Shoulder to Shoulder, Hand in Hand: Resistance under the Iron Fist in Afghanistan

In different parts of the world, resistance to oppression assumes different forms. All over the world, men and women are engaged in struggles to achieve their basic human rights. Among these campaigns, activist women around the world are striving for fundamental transformation of women's existing social, legal, political, economic, and cultural conditions. In many cases women have to resist the domination of husbands, brothers, and close male relatives. Regardless of their campaigns, these women also learn to modify their own attitudes and conduct toward others in the process.

In the West, many of the conditions confronted by women differ drastically from those experienced by their sisters in the third world. Yet their aims are the same--to change the prevailing social norms and attitudes toward women and to attain basic human and social rights. When a Western woman fights to legalize abortion, she is engaged in a form of resistance toward the established values of her society. The same can be said of gays and lesbians who are struggling for their fundamental human rights. Those fighting against spouse rape are involved in another form of resistance. And even those campaigning for animal rights and opposing meat consumption are resisting the traditional norms of their societies. In order to achieve their objectives, all these groups choose forms of resistance that, to varying degrees, often run counter to the deep-rooted cultural and religious norms and traditions of their societies. Many women in the third world also resist the cultural norms of their societies when they fight against the practice of female circumcision in parts of Africa, for example, or when Indian women organize to abolish bride burning.

Resistance in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, however, women are facing an entirely different situation, not only in comparison with women in the Western world, but also with their sisters in other underdeveloped countries. In Afghanistan, the immediate issues for women no longer concern basic social and political rights or lifestyle choices. The key issue now is that of women's very survival in general and their right to exist. They are not talking about different kinds of bread, but bread itself. They are not demanding victims' rights in the case of rape, but rather they live in constant fear of rape by men wielding a gun in one hand and the Qur'an in the other. They no longer have a choice in the kind of food they can obtain, but are prepared to die for any kind of food that will prevent their children from going hungry.

An Afghan woman cannot even think about the state of her health since years of hunger and depression have made her body so weak that it is difficult for her to even roam the muddy streets in order to beg for scraps of bread. She is deprived of all basic amenities and rights. Authorities consider the public exposure of her face a sign of immorality and wanton sexuality, so she must cover it up. Even calling her by name in public is forbidden. She cannot walk in public if her shoes make noise. She cannot go outside her home, even after heavily covering herself, without being accompanied by a close male relative. And because of the protracted infighting between brutal fundamentalist factions and because hunger and disease have left many men dead, their surviving wives, mothers, and daughters cannot even go to the market. The Afghan woman is forbidden to attend schools and colleges. She is frequently denied access to medical care because the nearest doctor is male, and female doctors are barred from practice. If her breast-suckling baby is on the verge of death due to normally curable ailments, she cannot go the drugstore to obtain medication. Clothing itself also poses a problem since there are no female tailors, and she cannot seek out...