Violence Against Women In Afghanistan Essay

Women have always been treated as unequal. Men think of themselves as superior to women. Although women have gain rights in countries such as the United States and England, some countries still treat their women with disrespect and violence. Violence against women has been going on in third world countries for generations. Afghanistan is one of those countries. There are different forms of violence against women in Afghanistan. These forms include “early and forced marriages to domestic violence, so-called honour killings, rape and dispossession” (Hennion). Kevin Ayotte and Mary Husain write in their article, “Securing Afghan Women: Neocolonialism, Epistemic Violence, and the Rhetoric of the Veil,” that physical violence is a very important

This can include hitting, poisoning, and sometimes the use of a weapon, such as a knife. Violence like this usually men want to feel in control. Beating up their wives makes them feel like they have control. Even though domestic violence is a big thing in Afghanistan, most women don’t look for help because they feel pressured by society to make their marriages work. Also the women in these societies are dependent on the husbands, since they aren’t allowed to work. The women fear how they will survive without their husbands. Because of this the women don’t report their husbands: “only 5% of cases involving violence against women surveyed by the UN in a recent report ended in persecution in a formal court” (Rasmussen). The customs of the societies have made the women so dependent on their husbands, that they won’t report them even for physical abuse. First, the women are brainwashed into believing that they should make these marriages work, or they would be disrespected in the society. Second, the women have no concept of independency. They don’t think they will survive without their husbands. They just suffer through the violence that they are put through without asking for

Lida Ahmad says rape happens because of honor, revenge, and hatred. Honor killings and rapes are done to shame the family. Chapter four of Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, they talk about Mukhtar Mai. She was gang raped due to her brother being falsely accused of raping another girl. Mukhtar was raped because her society believed punishing the girl for the possible actions of her brother would balance everything out. The brother shamed the other family, now we will shame your family. Although this did happen in Pakistan, this kind thinking in small village societies exists in Afghanistan as well. Women are raped for revenge to punish the family. There are men who don’t want women to study and go to school in small villages in Afghanistan. The men rape anyone who goes to school. The fear of getting raped stops girls from getting an education. The girls who do get raped are seen as disgrace in their societies, and some of them usually end up in