Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T00:09:46.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An identity of strength Personal thoughts on women in Afghanistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2010

Taiba Rahim
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The fate of Afghan women during the Taliban regime and following the 11 September 2001 attacks has been the focus of considerable attention in both Western media and academia. There was a significant amount of debate in human rights and governmental circles about their suffering. Documentaries, at times produced at great personal risk to their authors, and even cinema productions such as Kandahar, the film by the Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, have dealt with their plight.

Type
Affaires courantes et commentaires/Current issues and comments
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 84 , Issue 847: Terrorisme/Terrorism , September 2002 , pp. 627 - 641
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Rumi, Mevlana Jalaluddin, jewels of Remembrance, selected and translated by Camille, and Helminski, Kabir, Threshold Books, Putney, Vermont, 1996, p. 48.Google Scholar

2 Also known as chadri, the burka is a garment that covers the entire body, including the face.

3 Ahmed, Leila, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate, Yale University Press, Yale, 1992, p. 72.Google Scholar

4 Holy Quran, Sura 33:35, quoted in Ahmed, ibid., pp. 64–65.

5 Ibid., p. 66.

6 Armstrong, Karen, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, Victor Gollancz, London, 1991, p. 199.Google Scholar

7 Lindsey, Charlotte, Women Facing War: ICRC Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Women, ICRC, Geneva, 2001, p. 29.Google Scholar

8 The Hazara are one of Afghanistan's ethnic communities, representing approximately 20 percent of the population. They are of the Shi'a faith and have traditionally been subjected to political and economic oppression.

9 Marsden, Peter, The Taliban: War, Religion and the New Order in Afghanistan, Zed Books Ltd., London, 1998, p. 93.Google Scholar

10 Lindsey, , op. cit. (note 7), pp. 43–44.Google Scholar

1 l The Taliban, literally meaning “the students”, appeared as a group in 1994.1 left Kabul in 1995, a few months after the Taliban took control of Kandahar. I thus have no firsthand experience of my country under their rule. My comments are based on my knowledge of Afghanistan and on the information I gathered over the years.

12 See in this regard the interesting review, by a long-standing Afghanistan expert, of the process that led to their destruction in the spring of 2001: Centlivres, Pierre, Les Buddhas d'Afghanistan, Favre, Lausanne, 2001.Google Scholar

13 For an overview of the relations between international organizations and the Taliban, see Peter Marsden, op. cit. (note 9).

14 Sayd Majrouh, Bahodine, Le suicide et le chant: poésie populaire des femmes pashtounes, Gallimard, Paris, 1994, p. 47.Google Scholar

15 Ahmed, , op. cit. (note 3), pp. 152–153 and 167.Google Scholar

16 Grand Assembly of elders, religious and tribal leaders.

17 Mujahed, Jamila, Stepping out of the Shadows, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 17 June 2002Google Scholar, available at: <http://www.iwpr.net>.

18 Lindsey, , op. cit. (note 7), p. 30.Google Scholar

19 Mujahed, op. cit. (note 17).