Afghanistan

Afghanistan
Afghanistan is located in Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, and east of Iran. Its major religions are Sunni Muslim 84%, Shi'a Muslim 15%, and other 1%. Afghanistan is a weird place and although the Taliban rules most of it there is no functioning central government, it is administered by factions. They don’t have a constitution or a legal system there either. But that is small compared to its other problems.

Afghanistan has always been a very poor country; in fact the third-poorest country in the world. Needless to say the 20 years of war Afghanistan has faced didn’t help that problem. They are so poor that Afghanistan’s per capita income is one of the lowest in the world. Its infant mortality rate, 200 deaths per 1,000 infants, is among the world’s highest. It also has the lowest literacy rate and life expectancy, and one of the lowest levels of per capita food availability in the world.

In May 2001, the World Food Program warned that more than 1 million Afghans were facing famine conditions. Then in September it reported that people were surviving by eating grass and locusts. Aid used to be stronger in Afghanistan but after the September 11 terrorist attacks, all the international aid workers left.

The Taliban, which is mostly ethnic Pushtuns, forces strict rules on the population (women must wear a chadari/burqa, a head to toe covering garment with a three square inch opening with mesh for vision, and men must grow beards) and restricts women’s and girls’ access to health care, employment, and education. The Taliban prohibit girls from attending school. There are a few home based schools and some schools in rural areas which quietly operate to educate girls. The Taliban requires that windows in houses that have female occupants be painted over. The burqa was worn in Kabul before the Taliban took control, but it was not an enforced dress code and many women wore only scarves that cover the head. The Taliban's restriction on women’s movement and dress is stopping women from fleeing the country or getting aid of any type. The chadari/burqa makes it difficult for them to move quickly. Women are not allowed to travel outside the home without a close male relative. So widows and women who head households face a serious humanitarian crisis. Women can’t work outside of their home unless they are in the field of medicine. Taliban militia punishes those who violate the rules on the spot. For example, women have been beaten on the street if an inch of ankle shows under their burqa. They have been beaten if they are found to move about without an explanation acceptable to the Taliban. They have been beaten if they make noise when they walk. 

Both Taliban forces and forces now grouped in the United Front have sexually assaulted, abducted, and forcibly married women during the armed conflict, targeting them because of gender and ethnicity. Thousands of women have been physically assaulted. But the Taliban doesn’t care about social services for the civilian population. It spends most of its money on war. The Taliban gets some funding through drug trafficking which has helped Afghanistan become the world’s largest producer of opium. Things are so bad for the women that I thought I’d give you a couple of real examples.

On August 16, the Taliban ordered WFP to close the 24 bakeries it ran in Kabul because they were run by women. The bakeries provided free bread to over 7,000 poor families. The next day the Taliban let the bakeries reopen, although the law banning women from working was still in place. During a visit to Afghanistan in September, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata emphasized the international community’s concern about the Taliban’s policies toward women.

In February, a group of Afghans hijacked an Ariana Airlines flight and forced the crew to land the airplane at an airport near London. The United Kingdom quickly returned most of the passengers, even though some had indicated a fear of returning to Afghanistan. The United Kingdom also rejected the applications of most of the passengers and hijackers who did apply for asylum.

New Afghan refugees arrived in Pakistan in June 2000. The numbers increased quickly in October due to heavy fighting in northern Afghanistan. UNHCR said that more than 172,000 Afghans entered Pakistan during 2000. Most of the new refugees were members of ethnic minorities, mainly Tajiks from Takhar and Parwan provinces, and Uzbeks and Turkomans from northern Afghanistan.

People’s rights have been squashed under the Taliban rule and under previous rule in Afghanistan. Women and children have lost almost all their rights. Believe it or not men have lost a lot of rights as well too. To stop this problem we need to take direct action. The only way to change this would be by using force on them. This problem needs to be stopped and unfortunately I feel we have to destroy the Taliban and help set up a decent government system in Afghanistan. As of right now there isn’t even a functioning central government or a legal system.

Hashmatullah. Kabul.