Only few months have passed from shockingly violent incident in Herat, another women in Diakundi province has hit the headline. Unlike Setara whose nose and ears were cut by her husband, Tahera (21) is the victim to brutality of her husband’s wife. She has told that often she was tortured by her husband’s elder wife and finally she and her daughter cut her nose. Despite screams and call for help, perhaps no one was around to help her.

The abhorrent part of this incident is that women committed such obnoxious crime. During last decade, huge amount of money was pumped into the country to support women and strengthen to claim their rights. Despite visible changes, still the rate of violence against women has remained staggeringly high. No doubt, one of the key factors is lack of law enforcement. Criminals and those who commit such violence generally escape away and security forces are not able to bring them into justice.

But the fundamental factor is the overall mentality of people. Despite improvement of women condition and enhancement of awareness, but the traditional and radical interpretation from religion have remained key challenger of women rights. Visible part of the people find women rights against Islam as the Law barring violence against women stalled last year in Afghan parliament.

Additionally, beyond religious consideration, there is deep rooted anti-women mentality that goes for beyond sex. Both Afghan women and men share the same thought. Investigations and various cases of violence show that women are as guilty as men. Indeed, information about women rights and their equality with men does not help to uproot the deep-rooted traditional anti-women practices. As one Afghan woman journalist wrote that she is afraid of the man who is inside her. The man who provokes her to commit violence against his fellow women.

Certainly, this social and cultural dilemma would be resolved by promoting awareness about women rights but steps should be held to change the mentality. Each Afghan women and men deep down should reach to believe that any form of violence is not acceptable. They find a mentality that before being taken to justice they get reprimanded by their conscience. Otherwise, the cycle of violence wouldn’t break up and hundreds of Tahera and Setara will hit the headlines of media.