Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Role of Men in Women’s Rights!

|

Role of Men in Women’s Rights!

This year’s ‘Women’s Day’ meant a lot for Afghans. It was an occasion to cry for the group that is getting vulnerable and less secure with every passing day. Last two to three months were very alarming in this regard. The incidents of killing, raping, torturing, kidnapping and others were reported one after the other and with increasing outcry against them, attacks and violence against women also increased. The situation was bizarre and not easily understandable. There was something seriously wrong. The pledge of the Unity government to protect women, the activities of Ministry for Women’s affairs and the functionality of hundreds of local and international NGOs for protecting the rights of women could not make even a small impact in decreasing these inhuman acts against Afghan women.

It is the reason why, when this year’s ‘Women’s Day’ was approaching, many had to say many things. The bombastic conferences and seminars were held, the streets and squares were filled with banners, signboards, and brochures in favor of women, walks were arranged in solidarity with the victimized women and many other things were done but no one was fully confident of the achievements of these worn-out methods. For the last 14 years or so of our democracy, thousands of similar gatherings and efforts have been done but the actual condition of women is getting worse. In a sense, our past governments, the concerned ministry and all the NGOs have failed to serve their existence. According to some, the condition of women was far better in the time of Taliban when they were safe inside their houses and they feared the lashes of Taliban police force only but today’s Afghan woman has to fear so many lashes and so many groups worse than the police of Taliban.

The biggest problem is the lack of understanding of the whole situation. It may be either due to the lack of enough knowledge and understanding of Afghan culture and society or due to their deliberate efforts to achieve a certain objective. In many cases, the efforts of so-called saviors and protectors of women have resulted in the exact opposite outcome. In order to encourage the women to be more bold, open and demanding for their rights, a number of advertisements were run on television in which confident and beautiful girls, dressed in the finest modern clothing (far away from Afghan culture and tradition) were shown to be playing, running, singing or doing similar activities. The motive behind any such advertisement may be either too stupid or too cunning. It may contain a message to all Afghan women that they should also enjoy the life by wearing similar clothes and doing similar activities which is unfortunately, impossible for more than 97% of the women’s population. If this stupidity is the motive behind any such advertisement, it was never going to achieve its objective as it clashes with religious, cultural and social sensitivities of Afghan society. On the other hand, if the objective of such an advertisement was to infuriate majority of the menfolk, it definitely did its work and it is the reason why, I used the term ‘cunning’ earlier. I watched such advertisements on a number of places and at all of them, I came along such dangerous comments, ‘If this is the rights of women, it is better to keep them without any right,’ ‘I think it is the policy of West to color our women like their own,’ and many more. In short, these advertisements have in a sense, hurt the feelings and sympathy of men towards the rights of women.

Another important factor that needs correction is to target women instead of men for women’s rights. It may sound strange but it remains a fact that Afghan society is still a male dominated society and any effort to protect the rights of women starts and ends with the willingness and role of men. And unfortunately, this area has either been left unnoticed or dangerously ignored which has resulted in the present scenario. Just like the advertisements on television channels, the billboards or signboards in different parts of major cities has also resulted in the anger of men and some cases, women as well. The women have been shown to be playing tennis, working as a doctor, teacher and others and all of them read a title, ‘Women Can Do,’ in both the national languages of our country. No one has any doubt that women cannot do these but it is not the matter of ‘can’ but it is a matter of if women are allowed to do so or not and again, the point comes to the willingness of men to permit women to do so. More appropriate could have been showing the women doing them with the permission of men. Though I seem to be repeating too much the role of men in this case but it is a harsh reality which must be accepted if we want to resolve this situation.

And the most dangerous of all is the increasing general disrespect towards women in the society. Weak laws and their implementation against the violations of women’s rights, deteriorating religious and cultural values to safeguard the rights of women and other factors have given rise to a society where teasing and disturbing girls is getting quite normal with every passing day. But the most pernicious role has been of media where women are portrayed as the symbol of beauty and utilized like a show-piece. Seeing such women, people often pass sarcastic comments and these comments continue in bazaars and streets as well. It is the reason why, it is taken quite normal to insult or tease a passerby girl on the roads or in public transport.

But the ground realities show another alarming situation of women’s sufferings. They suffer more due to lack of proper transport, poor working conditions, discrimination in their pays and wages on the workplace due to their gender and lack of educational facilities in schools and universities. If so-called saviors of women’s rights are really interested to bring meaningful change for women, they must work on these areas. The education of thousands of girls are discontinued in schools and universities when their family members don’t allow them further education due to lack of proper and separate educational facilities. In the same way, they become the target of men’s insult and hatred when they keep waiting for public transport where they hardly find a seat.

And most importantly, a wide-scale campaign must be launched to increase the respect of women in society. This cannot be done by showing women playing tennis or dancing in clubs. This can be done by involving those who have actual influence and effect in this society. Mosques and religious scholars can play the most important role and they should be made the permanent part of this process, the writers and public figures can also be made the part of it who should make the people realize the true worth of women. In such conditions, there would be change in the minds of men that would then change the conditions of women. Till then, we can keep deceiving ourselves with so-called stupid gatherings and slogans who have done more harm to the miserable women of this society.

Muhammad Rasool Shah is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at muhammadrasoolshah@gmail.com

Go Top