Last month, small news came into the media but it was quickly concealed before it attracted much attention. A parliamentarian hit a person with his car and left the spot, leaving behind the bleeding person to die. One of the people standing there took photos of this sad incident and posted it on Facebook. The photo got viral and soon the said parliamentarian was under severe criticism of public. However, it was not good enough to move our government officials and after the circulation of this incident in social networking sites for a few days, the matter died itself and no further action was taken against the powerful and influential Member of Parliament.

More or less was the case of Farkhunda. Treatment of women like Farkhunda is sad but it is not much out of routine for Afghan society where the blood, body and dignity of woman is not given much value. Even today, there are still present some people who think that unnecessary hue and cry was made for a lady, ignoring the fact if she was involved in the blasphemy of Holy Koran or not.

In rural areas, the general public perception about women is both saddening and frightening. They are taken to be like animals and hence treated accordingly. It is the reason why, their torture and mistreatment are not taken to be out of routine. Due to this mentality, large number of women fall victim to mistreatment and discrimination at different stages of their lives. The only difference in the case of Farkhunda was its exposure. When this innocent woman was being dragged, stoned, beaten and burnt, a number of people present on the spot made her videos on their mobile phones and soon these videos and photos started circulating on a number of websites. The day when this incident happened, it was a simple incident. A woman did an evil deed and an angry crowd punished her. This explanation is quite justified for our society. However, later at night, when the videos were uploaded on Facebook and Youtube and a number of other social networking sites, the videos got viral and attracted more and more public attention. The videos were so shocking that people started raising questions if everything was fine or not. Fierce public criticism did not remain limited to these sites only. They soon reached to the media outlets, inside and outside the country. Due to increasing public and media interest, government could no longer stand indifferent to this and the machinery of government came into action. Later on arrests were made and the fact-finding committee found that Farkhunda was innocent and she had become victim of a number of criminal-minded people who had used the name of religion to hide their crime.

With technological advancement and easy and affordable access of public to internet and other means of communication, more and more people are getting benefitted from the easy and affordable means of communication. When the internet started spreading in the country, it was feared that its side effects would be more than its benefits. Even today, we cannot ignore the hazardous effects of internet on a number of social groups especially the illiterate and students who use it only to waste their time and energy and sexually enticing material is also easily available. But this dark picture of internet is not strong enough to ignore its good effects. The biggest change came in the form of ease of people to access different information and news in the world without any influence of government or a strong dictating party in the country. Due to this fact, now people are more aware of the national and international issues and they are in better position to see the true picture.

In the same way, they are now more aware of a number of national and international issues and have developed sound and reasonable understanding about them. Due to these facts, cheating or deceiving today’s person has become more difficult. Moreover, this unique quality is the first and foremost requirement of the successful implementation and practice of democracy. In past, the totalitarian governments and dictators were much afraid of the open and free access of people to the news. They were also afraid of the increasing public awareness about different social, political, economic and religious issues. They used to keep the people silent by using their ignorance. However, today’s increasing access to sources of information has broadened the minds and thoughts of people and now they cannot be easily cheated. This fact becomes especially important in countries like Afghanistan where democratic institutions are not strong and well-established and public awareness about different political processes and their rights and responsibilities is not clear. In such circumstances, access of people to sources of information is acting as an agent to transform their understanding about democratic practices. In this way, they would soon be able to reach to a certain level of political maturity needed to run a successful democratic system of government. Democracy is a good system but it can only work efficiently if it is practiced and implemented with its necessary conditions and this can happen only when public is aware of its rights and responsibilities and understands the true spirit of democracy.

Apart from political enlightenment, internet and other social networking sites are also bringing religious maturity in public. Many of the issues that were considered sacred and thus forbidden for general discussion are now openly discussed on these websites. Instead of relying on the true or false information of religious scholars, people are now getting direct access to genuine and direct sources to understand religion. In the same way, people are now getting knowledge about religion not only from the local scholars but also from a number of international scholars. It is a fact that religion may have come under extreme and unnecessary influence of local traditions, customs and cultural issues but when the religion is studied from a global perspective, keeping aside the cultural and traditional impacts, people get better picture of religion. In this way, they are not only able to understand religion with its true spirit but they also practice it with more enthusiasm and sense of responsibility when they own the religion and its teachings.

The only drawback in this regard is the negative usage of internet for promoting ethnic, sectarian and other differences. Our nation went through decades’ long bloodshed due to such factors, dividing the country based on ethnicity and sects. We can no more afford to bring drift in the national solidarity and risk the peace and stability of the country.

The recent awareness and enlightenment in general public about different issues is pleasing. Having a look at the present positive scenario, we are sure that coming days would be brighter in this regard and we would be able to emerge as a nation that is driven by facts and not by emotions and others harmful sentiments.