The Lives of Middle Eastern Women
The Lives of Middle-Eastern Women
This population-based study by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) documents the degree to which Afghan women perceive that violations of human rights by the Taliban regime are responsible for affecting their health and well-being. . . While causes of women's suffering in Afghanistan may be related to a number of factors, the PHR study focuses particularly on the effects of official policies of discrimination against women. Policies restricting women's rights are not the product of years of conflict and social and economic deprivation; they are man-made policies that can be revoked as easily as they came into being. Such policies are as detrimental to the health and development of the Afghan people as they are to the credibility of the Taliban regime.
Although the Taliban claim that their gender policies are rooted in Afghan history and culture, this claim is contradicted by Afghan women and men sampled in PHR's population-based surveys. . . .Approximately 80% of women and men agreed that women should be able to move about freely and that the teachings of Islam do not restrict women's human rights. . . PHR's finding of both Afghan women and men support women's rights. Taliban policies fail to represent the interests of the Afghan people.
Women unanimously expressed that the Taliban had made their life 'much worse' (94-98%) and reported worsening physical and mental health. . .
Currently, Taliban forces control about 90% of the country with most of the armed conflict in pockets of central Afghanistan, a frontline north of Kabul, and in northern Afghanistan. The Taliban's extreme notions of Islam have had extraordinary health consequences for Afghan women.
The restrictions on women's rights take place in the context of great deprivation. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world with one of the highest infant, child and maternal mortality rates of all countries. . . It is estimated that 42% of all deaths in Afghanistan are due to diarrheal diseases. Malnutrition affects up to 52% of children under age 5.
Afghans remain the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 'largest single caseload of refugees in the world for the 20th year in succession.' UN special coordinator Dennis McNamara said in May 2001 that Afghanistan was the 'fastest growing displacement crisis anywhere seen so far'. . .