The Problem of Child Brides and Forced Marriages
•    85.1% of women have no formal education
•    74% of girls drop out of school by 5th grade
•    Only 1% of girls in rural communities attends school
•    Nearly 79% of women are illiterate
•    The average salary is just 48 cents a day
•    On average, Afghan women give birth to 7 children
•    1 of every 62 women die during childbirth, and in some regions the number is as high as 1 in 16

   In Afghanistan many young girls are barely allowed out of their homes unless they have work outside the homes or when they get married.  And if that isn’t bad enough these girls often married at the young age of 7; even though Afghanistan laws prohibits girls under 16 from getting married.

  It is believed that between 60 and 80 percent of marriages are forced marriages. Once these girls are married, they tend not to go to school because their husbands and his family doesn’t allow them to do not other then working and have kids.

Health problems because many of these child brides are so young they usually have premature pregnancies, which cause higher rates of maternal and infant mortality. Teenage girls are also more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS and can even lead to death, because their bodies are still developing.



Punishment for Marriage Disagreement
Children who refuse to marry who their family tells them to or who choose a marriage partner against the wishes of their parents are often disciplined and   punished or even killed by their own families because of their disrobement.

Child Bride needs to be stopped now because it is just plane wrong. There are no explanations for it. Afghanistan and other countries that do allow child bride needs to be terminated now before it’s too late. This act is disturbing; it is abuse, molestation, and child cruelty. Now child should have to marrying a grown man old enough to be her father or grandfather.  This isn’t just morally wrong it is also unhealthy for these young women to be molested and forced to have kid at their very young age. In Yemeni “a 12 years old child bride died after struggling to give birth for three days, a local human rights organization said.” “Fawziya Abdullah Youssef died of severe bleeding on Friday while giving birth to a stillborn in the al-Zahra district hospital of Hodeida province, 140 miles west of the capital Sanaa.” I am horrified of this I can’t even believe that a men would even want to have sex with a 12 years old child let alone impregnate her.  Causing her to lose her life, this problem has to be halted now before things get worse then they are now. They need to be educated so things like this wont happen.

Woman were made from the rib of man, not from his head to be superior, not from his feet to be walked on, but from his side to be equal, from under the arm to be protected, and from next to the heart to be loved. (Dyamond Logan)

Women have the right to be treated with equality and respect. Almost every part of the world is finally getting it all except Afghanistan. While the rest of the world is living in the 21st century they are still living in the Stone Age.  They still believe that women are inferior to them. I was shock when I read the New York news article entitle "Women are half of men" By Amy Waldman. I couldn’t believe what the Chairperson of Afghan, Sighbatullah Mojadeddi said in regards to the human rights and civil rights: "We all have to respect the vote. Women are free to vote for men. Men are free to vote for women. We cannot make this separation... Do not try to put yourself on a level with men. Even God has not given you equal rights because under his decision two women are counted as equal to one man."

Because of his appalling response I did some research on both the Qur’an and the Holy Bible and found two scriptures.


"Treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers." From the last sermon of Prophet Mohammed



Love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church — for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." [This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:23-33

There is nowhere in these two texts that says men were superior to women. Rather it states that men should treat women with respect, love and honor and love women as much as they love themselves.
 

What Is Liberation? Liberation is defined by the Webster Dictionary as 1. the act of liberating: the state of of being Liberated. 2. a movement seeking equal rights bad status for a group<women's liberation>

How Free Are Afghan Women?
After the U.S toppled the Taliban in October 2001 President Bush proclaimed his outrage over the Taliban's oppression of women.  But once the Northern Alliance had chased the last of the Taliban from Kabul things went right back to the usually some things even got worst. Yes some schools were open to girls but the crime rate went sky rocking. First Lady Laura Bush took over her husband's weekly radio address to comment on the success of the campaign. "Because of our recent military gains in much of Afghanistan," she said, "Women are no longer imprisoned in their homes. Today women are free." Women in Afghanistan are far from free.

The scenes behind closed doors for Afghan Women are still governed by restrictions that recall the morality policing of the Taliban. For example women are abused, beaten, if they don't wear what men consider as  proper clothing. They are

arrested for talking to men who are not their husbands, brothers, or fathers. Sometimes women are arrested while talking to a male relative, sometimes for riding in a taxi with a male driver without anyone in the car. When they are arrested they are not even asked any question they are sent straight to the hospital so a "chastity tests" is perform.

What?
This has gotten way out of hands I’m a minor and I take offence to this so can you imagine an adult being told to do this. "The security officers don't ask any questions, they don't give the women a chance to explain," says Dr. Afzali. One teenage girl stood shivering and petrified for 40 minutes, refusing to let herself be examined. A neighbor had reported her to the police when he saw a strange man's car in the driveway. "She sobbed her way through the exam," recalls Afzali. "I didn't want to perform it, but I knew I could lose my job if I refused." The girl was a virgin; the man, it turned out, had stopped by to pay a debt he owed the girl's father and had given her the money since her father was not home. "It's very harmful to a girl's reputation to be arrested in this way," says Afzali. "As a woman, it hurts me to see it. It shames all of us." Truly if Afghanistan continue in the path its currently in its going to take women a long time before there are equality and liberation for all women.

Women in Afghanistan are being treated as animals. Even animals don’t deserve such treatment. Why do men continue to mistreat women and why is it that the government isn’t doing anything about it?

A women name Gulbar was admitted to Badghis local hospital in Northern Afghanistan in November 2005. She was brought to the hospital because her husband set her on fire and she was burnt to the third degree. 40% of Gulbar body was burnt because her husband throw petrol on her body he then set her on fire and escaped. Why would someone do such cruel act to his own wife, to a human being.

When I came across this image I was breathless with disbelieve. I couldn’t believe my eyes that someone could go as far as setting their wife on fire and then leaving them to burn to death.

Looking at this graphic image all I can do is cry trying to imagine what she went through trying to put myself in her shoes but even my most painful memoires wont come close to the pain she felt.

"Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can
destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a
friend, abroad an introduction. In solitude, a solace, and in society,
an ornament. It hastens vice, it guides virtue; it gives, at once,
grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid
slave, a reasoning savage." James Addison

"Knowledge Is Power" Franicis Bacin Sr.

Facts About Education in Afghanistan


•
Afghanistan has long had one of the poorest education records in the
world.



• It has low rate of school attendance and a high percentage
of illiteracy.



• Between 1996 and 2001 because of the Islamic group the Taliban the educational situation has worsened.

• All school curriculums in Afghanistan has been restricted and
destroyed and Afghan females are banned from all educational life.



•
Until recent years women of all age were denied the right to go to
school they were also punish and torture when laws were broken.

Women
deserve to have the same rights as men because we are all equal
regardless of race, sex, or economic standards. I see no reason in why
women shouldn’t be treated the same as men. For starter we are all
human beings men and women, women are capable to work in the same work
fields as men. So they should be given the same freedom as men.
 

3/25/08

    Today has been very exciting in the world of this project. In class today we did a little questionnaire about our change agents. Up until now, this has been one of my setbacks. The questions basically asked us if we had a change agent and when we were meeting with them. No one had contacted me back at that point in time, so I was left writing “N/A” on my paper. I felt defeated.
    When I got home tonight, I checked my e-mail. Alas! I saw a new e-mail from a name I didn’t recognize. It was from a woman named Melissa Levy, the Director of Development at PAWS (Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society). She had been replying to my original contact for a meeting time so I could present my elevator pitch. The e-mail read, “Thanks so much for your interest in saving Philadelphia's animals! I'd be happy to set up a time to meet with you in early-April.” These were the best words I could read at that moment.
    Now, with a meeting time and the beginnings of an Action Plan outline, I’m back on track. I felt overwhelmed for a little, but this seemed to be what I needed to fix that. Sometimes, things take a while. Sometimes, things go well. This was a sign.

2/22/08

    An interesting article came my way this week while I was looking through my feeds. It was debating the effectiveness of the No Kill shelters at different locations in the country. To start, they pose the very interesting question of, “Have shelters failed these 'NoKill' plans or have the 'NoKill' plans failed the shelters?” That does seem to be the debate. Yes, the killing in these animal shelters needs to stop. But has this No Kill project been too much for the shelters to handle? Is there a better way that people haven’t thought of yet to stop the violence in these shelters?
    The author of the article goes on to say how successful the No Kill shelter program has been working in Philadelphia. As for the rest of the country, not so much. Then states, “Should we just give up trying to become 'NoKill?' Absolutely not! The ten basic 'NoKill' programs are a start but they're just a start…” I think this sums up everyone’s feelings. This is only a start. There needs to be more work done. With that statement though, another question is raised. What else can we do? How can we, as people, come together and have a bigger impact for the animals? What is wrong with the No Kill project right now? Things are getting better from the No Kill Advocacy Center. It is helping.
    My question for you, people of the world, is what is wrong here? What else? What next? I think that there is more. More that can be done. More ways to branch out the No Kill shelters in the country. I’m posing a challenge: What is the next step to take the No Kill shelters to an even more successful level?