Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Violence against Women Remains an Issue

Living free from violence is a human right, yet millions of women and girls suffer disproportionately from violence both in peace and in war, at the hands of the state, in the home and community.

Violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position compared with men. Moreover, it is the manifestation of an unequal power between men and women.

The violence perpetrated by individuals includes domestic violence, sexual harassment, as well as harmful customary or traditional practices such as honor killings, dowry violence, forced marriage, etc.

Despite many measures taken to prevent violence against women, it still remains one of the most pervasive forms of human rights violations worldwide. The violence against women can occur in both public and private spheres of life and at any time of their life span. Many women are terrified by these threats of violence and this essentially has an impact on their lives that they are impeded to exercise their human rights, for instance, the fear for contribution to the development of their communities socially, economically and politically.

Women are more likely to be victimized by someone that they are intimate with. In such a case, in a traditional society like Afghanistan, many women tend not to report to police and thus many experts believe that the true magnitude of the problem is hard to estimate.

Honor killings are a common form of violence against women across our country. Women are killed for reasons such as refusing to enter an arranged marriage, being in a relationship that is disapproved by their relatives, attempting to leave a marriage, becoming the victim of rape, dressing in ways which are deemed inappropriate, etc.

The legacy of oppression weighs heavily on women. As long as women are bound by poverty and as long as they are looked down upon, human rights will lack substance. As long as outmoded ways of thinking prevent women from making a meaningful contribution to society, progress will be slow. Moreover, as long as the nation refuses to acknowledge the equal role of more than half of itself, it is doomed to failure.

Since, we claim democracy and election took place in our country, the rights of women should be valued and protected under the democracy. In other words, women are not supposed to be considered an inferior creature. We have to change our traditional view regarding women and treat them justly.