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 first human societies, wherein, men used to go for hunting and women stayed at home, the roles they both performed gradually decided their status and their destiny. As the tools for the means of production were with men, they started having dominant position and started subjugating women in all the possible ways. This attitude combined with extremist religious feelings discriminated women to the extreme. Most of the religious rituals included sacrificing women and making them suffer in different ways.

When human societies turned agricultural, the position of women did change but only from bad to worse. Women just like land were considered as properties of the landlords. As the farmers did not have much authority therefore both their labor and their women were owned by landlords, who would discriminate them at their own will. The values and practices of the society were designed as per the self-centered incentives of the authoritative and the dignity and respect of the family were linked with the actions of the women.

Any effort of the women to take their own decisions and try to become part of the external world (out of family) would be considered as undignified and they would be punished in different ways. The ‘honor killing’ is also production of the same era. Some of the societies in the world where there is agricultural system, the same sort of practices are still existent.

Since the world has reached to so-called modern era, run by the capitalist system, the status of women has yet to be raised considerably so as to make living better for them and give them all their rights as human. In today’s modern world only the nature of the discrimination has changed while women are yet to achieve their due status.

As everything in today’s world is decided by money and most of the interactions have turned into business transactions, women are also used as business products and the means of attracting the customers towards the business products as can be observed in the advertisements for different products in media.    

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.    

Zarghona Salehi reported in Pajhwok Afghan News on June 1, 2013 that the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has recorded 200 cases of murder and rape between January and September 2012, as compared to 89 in 2011. Women’s rights program coordinator at AIHRC, Latifa Sultani, says the panel has registered a record number of 211 cases of women killed by family members between 2002 and 2010. It is impossible breaking the silence around crimes of this kind, she adds. Families are not prepared to report such deaths either to police or rights organizations. In 40 percent of cases, the accused have not even been investigated, indicating the gross failure of the justice system to establish guilt and redress victims’ grievances. In cases where police have probed the crime, the accused have “bribed” their way out of trouble.
Fawzia Amini, the head of the Legal Department at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, acknowledges that there has been an increase in cases of women’s murder and rape. She says the ministry, which has recorded 90 cases of murder and 50 of rape in the first nine months of 1391, is concerned at the situation.
Moreover, a joint investigation by the Independent Media Consortium Productions (IMCP) shows there has been a dramatic surge in violent acts and crimes against women, ranging from sexual assault to murder and beatings to the rampant evil practice called bad. Clinging to this off-putting tribal customs, some families still tend give away girls in compensation for a crime committed by males. Refusal to give alimony in case of divorce and failure to implement women’s right to inheritance are also common. The joint investigation by the six-member IMCP found widespread concerns about the spiraling wave of abuse over the past two years.

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.