AFGHANISTAN


The very first topic explored by Mrs. Lawson's History Classes was Afghanistan. The topic within the topic of Afghanistan I did research on was how the women lived. During the Taliban rule women had pretty much no rights. They had to have their father, husband, or son escort them anywhere out of the house. If a woman were to not have a father, husband, or son then they were pretty much out of luck. Women could not work, vote, attend school, leave the house without a burqua on, or even laugh out loud under the Taliban rule. Needless to say life for women under Taliban rule pretty much sucked.


Now in Afghanistan women are not under such strict ruling. In 2003 when the Taliban were over thrown, though still present in Afghanistan, you would think that women are sort of free. However domestic violence in Afghanistan is on the rise. Many around the age of eight are being forced into marrying icky old men and are often raped. Because of them being in such awful conditions and are no longer aloud to attend school because of their harsh hubbies, many girls commit suicide. This occurs so much so that the percentage of suicidal women in Afghanistan is 63 % and 16 % have actually attempted suicide. Source I: here! Source II: here!


I am so super thankful I was not born in Afghanistan. Reading about the women in Afghanistan and learning more of how their situation really is and that it really is not what they want to force their kids to marriage but maybe their only choice. Learning about Afghanistan has truly reshaped the way I think about that country. In referring what we learned in this unit to nationalism we learned about in Chapter 10 of our books is that there are many different cultures in Afghanistan and they all want a sense of "home land" and be like this is me. I am proud to be an American and glad I can call this home. I could not imagine how different life would be if everyone was fighting because they have different views of how their home should be.