Homicide of Women’s Rights: Afghanistan
Unexpected Changes for Afghan Women
What is happening in Afghanistan is truly a sad story for democracy. However, the story has become more devastating for the women living there as well as for those following the news. It seems that only Afghan women have lost their rights in this particular story. To be more precise, their rights have been taken away from them.
Which fundamental human rights have been taken? Of course, the violated rights are countless. However, I am going to focus on two of them in this article. The first one is the right to work. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everybody has not only the right to work but also the right to choose their jobs freely and to have equal pay without facing any kind of discrimination.
The second one is the right to education. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights points out that primary school education should be compulsory and free. It also indicates that other essential stages of education should be available equally for both genders.
However, what Afghan women are facing now is unfortunately far away from these declarations. In Afghanistan, female students and academicians are not allowed to even go inside their universities, let alone work or study in them. As a matter of fact, their places are going to be filled by men. In a way, Afghan women are forced to draw back from social life and are shaped by the standards of men.
The events make any person that strives for equal human and women’s rights both furious and upset. The future ahead of Afghan women remains unknown at the present moment. Still, some rights of women have been taken away and it does not seem like those rights will be given back any time soon. Yet, we can change our focus from what is happening to what we can do. The simplistic answer is that rather than turning a blind eye, we can be or at least try to be their unheard voices. We owe this to all the silenced women without a doubt.