Human history is replete with thousands of examples wherein there have been some sorts of discrimination against women. From the very first tribal society to today’s modern world, the position of women has not been heightened as that of men.
In the ordinary course of action, women are discriminated but the situation gets worse when a society goes through instability and disorder. The instability and disorder, though influence all the strata of society, are bound to effect the weaker strata the most and unfortunately women form one of the same strata. They bear the brunt of the conflicts and war and have to give sacrifices in different ways. The same can be observed in our country Afghanistan. Decades of conflicts and wars have influenced them to a large extent and today, when there has been some sort of development in different fields of life, there is still margin of considerable development regarding the emancipation of women.
Afghan society is still tribal to certain extent and there are still tribal values and extremist religious practices that discriminate women to a large extent. Though the situation has now improved, Taliban’s era depicted the worst display of treatment of women. Violence was, then, very common against them and they suffered the worst consequences of display of extremist religious practices. They were beaten in public, stoned to death and even shot in the marketplace. They were enslaved in their abodes and were not considered anything more than a commodity.
After the involvement of international community in Afghanistan, the situation has improved but as the international troops are in the process of leaving the country, there are concerns regarding worsening of situation. Many intellectuals believe that the situation may get worse regarding the rights of women and the country may face a setback in this regard. Women themselves also fear the situation and the rebirth of Taliban type social practices towards them.
The authoritative institutions and individuals in the society are also not doing much in this regard. There are just promises while in reality there are no practical measures. Even the lawmakers are not ready to take action in this regard. The law regarding the elimination of discrimination against women is still in the lower house and faces a lot of opposition, which shows that the male-chauvinism still exists within the authoritative and educated strata of the society and that does not show a good picture of the future.
With such a situation prevailing around, it is really difficult to see improvement in condition of women who have been suffering discriminations since ages. Afghan authorities and all the Afghan people, especially women themselves, must strive to change the scenario as it would benefit the society as a whole as women are an integral part of it.