A Role of Women in Society

Every day I was abused by my husband and his family. Mentally and physically; Then one day it became unbearable, so I ran away." In 2010 a young Afghan woman had her nose and ears cut off. Aesha Mohammadzai first appeared on the cover of time magazine in 2010 and shared her story on how her husband and in-laws cut off her nose and ears as punishment for trying to run away. This is just one of the many common punishments Afghan women receive. Mohammadzai is proof that still in today's society women in Afghanistan are still suffering with extreme punishments.

But even so, throughout history women had fought for acceptance and have been discriminated towards men for the longest and still in today's era women are still put down due to their gender. Within history men and women both have been treated differently through the made-up stereotypes and roles these two sexes were expected to do in society. Even still in today's world men and women still seem to be classified as unequal. Within gender equality, Men are still favored over women, no matter if in today's era laws were passed for equal contributions within society such as voting rights.

Throughout history the women's rights movement began to erupt in different places, it began to spread globally to where all women wanted freedom and rights for themselves. Without certain events occurring and being known to other countries, it would not have given the motivation and thought process to take a stand for their own rights because women were afraid to do so if no one had taken a stand due to their roles in society. Within Afghanistan, woman struggled to gain a voice in politics and within life, forced to completely cover their identity and not given the opportunity to express themselves. However the Soviet Invasion had shifted a new wave in Afghanistan and women had open there eyes to new opportunities. Women realized enough was was enough and from then on a movement begun from them gaining equality within political ways and equality between the genders.

The soviet invasion was a massive event that had greatly impacted afghanistan. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan because they wanted to spread their influence within asia and they also wanted to preserve their communist government because at the time their own government was collapsing due to lack of support, but because of the gain of afghanistan it helped rebuild and re-establish their government. However the soviet invasion had a negative effect on the Afghan people as a whole. The soviets killed or removed people from the countryside and even bombed villages leaving people to die in order to re-establish what is theirs. Because of this a lot of afghan people fled from the region.

Women before the invasion was mistreated and they had a lot of weight put on them due to religious practices and living their daily lives set by rules. Culture is a huge thing within afghanistan, and afghans live a certain way in order to meet their needs but also to meet their religious aspects, because religion was a top priority for them. In this means, that's why women are oppressed in afghanistan because in their views men believed women were distracting and evil and because of this women where to cover up completely with no skin showing. Women were to live in fear because of the way they been treated, and if a rule were to be broken women would suffer harsh and violent punishments; and these punishments given to women was are are still the result of their own basic human rights.

The soviet invasion had many benefits and initially during this time of ruling it created a significant shift within the mindsets of women, giving them more say and more roles within society. due to the Soviet invasion in the year 1978, it had started many noteworthy occasions because of social change for women in Afghanistan, for example, authorizing women's entitlement to work, the capacity to enter the military, and the opportunity to pick their very own life partners. Mandatory literacy programs for women and the abolition of bride price were viewed as direct attacks on Afghan culture and honor, instigating yet another wave of violence. This is a useful resource because it overall talks about afghan women being a barometer of social change and political progress; women overall in this book had stepped up for their beliefs and have major roles in society and trying to make a change in their own lives, and because of the soviet invasions women have had more say in things.

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