180). As for Nusrat, notwithstanding the fact that she just moved to Pakistan not long ago, she was extremely vigilant and prudent when the Taliban was around. One time, a servant of Nusrat’s disappeared. Nusrat sent someone to search for her and discovered that “she had been badly beaten and was held without charges” (Staples 99). From this incident, the unfair treatment towards women helped Nusrat to learn more about the Taliban’s rules in Pakistan. Given the facts above, it is very apparent that Taliban’s cruelty toward women is depicted precisely and vividly through the different stories of two
The Taliban regime was infamous for its treatment of women. Windows had to be painted black so men could not look into the windows of houses and see the women inside. Women were unable to work. Under Taliban rule, women were not allowed to be educated, unable to go to school or university. 9 out of 10 Afghan women are illiterate. Unfortunately, Meena was unwillingly cast into the role of teacher to young girls who wanted to learn how to read. Because she had been to university, girls flocked to...
In 1997, the Taliban made a law banning girls from ages 8 and up from going to school and forced all girl’s learning facilities to be shut down, according to Explora. Some girls still tried to go to school regardless of the Taliban and one of those girls is Malala Yousafzai. Her family did not hide their feelings toward the ban of girls in school to the public, when Malala was twelve she began blogging for the British Broadcasting Corporation about what life was like under the Taliban rule anonymously, and she also campaigned publicly for girls education rights, this enraged the Taliban. As a result, On October 9, 2012 when Malala was riding home from school, her bus was stopped by 2 Taliban members and they fired 3 shots at Malala, thankfully none of them killed her but she was seriously injured by this, as declared by NobelPrize.com. Furthermore, this is not the only harsh rule of the Taliban to women. Women were forced to wear a head-to-toe covering known as a burka, they were not allowed to leave the house without a male, and they made it a rule to publicly stone women who were convicted of adultery, as stated in The Other Side of the Sky, by Farah Ahmedi. Arguably, you can see their was a definite bias in sexes in the Taliban that is very unfair to women
In Afghanistan, education is not easily attainable especially as a woman. “For girls in much of the country, education remains a dream no more attainable now than it was under the Taliban. If women are educated, that means their children will be too. If the people of the world want to solve the hard problems in Afghanistan--kidnapping, beheadings, crime and even al-Qaeda--they should invest in education”(Baker).This quote explains the struggles that young afghanistan children have to go through by not getting the opportunities that American children get every day. Even after Afghanistan was under the Taliban, it was still rare for children to attend school which is a horrible reality. Education is explained as one Afghanistan's worst problems of this time. Future generations are in trouble if this problem is not fixed. The tragedy that these children are facing needs to evolve towards a better system. Afghanistan’s current educational structure is unacceptable to the growth of children. “It's hard to overstate the amount of work to be done. The literacy rate in the country has dropped below 40 percent for men, and it is believed to be as low as 4 percent for women” (Whitelaw). Though there is clearly a lot of work to be done in the education systems, it is crucial to the well-being of many children that the systems improve to inspire kids that education along with hard work and dedication is essential to future success. This is only one
Stories were being told, except we weren’t sure if they were true. Rumours were spreading about how the Taliban treated people, but time went by and nothing changed. When the world started to fall silent, Malala Yousafzai, with all her courage and strength, spoke up. She has suffered for doing that, but she doesn’t regret it. Every word she says is expressed with concern. She knows that even her small voice, can and has, changed the world. Malala Yousafzai is a young activist from Swat Valley, Pakistan. In my opinion she is one of the most influential people living and that’s why I’m going to talk about her struggle, her accomplishments and what she wants and will try to change until the day she dies.
Bibliography Yousafzai, Malala, and Christina Lamb. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. N. p. : n.p., n.d. print.
Women in America do not have to worry about a terrorist group coming and taking their rights away. They have a government that protects them from these groups and makes sure they have the same rights as others. In the Middle East, especially Afghanistan and Pakistan, women are scared to speak too loudly. These women live in fear each day of their lives because if they make one small mistake it could mean their life. Yet, there are some people who are fighting for women’s rights, especially women’s education. Malala Yousafzai is a girl who fought for women’s education. At the age of eleven, Malala began writing a blog for BBC Urdu. The blog described how she was upset that women’s education under the Taliban would be forced to stop. Malala also appeared on national television talking about women’s education. She has become a symbol of resistance against the Taliban. Even after Malala was put on the Taliban’s hit list, she continues to speak out about what she felt needed to be said. Malala would give her life for this cause, and she almost did. On October 9, 2012, Malala was on her way home from her morning classes when a man walked on to her bus and asked, “Who is Malala”. When she said it was her he shot her. The bullets hit her head and her leg. The Taliban ordered for her to be shot because she was promoting western culture in Pashtun areas. In another case Mukhtar Mai stood up for women’s rights and was sexually assaulted by multiple men with orders from the tribal council. The tradition in Mukhtar’s tribe was that a woman who is sexually assaulted by multiple men should kill herself, but instead of committing suicide she fought for her cause (Samira 28-30). Although the Taliban restricts women’s education for religious reaso...
Nelson Mandela once said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. It is the very same “legacy of change” that Nelson Mandela used that inspires what Malala Yousafzai does today. At the age of 15, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating for girls’ education. Since this appalling incident, Malala has gone on to be the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize, start the “Malala Fund”, that funds education in developing countries, and is currently the figure of women’s rights. Malala has been constantly speaking, advocating and helping women and children acquire the rights they deserve. In her powerful speech to the U.N, she opened the world’s eyes to the truth about education
Ziauddin Yousafzai’s school for girls was one of ... ... middle of paper ... ... eaving Malala’s only choice to stand up for her beliefs. Doing so left her in the hospital with greater expectations for herself in the future. The Talibans continue to make their impact as well, dangering many innocent people.
Greg Mortenson is a truly influential person. He has built over 120 schools in central Asia. Mortenson believes that the real long term answer to terrorism “lies in education rather than fighting” (402). He has won multiple Pakistani humanitarian awards and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize two years in a row (Mortenson and Relin, 127). Mortenson built his first school in 1994 in a Pakistani village called Korphe. Korphe is situated at the base of K2, the world’s second highest mountain. Mortenson stumbled upon this tiny village after a failed attempt to climb the peak in honor of his late sister Christa. (Mortenson and Relin, 136). Since building the school in Korphe, Mortenson has built multiple schools around Pakistan and Afghanistan. His focus is on educating girls about the world around them. By building schools in third world countries, Greg Mortenson is impeding terrorism.
On September 11, 2001, the most disastrous terrorist attack in U.S. history left a countless number of innocent Americans both dead and missing. The Taliban’s assault on the Pentagon and annihilation of New York’s World Trade Center caused the entire country to wonder what was going on in the rest of the world to cause so much animosity toward our great nation. Little did many American citizens know that this shocking catastrophe was the result of years of unrest and chaos in the Middle East. The tragic events of September 11th occurred as a result of the recent, political history of Afghanistan, the development of the radical Islamic group, the Taliban, and the monetary and military support that the Taliban has received.
Afghanistan has had a history, full of violence and wars since the last 176 years, from being invaded by the British in 1838 to the soviet Russians in 1979, but those long wars have left the once prosperous and wealthy country, into a country torn apart into shreds (BBC News). The future of Afghanistan will be highly unstable due to its high levels of poverty, which is a major factor on the outcome of the country’s future. Wars are great contributors to high poverty levels and it is reported that “20 million out of the 26 million people in the country, are living under the line of poverty” (Rural poverty Portal), that is about 75% of the country’s population. When 75% of the country population is living under the harsh living conditions and poverty, it leaves the country’s economy running on fumes. The high level of poverty also leaves most of the country in a survival mi...
However, after the US invasion, the number of street children has decreased and they started going to school full-time. Based on the Education Ministry’s data, seven million children were registered at public schools in comparison to the one million registered back in 2002.... ... middle of paper ... ...>. AFGHANISTAN:
In protest to this, Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl, refused to follow these rules, and even began a blog for the British Broadcasting Corporation, detailing her life under Taliban rule. In response to her protest, a gunman approached her, and shot her three times. This assassination attempt started a global movement in support of Yousafzai and her beliefs. Like Thoreau, Gandhi, King, and Yousafzai, one must realize when others are being oppressed and take action against those in power who oppress the people they rule. Otherwise, there will never be change, and the world will never see justice.