The Living Dead of Afghanistan

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Recommended: Taliban and women's education

The Living Dead of Afghanistan

Travesties are committed against women every day, in every country, in every city, town and home. In Afghanistan women are not only discriminated against, they are publicly reduced to animals. Women are deprived of basic human rights: they are not allowed to travel outside their homes without being completely covered by the traditional shroud-like burqa; they are not allowed to speak or walk loudly in public; they are not allowed to laugh or speak with other women; they are not allowed to attend school nor work; they are expected to be invisible; they are the ghosts of what were once educated, notable, and successful women. With their ruthless and extreme laws, the Taliban have effectively removed the physical presence of women in Afghanistan. The Taliban have stolen the very souls of these women and have turned them into the “living dead” of Afghanistan. The Taliban’s harsh restrictions and extreme religious laws have tainted the freedoms and basic human rights of the once valued and prominent women of Afghanistan.

In 1996, the Taliban took control of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. A report by the U.S. Department of State describes that this takeover was done in a very brutal and violent manner and the Taliban left the proof of their victory hanging in the streets of the city for over a week (par. 2). In Jan Goodwin’s article, Buried Alive, it is written that the men who are in charge of enforcing the laws of the Taliban are called the Department of the Propagation of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice; these men also punish citizens who disobey the laws. The majority of this group is made up of fifteen year old boys carrying machine guns, but also consists of men arme...

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...stated in an interview with reporter Jan Goodwin that: “Our current restrictions are necessary in order to bring the Afghan people under control. We need these restrictions until people learn to obey the government” (par. 48).

Women’s lives have changed drastically since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. They have been deprived of basic human rights and been reduced to faceless figures that roam the streets of Afghanistan like ghosts. Most of the world could never imagine the shock of not being able to go to work or wear your regular clothes, to be deprived of such things would be utterly terrible. The Taliban have tried to smother the flames of these women but they refuse to die they refuse to stop shining. These women are strong and will eventually overcome the oppressive rule and rise up from the ashes from which they have been forced to lay.

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