War, Sex and Religion
Since time immemorial
As the so-called brave Afghan Pathans hang from the US Aircraft on its take-off and Ashraf Ghani Afghanistan’s exiled president lands in UAE, women stand strong against the face of evil.
The land of Afghanistan has historically been home to various peoples and has witnessed many conquerors including those by Alexander the Great, Mauryas, Muslim Arabs, Mongols, British, Soviets, and in 2001 by the United States with NATO-allied countries.
The recent Taliban takeover post the American withdrawal is just another chapter in its long story of the “Graveyard of empire’.
However, the pathos that remains unaltered through its tragic history is the suffering of women of Afghanistan. As the horrific images of the Taliban takeover splashed all over media reach us, it is indeed heart-wrenching as we only comprehend the cold dread and fear that must have engulfed all the women in the cursed land. The gross violation of human rights watched by an audience worldwide as media brings us probably the most visually well-documented series of crimes done in broad daylight.
This brings to mind the Indian tradition of Jauhar which was a Hindu practice of mass self-immolation or otherwise execution by their husbands, fathers or brothers, in India, to avoid capture, enslavement, and rape by the invading Islamic army, when facing certain defeat during a war. During the Jauhar, Rajput women committed suicide with their children and valuables in a massive fire, to avoid capture and abuse in the face of inescapable military defeat and capture. This practice was intended to show that their honor was valued more highly than their lives.
The rape of women and sex slaves during wartime has occurred throughout history. Women and girls are most exposed to sexually transmitted diseases, as they are victims of sexual violence. Everyone suffers during a war, but women are at a greater disadvantage because war makes them an easy target. Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with most historians settling somewhere in the range 50,000–200,000, with exact numbers still debated. Comfort women — a euphemism for prostitutes filled brothels and were established to provide soldiers with voluntary prostitutes to reduce the incidence of wartime rape, a cause of rising anti-Japanese sentiment across occupied territories. However, many women ended up being forced to work in the brothels against their own will. For decades, the history of the “comfort women” went undocumented and unnoticed. When the issue was discussed in Japan, it was denied by officials who insisted that “comfort stations” had never existed!
Afghanistan has a population of roughly 34 million. Of these, 15 million are male and 14.2 million are female. The announcement of the new regime under Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund has exposed the Taliban’s true nature as it ignores women, who make up half of the population of the war-torn country. Women officially gained equality under the 1964 constitution. During the previous Taliban rule in the 1990s, women in Afghanistan were essentially put under house arrest, and often forced to paint their windows over so that no one could see in or out. They were forbidden from going to work and could leave their house only when accompanied by a male member.
Violence against women in the guise of self-proclaimed norms by religious fanatics has been a staple strategy applied by Islamic clerics and states for eons. Crippling and weakening a section of society and denying them basic human rights by stifling their voices with force and power is what the new Taliban regime has achieved since its rise on August 15th, 2021. Women who had gathered to protest the recent announcement of the government where there is no women representation were flogged by Taliban fighters using whips and sticks in Kabul on September 9, 2021.
It is time the world stands by humans on whom war has been raged for centuries just because of the gender they belong to. Humanity has lost its collective capacity of empathy and justice and watches in mute disbelief as lives are being lost and tragedies unfold beyond human comprehension which will have a long-reaching impact on women all over the world as other Islam-ruled countries will mirror the same atrocities in the name of religion!
There is a surprising amount of material to unpack in this compact ebook. In just six short stories, using mundane events as a backdrop, you lightly skip through multiple heavy themes — child abuse, feminism, sexuality, and patriarchy — thus demonstrating their intersectionality, the breadth of their impact, and the terrible consequences of the denial of basic rights to women in India.
ebook LIGHT — A bit of fact, a bit of fiction by Vikky Abraham is about brown women from India. A series of short stories woven from the fabric of Indian society. Some dark, some intriguing, and some heart-wrenching. Available on Amazon Kindle
As a creative individual Vikky Abraham has spent many years in Advertising, Publishing and Media.’ Light’ — is her first book, written during the lockdown, where facts of the Indian patriarchal society provoked her to think and re-examine her perception of reality.https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikkyabraham2020/
https://www.vikkyabraham2020.com
