...as the Taliban used its control over Afghanistan to enforce strict and unfair rules on the women and made harsh punishments if these rules were broken.(BS-1)The book, Under the Persimmon Tree correctly portrays that being a woman in Afghanistan has a lot more disadvantages than the men of Afghanistan who have more advantages.(BS-2)The author of Under the Persimmon Tree, Suzanne Fisher Staples uses the fact that the men of Afghanistan had more advantages than the women in Afghanistan, to develop and create conflicts and it also helps us to hear a voice that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to hear.(BS-3)From this book and the research that was done about the Taliban’s treatment of Afghan women, helps us to hear the voices...
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...Some of the restrictions imposed by Taliban on women in Afghanistan The following list offers only an abbreviated glimpse of the hellish lives Afghan women are forced to lead under the Taliban, and can not begin to reflect the depth of female deprivations and sufferings. Taliban treat women worse than they treat animals. In fact, even as Taliban declare the keeping of caged birds and animals illegal, they imprison Afghan women within the four walls of their own houses. Women have no importance in Taliban eyes unless they are occupied producing children, satisfying male sexual needs or attending to the drudgery of daily housework. Jehadi fundamentalists such as Gulbaddin, Rabbani, Masood, Sayyaf, Khalili, Akbari, Mazari and their co-criminal Dostum have committed the most treacherous and filthy crimes against Afghan women. And as more areas come under Taliban control, even if the number of rapes and murders perpetrated against women falls, Taliban restrictions --comparable to those from the middle ages-- will continue to kill the spirit of our people while depriving them of a humane existence. We consider Taliban more treacherous and ignorant than Jehadis. According to our people, "Jehadis were killing us with guns and swords but Taliban are killing us with cotton." Taliban restrictions and mistreatment of women include the: 1- Complete ban on women's work outside the home, which also applies to female teachers, engineers and most professionals. Only a few female...
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...Women of Afghanistan ANT 101 May 3, 2010 Women of Afghanistan Afghanistan is a very rugged country with various ethnic, religious, and tribal groups (http://www.iiav.nl). It is also a country that is rich in culture and tradition. But very little is known about the women that live in Afghanistan. No one really knows or understands how a women’s day to day life is. In Afghanistan most women are kept hidden away in their home and they are not allowed outside. Today the only thing that people hear or know about Afghanistan is that the United States is at war with a country that has known very little peace over that last one hundred years. Afghanistan is a place where time stands still and very little changes. One of the things that has not changed or has changed very little over the last one thousand years is the everyday life of women. The Afghan people are very simple and in some remote villages they have very little comforts. In some places midwifes assist mothers in the birth of their new born babes. They also bring water inside their house in pales, and they maintain their houses clean for their husbands. Most Afghans live their lives in a very traditional and private way; they have several customs and traditions that have been passed on from one generation to the other for hundreds of years. These people do not require or ask anything from the western world or from their government. They rarely let outsiders into their culture and this has led to many...
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...by an evil terrorist group. Death is at the tip of your fingertips and survival is your only hope. In the novel Under the Persimmon Tree, by Suzanne Fisher Staples, Najmah and Nusrat go through major changes. The Taliban is forcing Afghans to join their group and they are killing or helping other terrorist groups to kill innocent people. This puts a lot of responsibility on Najmah to take care of herself and their family, and this puts pressure on Nusrat as well because she doesn't know if her husband is alive or dead. The loss of Najmah's family makes Najmah a stronger person day by day and the worry of Faiz also makes Nusrat a stronger person Hope is the...
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...the world there are different educational rights for men and women. In mostly Asian countries, education is not a priority for women, even though women do want to have an education. But some women are actually strong enough to stand up for these rights. Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani teenager who was brave enough to campaign for girls’ education when it was not allowed. Where she is from, the Taliban had banned girls from attending school. Her thoughts on education gave the idea that education is very powerful and that every girl has a right to it. With her father also being an education activist, she had the support she needed to keep on going on the path she had made. Yousafzai is one of the most popular teenagers we know today, and for such a great reason. Before she was shot by the Taliban for standing up for girls’ educational rights, she was also a blogger. She would blog on a BBC website about her life under the Taliban’s restrictions and orders. It was way to tell the world about the influence of the Taliban on their lives. In one of the blogs she reported that she was still studying for her annual exams but because of the ban for girls from school she was uncertain if she was even going to be able to take her exams and if all the studying she was doing was even worth it. These blogs were written constantly and every single time there would be something new to report on how it was under the rule of the Taliban. Yousafzai once wanted to be a doctor, but looking back to...
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...Women of Afghanistan Afghanistan is a very rugged country with various ethnic, religious, and tribal groups (http://www.iiav.nl). It is also a country that is rich in culture and tradition. But very little is known about the women that live in Afghanistan. No one really knows or understands how a women’s day to day life is. In Afghanistan most women are kept hidden away in their home and they are not allowed outside. Today the only thing that people hear or know about Afghanistan is that the United States is at war with a country that has known very little peace over that last one hundred years. Afghanistan is a place where time stands still and very little changes. One of the things that has not changed or has changed very little over the last one thousand years is the everyday life of women. The Afghan people are very simple and in some remote villages they have very little comforts. In some places midwifes assist mothers in the birth of their new born babes. They also bring water inside their house in pales, and they maintain their houses clean for their husbands. Most Afghans live their lives in a very traditional and private way; they have several customs and traditions that have been passed on from one generation to the other for hundreds of years. These people do not require or ask anything from the western world or from their government. They rarely let outsiders into their culture and this has led to many misconceptions of how women are treated and how...
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...individual lacking the same opportunities as someone who is privileged because of the same sub categories of race, class, sex, religion, sexual orientation, and able-bodiness. Latifa’s novel My Forbidden Face is one that shows many strong examples of oppression for Latifa and her family. Not only do we see disadvantages in her life based on her sex and religion, but the Taliban goes even further to control the people of Kabul by providing restrictions on the media and their everyday routines. Throughout My Forbidden Face, we see the main character of Latifa being oppressed from the very beginning, especially because of her female sex. Outlined by FOOT, we see several “isms” that could be taken out on a person, or group of people. One that we see very often and that is a prominent focus of Latifa’s novel is sexism. Rothenberg describes sexism as a system of advantage that is based on a particular sex (2010). There is an abundant amount of evidence to prove that Latifa’s female being prohibited her from gaining the same advantages that were provided to the men throughout her life. When the first sign of the Taliban invading...
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...of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She is known for her education andwomen's rights activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. In early 2009, at the age of 11–12, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls. The following summer, a New York Times documentary was filmed about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region, culminating in the Second Battle of Swat. Yousafzai rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by South African activist Desmond Tutu. On 9 October 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. In the days immediately following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, United Kingdom for intensive rehabilitation. On 12 October, a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwā against those who tried to kill her, but the Taliban reiterated its intent to kill Yousafzai and her father. The assassination attempt sparked a national and international outpouring of support for Yousafzai. Deutsche Welle wrote...
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...A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Houssenni documents the lives of two Afghani women as they face a landscape dominated by discrimination and riddled with adversity. Prior to the great cultural and political upheaval that was the Aghanistam civil war and subsequent arrival of the Taliban, women enjoyed many freedoms in society similar to those found in western society today. Women were able to walk unescorted down the streets of Kabul, dress freely, wear makeup, and even smoke. In addition, "50% of the students and 60% of the teachers at Kabul University were women, and 70% of school teachers, 50% of civilian government workers, 40% of doctors in Kabul were women." (Feminist Majority Foundation) as soon as the militaristic Taliban came into power however,...
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...been targeted and killed, and violence against girls and women continues to be a major problem (“Women in Afghanistan”). More females die during pregnancies and childbirth than almost anywhere else in the world. Life is hard for women fighting for their rights in Afghanistan. The Taliban, an extremist militia, seized control first of Herat and then Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on September 27, 1996 and violently plunged Afghanistan into a brutal state of totalitarian dictatorship and gender apartheid in which women and girls were stripped of their basic human rights. Upon seizing power, the Taliban regime instituted a system of gender apartheid effectively thrusting the women into a state of virtual house arrest. Under Taliban rule, women were stripped of all human rights – their work, visibility, opportunity for education, voice, healthcare, and mobility. When they took control in 1996, the Taliban initially imposed strict commands that banished women from work force. They closed schools to girls and women and expelled women from universities. The Taliban prohibited women from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a close male relative. They also went as far as to ordering the publicly visible windows of women’s houses painted black and forced women to wear the burqa (or chadari) – which completely covers the body, leaving only a small mesh-covered opening so that they will be able to see. They prohibited women and girls from being examined by male physicians while...
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...The Breadwinner Culminating Writing Assessment “Hit,” “Bang” there goes the talib again someone breaking the rules everyone near in shock. Living life under taliban rule isn’t easy. Achieving success. The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis is about a girl named Parvana that goes through life in talib rule. Life under the taliban rule isn’t safe, women are not allowed to go outside, they are forced to walk with men, and children are not allowed to go to school. First of all, Parvana shows perseverance when the taliban soldiers busted into her house going through everything. “She threw herself at the soldiers with such force that they both fell to the ground.” Parvana remembered all of her father’s books that they had hidden because books were banned...
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...Alefa Chowdhury 12-09-13 7th Hour A Thousand Splendid Suns A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini, is a story that is set place in modern-day Afghanistan. It is a story of two particular women who live under the control of a persecuting husband and the infamous rule of the Taliban. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini shifts the narrative perspective throughout the different sections. Overall, the story is told from an omniscient third person. The external character shows the reader world events as they happen and how it affects the main characters, Mariam and Laila, with a factual, unbiased perspective. As the story progressed, we switch to third person limited to understand Mariam and Laila’s individual struggles and experiences, yet we never know what any of the other characters are thinking unless it is said. By shifting narrative perspectives, Hosseini demonstrates how women help each other achieve a shared goal in a time of civil war and social inequality. And through these two women (Laila and Mariam), Hosseini creates a mind-blowing, adventure of regret, despair, tragedy, and more importantly, redemption. The book begins with separate perspectives of each woman, and how they consequently come together in the same household. Mariam, to start with, is actually a result of the shameful act that her father, Jalil Khan, a wealthy business man of Herat, committed when he impregnated one of his servants. As a result of this...
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...words that strike me the most when Afghanistan is described: “rife with contradictions”. How can a country that is compared to a laboratory be so contradictory with itself? Let us look no further than the modern history of Afghanistan to find the answers. When looking at the modern history of Afghanistan, one cannot help but to start in 1878 when the British forces left Abdur Rahman Khan in charge as the Emir of Kabul. Khan’s goal was to “break down the feudal and tribal system and substitute one grand community under one law and one rule”. (Norton 48) Resistance was shown by the local chieftains and clan leaders. There was some participation in a succession of national councils, called loya jirga, in order to legitimize royal claims for ceremonial leadership. Later on in 1953, Prince Mohammed Daoud Khan seized authority of the prime minister. Economic and social reforms were instituted and a national election was held for legislative assembly in 1964. Women were allowed to remove their veils now and participate in these elections. In 1969 another election was held and the religiously and socially conservative clan leaders had a better understanding of the electoral process. They “gained...
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...motivation of caring to Laila, Mariam and Laila are still able to form a mother-daughter relationship with each other because they both were robbed of that relationship with their own mothers. Their relationship symbolizes strength that comes from those who try. 9. Mariam refuses to see visitors or call any witnesses to trial because she does not want to drag Aziza, Laila, Tariq, or Zalmai into the mess she created when she killed Rasheed. Mariam told Laila knew that they would find her “as guilty as me. Tariq too...What will happen to your children if you’re caught” (Hosseini 357-358)? Mariam wanted the best for them, and because of that, she did not want them caught up in her murder. 11. People take the risk to watch the Titanic under the Taliban’s watch because it gives...
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...They came from two different centuries; one was born into slavery, the other born into a life in a 3rd world country. Fredrick Douglass and Malala may have come from two different worlds, but they have two things in common, the power of education and women’s rights. Douglass believed that all men are equal even if you were a slave. Malala also shares this when it comes to women, she believes that women should have the same rights when it comes to education, not just for men. Both Douglass and Malala fight for the right of education for both men and women. Fredrick Douglass life on the plantation as a child was not hard since he worked in the household of his master. At such an early age, he witnessed many beatings of other salves, he suffered...
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