News outlets are reporting that on Tuesday a 15 year-old girl in Afghanistan was beheaded after her father turned down a marriage proposal. The perpetrators? Allegedly two relatives of the girl, one of whom, a cousin, who wanted to marry her. Reportedly, the father refused the proposal because she was too young.
The attack and death flies in the face of the 2009 Elimination of Violence Against Women law which criminalizes child marriage, forced marriage, and “giving away” a girl or woman to settle a dispute among other acts of violence. Despite the law, as can be seen in this case, extreme violence against women still exists.
The UN concedes that there is much work to do to lessen the odds of violence and to that point, Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission registered over 2,000 acts of violence against women in 2011. There is supposition that as the draw-down of international forces in Afghanistan is set to be completed in 2014, the expectation is the outlook for women in the region is bleak without more strides occurring with regard to women’s rights. Without assistance, the female population could run the risk of more violence to come. To that end, so called “honor killings” and rapes continue to climb, many of which go unreported. As once was heralded, getting rid of the Taliban in the area as President Bush claimed, did not “free” women in Afghanistan as he would have suggested. In fact, many believe as the Huffington Post reported last year, that violence has increased as the treatment of Afghan women has deteriorated. In effect, at this point the so-called liberation of Afghan women is merely cosmetic. That fact is in addition to what could occur if we leave the country and there is a resurgence of the Taliban; a large fear amongst Afghan women.
Sadly, the pervasive fear of being subjected to violence at the hands of family members within the patriarchal society if a refusal of marriage occurs has led dozens of women to commit suicide each year. The figures also include those seeking to escape failed or abusive marriages. The question remains for many what options there are when divorce is taboo and leaving the marriage could be met with prison sentences or other dire consequences?
