The Women of Afghanistan
By Carolina Echeverry, Wenwen Li, and Huifeng Jin
One of the most important human rights is equal protection under the law. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 7, states, “All are equal before the law and entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.” This means that everyone has to be protected by the law without any discrimination no matter what is the gender, sex, race or religion of the person. Unfortunately, in other countries such as Afghanistan the right to equal protection by the law is not fulfilled.
According to the article “The Women of Afghanistan” published by The New York Times, the life of women and girls in Afghanistan can be miserable. In the past decade, there have been some improvements in women’s rights, but it wouldn’t continue to exist without the strong support of the Afghan leader’s international society. It’s common in Afghanistan that women can’t be educated and they are forced to have marriage or even women are exposed to prostitution in order to pay debts. According to Human Rights Watch, half of women in prison there are not criminals. Women were jailed because they were trying to get away from their unfair situation. On the other hand, people who abuse women scarcely get prosecuted. Instead of firmly protecting women’s right, the president Hamid Karzai even signed off on a decree that claimed women were secondary to men. Although the Obama administration claimed they will continue to strongly support women’s rights in Afghanistan, they seemed to be paying more attention to some other issues. The good news is that Afghan women seem to awaken and endeavor for their own rights. The article makes an interesting point when it states that “Mrs. Clinton has argued, there is plenty of evidence to show that no countries can grow and prosper in today’s world if women are marginalized and oppressed” because if the women’s rights in Afghanistan are not protected by the law, Afghanistan will never grow up.
In the present, women and men have the same human rights; both have the right to be treated in equal conditions. However, in the real world of Afghanistan, women’s human rights are constantly violated. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) promises rights and freedoms to all people for equal protection of the law. The article “The Women of Afghanistan” shows how women are subjected to injustice by the law in Afghanistan. The fact that in Afghanistan the culture is very different doesn’t mean that the rights have to be different too. Amnesty International argues that the commonly termed "culture" or "belief" often shapes and restricts women's lives in a way that subordinates women and discriminates against them. The negative of the universality of all human rights can thus become a justification for refuting women's civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights: cultural values premised on unequal power relations between men and women. For example, UNAMA’s research found that women and girls are at risk of rape in their homes and in their communities, in detention facilities and as a result of traditional harmful practices to resolve feuds within the family or community. This means that the situation is very serious and the law is not doing anything to fix this situation and protect the women’s rights.
A person will not be able to live without protection of law. Can you imagine a person who is living in a society where it is free for anybody to take her money or even her life away? This means every second of the person’s life is in extreme danger. It is exactly what is going to happen if a person is outside the protection of the law. The terrible thing that happened to Jewish people eighty years ago can well explain the importance of equal protection under the law. Germans considered that the lives of Jewish people were not as valuable as others, so their rights were not protected by law. As a consequence, the properties and the lives of Jewish people were taken as we know. In order to live, people need the protection of law just as people need water to keep them alive.
Another article we read, “The Secular and Religious Legal Framework of Afghanistan as Compared to Western Notions of Equal Protection and Human Rights Treaties: Is Afghanistan’s Legal Code Facially Consistent with Sex Equality?,” by Laura Belkner says that Afghanistan authorized various treaties to accomplish a law that offers equal protection to women and men. The international law exemplified Afghanistan’s insistence to sex equality and also provided the additional legal protection to women. However, in “The Women of Afghanistan,” women were not protected by law. The situation is still the same as before: women were not treated equally. In my opinion, I think The Office of Human Rights Commission should force Afghanistan to abide by the sex equality and the political rights of women.
Works Cited
Belkner, Laura. "The Secular And Religious Legal Framework Of Afghanistan As Compared To Western Notions Of Equal Protection And Human Rights Treaties: Is Afghanistan's Legal Code Facially Consistent With Sex Equality?." Cardozo Journal Of International & Comparative Law 20.2 (2012): 501-536. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan 2014.
Link to article (on campus only).
One of the most important human rights is equal protection under the law. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 7, states, “All are equal before the law and entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law.” This means that everyone has to be protected by the law without any discrimination no matter what is the gender, sex, race or religion of the person. Unfortunately, in other countries such as Afghanistan the right to equal protection by the law is not fulfilled.
According to the article “The Women of Afghanistan” published by The New York Times, the life of women and girls in Afghanistan can be miserable. In the past decade, there have been some improvements in women’s rights, but it wouldn’t continue to exist without the strong support of the Afghan leader’s international society. It’s common in Afghanistan that women can’t be educated and they are forced to have marriage or even women are exposed to prostitution in order to pay debts. According to Human Rights Watch, half of women in prison there are not criminals. Women were jailed because they were trying to get away from their unfair situation. On the other hand, people who abuse women scarcely get prosecuted. Instead of firmly protecting women’s right, the president Hamid Karzai even signed off on a decree that claimed women were secondary to men. Although the Obama administration claimed they will continue to strongly support women’s rights in Afghanistan, they seemed to be paying more attention to some other issues. The good news is that Afghan women seem to awaken and endeavor for their own rights. The article makes an interesting point when it states that “Mrs. Clinton has argued, there is plenty of evidence to show that no countries can grow and prosper in today’s world if women are marginalized and oppressed” because if the women’s rights in Afghanistan are not protected by the law, Afghanistan will never grow up.
In the present, women and men have the same human rights; both have the right to be treated in equal conditions. However, in the real world of Afghanistan, women’s human rights are constantly violated. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) promises rights and freedoms to all people for equal protection of the law. The article “The Women of Afghanistan” shows how women are subjected to injustice by the law in Afghanistan. The fact that in Afghanistan the culture is very different doesn’t mean that the rights have to be different too. Amnesty International argues that the commonly termed "culture" or "belief" often shapes and restricts women's lives in a way that subordinates women and discriminates against them. The negative of the universality of all human rights can thus become a justification for refuting women's civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights: cultural values premised on unequal power relations between men and women. For example, UNAMA’s research found that women and girls are at risk of rape in their homes and in their communities, in detention facilities and as a result of traditional harmful practices to resolve feuds within the family or community. This means that the situation is very serious and the law is not doing anything to fix this situation and protect the women’s rights.
A person will not be able to live without protection of law. Can you imagine a person who is living in a society where it is free for anybody to take her money or even her life away? This means every second of the person’s life is in extreme danger. It is exactly what is going to happen if a person is outside the protection of the law. The terrible thing that happened to Jewish people eighty years ago can well explain the importance of equal protection under the law. Germans considered that the lives of Jewish people were not as valuable as others, so their rights were not protected by law. As a consequence, the properties and the lives of Jewish people were taken as we know. In order to live, people need the protection of law just as people need water to keep them alive.
Another article we read, “The Secular and Religious Legal Framework of Afghanistan as Compared to Western Notions of Equal Protection and Human Rights Treaties: Is Afghanistan’s Legal Code Facially Consistent with Sex Equality?,” by Laura Belkner says that Afghanistan authorized various treaties to accomplish a law that offers equal protection to women and men. The international law exemplified Afghanistan’s insistence to sex equality and also provided the additional legal protection to women. However, in “The Women of Afghanistan,” women were not protected by law. The situation is still the same as before: women were not treated equally. In my opinion, I think The Office of Human Rights Commission should force Afghanistan to abide by the sex equality and the political rights of women.
Works Cited
Belkner, Laura. "The Secular And Religious Legal Framework Of Afghanistan As Compared To Western Notions Of Equal Protection And Human Rights Treaties: Is Afghanistan's Legal Code Facially Consistent With Sex Equality?." Cardozo Journal Of International & Comparative Law 20.2 (2012): 501-536. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan 2014.
Link to article (on campus only).