Afghanistan women are taken for granted, abused, and not counted as human beings by Afghan men. In this country, girls are forced into marriages and abused if they fail to conceive a baby boy (Thorpe, 2018). Basic human rights and freedom are denied to them, thereby enhancing hardships like lack of education, rape, and forced marriages. Afghan women find it challenging and daunting to navigate the immense challenges to aspire and reach their goals for success in the long run. Children on the other hand face abuse by their close friends. Young girls are victims of violent rape instigated by their male peers. Afghan culture doesn't punish rape perpetrators, therefore, encouraging more rape to continue. Studying Women and children's tribulations in Afghanistan will offer integrated solutions for policy actions and subsequent implementations.
Women and Children in Afghanistan
Afghan is the worst country in terms of being a woman (Barr, 2020). At 14 years old, women are forced into arranged marriages even if the suitor is old sixty years old. Parents who support their girls to work with foreign organizations are usually ridiculed and secluded from society. The respective family usually receives immense threats from the community elders to stop their girls from going to work, but if the family continues to support their girls, they can be even chased away from the community or killed. Afghan police always support the highly influential community elders in their decisions, even if the family reports the threats to them, the police are always rigid to investigate and prosecute the elders (Thorpe, 2018). Once a girl is married, her tribulations never end, but it mutates and re-emerges again. The in-laws to the girl never allow the girl to work but instead, the girl is strictly instructed to be only a housewife. Civil organizations like USAID usually help and empower Afghan women to enhance and achieve their dreams to becoming successful and liberate Afghan women in the long-term. Illiteracy levels in women in this country also fuel the advancement of abuse among women. A majority of Afghan women believe that it is right for men to continue abusing them and not be arrested by authorities. Barr also affirms that one out eighteen Afghan children usually fail to reach his or her birthday. This is attributed to inadequate medical facilities which are sometimes destroyed by bomb attacks from Islamists. Many Afghan children on the other hand are forced to drop out of school to take manual jobs that enhance child labor and child rape.
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Afghan Immigrants in the United States
Thorpe (2018) asserts that with the help of the U.S Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Afghan women can be enrolled in newcomer centers. These women and children usually come to the United States with no skills and formal education which makes it a challenge for them to adapt to the U.S norms, culture, and education setup in real-time. Most of them are usually traumatized due to the prior experience they went through in their countries. Secondly, these women undergo immense culture shock because they have no English literacy and communicating with U.S people is challenging. Thirdly they have inadequate funds to enable them to survive in the costly U.S economy. USCRI usually takes care of the costs that these women incur from flight tickets to settling in the U.S. To eradicate the trauma and culture shock they experience in the U.S, USCRI enrolls them in Newcomers programs. Thorpe also agrees that newcomer programs enhance the language literacy and social well-being of new immigrants. An example of a Newcomer center in the U.S is the Center for Applied Linguistics in California. The Afghan women and children are usually enrolled at these centers for a period depending on the learner's speed to learn. The centers enhance faster learning of English to these immigrants while integrating U.S cultural learning and self-esteem subjects. The programs administered to these immigrants take a minimum of one semester and a maximum of four semesters where the immigrant will have fully known how to speak, write and communicate using English with ease. The newcomer centers also have counseling specialists where the newly Afghan women immigrants are counseled and given tasks where they can forget the trauma in a short timeframe. The centers also enhance faster community integration to the immigrants where the immigrants are taught Bilingual programs. Afghan women in the U.S also continue to endure tribulations from their strict Afghan-born husbands. Their spouses oppose them from going to formal daily work, but instead, the husbands tell them to be housewives and take care of their kids. The stigma continues to haunt these women as their husbands cannot allow them to go shopping alone and buy kid's wear for their children. These husbands usually import Afghan cultural norms and become rigid to be easily westernized by the U.S norms. When these women seek counseling support from psychologists, these husbands will not allow these women to individually attend the counseling sessions alone but must accompany her wife and ultimately dictate what to say at the psychologist's office. Social media is restricted to these women and this continues to seclude their freedom of speech as other women enjoy. USCRI must have follow-up programs so to eradicate the continued stigma that these Afghan women have with their U.S family units. The programs must institute policy frameworks to tame the continued abuse of Afghan women immigrants. To conclude, many countries and civil groups should continue to advocate and fund programs that aim at eradicating the suffering of Afghan women and children. USCRI must develop follow-up programs and policies to eradicate the vice of continued stigma and abuse castigated to Afghan women immigrants at their U.S family setups. The follow-up programs must be commenced after the completion of Newcomer center programs. This will minimize the rising cases of Afghan women immigrants' abuse in the U.S.
Importance of This Area to Me
In my future career practice, I will ensure that I offer a holistic policy framework that ensures women and children access the right education and maternal health. This topic has bridged the knowledge gap I had on tribulations Afghan women and children go through. This topic has enhanced my research skills which will benefit me in my future practice.
The Agency That Will Help Me Grow This
Kabul Community Initiative will help me to achieve this objective shortly.
Interview
I will interview a community fieldworker that works for Kabul Community Initiative.
Recent Movies/Documentaries Related to My Topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJq8RLpzceo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWhOIqID-vo
Strengths and Challenges Working For This Team
I will be able to gain in-depth knowledge of the daily problems those Afghan women and children go through. The challenges will be harsh terrain and gun attacks from militia groups such as ISIS.
References
Barr, H. (2020, March 5). A crucial moment for women’s rights in Afghanistan . Medium.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/05/crucial-moment-womens-rights-afghanistan
Bezhan, F. (2016). Women, war, and Islamic radicalization in Maryam Mahboob's Afghanistan . Monash University Publishing.
Thorpe, H. (2018). The newcomers: Finding refuge, friendship, and hope in America . Scribner
