Afghanistan celebrated the International Women’s Day on Tuesday while the country’s overall performance in promotion of rights and status of women is considered as poor during past fifteen years. Afghanistan is one of the poorest and most conservative nations in the world. This along with the ongoing insurgency has impacted the efforts to reconstruct the country and improve humanitarian standards. Afghan women, as one of the most vulnerable segments of the society, still suffer public and domestic violence, are targeted by insurgent groups and have low participation in public life. One of the key objectives of the international community in Afghanistan in past over a decade has been to evaluate women’s status and improve conditions of the highly vulnerable segment of the society. However, the results are mixed of failures and progresses.
There have been remarkable achievements in terms of women’s rights in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime. Afghanistan has come a long way forward in the efforts to boost women’s status and promote their rights. Now a large portion of the women and girls population – at least in urban areas and somehow in rural but secure provinces – have access to public education or work outside. Millions of girls go to schools and universities with the hopes of a better future. There are women politicians in public and government institutions representing the once inferior gender and helping the campaigns aimed on boosting women’s status. On the other hand, the new political establishment was perhaps the biggest victory for women in Afghanistan, recognizing women’s equality to men as well as their roles in the public arena. This is in contrast with the situation during the Taliban regime when women were degraded and were banned from working or appearing in the public without accompany of male relatives.
However, there does not seem to be a convincing proportion in terms of the progresses achieved and the collective efforts made during past fifteen years. True there have been considerable progresses for Afghan women both in boosting their economic and legal status and promoting their social status in the conservative society. However, this does not justify the challenges that exist today given the extraordinary international aid aimed at improving human rights and women’s status in the country. The presence of Afghan women in public life is often taken as examples of the achievements made for improving women’s status. The existing challenges and deprivations outweigh by far the achievements made in past years. The international assistance provided for improving women’s status has been huge while we see relatively limited progresses in this area.
Perhaps the most well-known challenge facing women in Afghanistan is the male-dominated attitude towards women and widespread violence stemming from the Afghan conservatism. There are endless cases of domestic violence committed by male relatives violence reported to the government or human rights organizations. In the eve of solar year 1394, the brutal killing of Farkhonda by a group of angry men in the center of Kabul shocked the nation. It hit the headlines and stayed for later weeks and months as Afghans along with activists watched the processes of trials of the perpetrators. Other cases such as a young woman being raped by her father for about ten years, another woman having nose chopped off by husband and other cases of deaths and public whipping of women renewed the shock and awe among the public while they did not result to cessation of violence against women in Afghanistan.
However, the efforts to eradicate violence against women have incessantly continued. According to rights groups, growing number of domestic violence are reported to the authorities or the human rights organizations, which is attributed to increase of awareness. Another reason could be women’s growing sensitivity to their rights as well as their outreach ability to communicate with the local authorities and pro-women groups. This indicates that the women are getting on board to fight for their rights in the male-dominated conservative society. Afghan women have played a crucial role in the efforts to improve the situation for their peer beings and promote their rights. The women now have key roles in pro-rights organizations and other public and government institutions involved with issues of human and women’s rights.
The sad thing is that the Afghan conservatism is very deep-rooted and common in the country, particularly in rural and insecure areas across the country. The general attitude among Afghans towards women is painfully conservative with inclinations to male supremacy. There is a long way ahead for overcoming the conservative attitude in the society. Only through long-term campaigns and public education Afghanistan can overcome the poisoning irrational Afghan conservatism. Even many of the educated Afghans threat their female family members improperly and as inferior family members.
On one hand women cannot be separated from the overall situation in society as the day-to-day violence impacts both women and men populations. The ongoing war and insecurity across the country foils the efforts to make differences and improve human standards in the country. A large portion of Afghanistan’s population suffers excruciating poverty and low living standards, which, in turn, affects the women. The existing challenges such as insecurity, widespread corruption, poverty and low levels of literacy are all related as a chain and work in further deteriorating the status of women. General backwardness, poverty and unemployment, organized crime, low quality health and educational services do not differentiate men and women. The overall situation in the country affects women’s lives in many ways. In addition to the specific causes mentioned, these have made Afghanistan one of the worst places in the world for women and mothers.  The national unity government has had better performance in boosting the status of women and promoting women’s rights compared to the previous governments led by former president Hamid Karzai. The national unity government took bold measures to boost women’s representation in the politics and governance. This would definitely help the campaign to improve women’s conditions. However, there is still a long way ahead to fight the violence against women.