One of the countries known to be notorious in violating women’s rights is finally making into law a measure that makes violence against women a criminal offense. At least, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is about to sign the bill into law.
If the law, indeed, gets passed, ‘men who bar women from getting an education, working, or obtaining healthcare could face six months in prison.’ These aspects, though, are just part of the entire violation of women’s rights in Afghanistan where women are considered second-class citizens to men, even sub-human.
The plight of Afghan women is more than dismal. For starters, they generally do not have access to primary care and basic obstetrics. The result is tragic: one in eight women die in childbirth in Afghanistan. Most of these deaths are preventable through access to obstetric health care.
Women are not accorded equality in Afghanistan. That is why they are the first casualties when there is the condition of poor nutrition and shortage of clean drinking water such as an impoverished country like Afghanistan has. Afghan women are said to be ‘dying needlessly because of chronic malnutrition or lack of potable water.’
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has denounced Afghanistan’s failure to address violence against women, as well as the country’s continued culture of impunity that does not punish perpetrators of such crimes.
Via AlterNet
