There are many events that take place in Afghanistan. Most of these events are rooted in primitive and violent minds, and in the general culture prevailing in the country. This affects the relations within families, communities and in the society. Unfortunately, Afghan government has been doing just some cosmetic exercises in bringing about a cultural change over the last ten years.

Even, often times the government has continued to encourage the continuation of the existing culture, which is very much discriminatory and predatory. For instance, the rampant corruption in the government agencies cannot be analyzed in isolation and without putting it in a cultural context.

But we saw president Karzai telling people to spend the stolen money inside the country, which means that he does not abhor the culture of stealing and only dislikes the idea of taking the stolen money out of Afghanistan. It is clear-cut that in a country like Afghanistan, where the level of illiteracy is to a record high, the change must be a top-down process and it is, therefore, very much depends on the political leadership and elites in the country.

So when the highest leadership in the country, instead of initiating a fundamental and substantive change to the culture, encourages it, the progress and development will never come. Same is the case with the attitudes towards women.

Women in Afghanistan continue to fall to the most startling and shocking and ruthless traditions and actions. For instance, a woman was killed by her husband in Kunduz for delivering a female child. It is said that she gave birth to the third daughter and it upset her in-laws who expected her to give birth to a son.

One can imagine how the girl herself would be treated when her mother is murdered because of bringing the child into the world.  Such a cultural attitude and action is the most atrocious and inhuman one. It is no different from the pre-Islam ignorance era in the peninsula of Arab when a female child would be buried alive due to the inhuman cultural elements that were ruling the communities. Afghan government must launch an effective campaign to raise public awareness on these issues that cause a human tragedy.