experiences of afghan women
"I am Bibi Aisha, an 18-year-old from the southern Afghan province of
Oruzgan. In 2009 Ihad fled my husband's house, having suffered beatings,
maltreatment and a life, not uncommon among women in Afghanistan, that amounted
to abject slavery. I had been given to my husband when I was 12, as payment to
settle a dispute – a practice in Afghanistan that goes by the fitting name of
"baad".
Having endured six years of torment and abuse, I escaped to the only place I could go, back to my family home. It was here that the Taliban arrived one night and demanded that I be handed over to face justice. I was taken away to a mountain clearing, where the local Taliban commander issued his verdict. I was then held down by my brother-in-law, while my husband first sliced off my ears and then cut off my nose. I passed out from the pain but soon awoke choking on my blood, abandoned by my torturers and the ad-hoc judiciary of the Taliban.
With the help of the American military, aid workers took me to a women's refuge in Kabul run by an Afghan-American organisation, Women for Afghan Women (WAW). There I remained, under the care of trained social workers, until August of this year.
I was then flown to California to undergo reconstructive surgery at the Grossman Burn Centre in California. However, following psychological assessment, the medical staff at the foundation decided that I required more counselling and therapy before I could give my informed consent to the gruelling series of operations that surgery would entail."
Bibi Aisha, 18, 2009
"They shot my father right in front of me. It was nine o'clock at night. They came to our house and told him they had orders to kill him because he allowed me to go to school. The Mujahideen had already stopped me from going to school, but that was not enough. I cannot describe what they did to me after killing my father..."
A fifteen year-old girl in Kabul, 1995
“You can't be an active woman in Afghanistan and not feel threatened. It is part of my daily life. I never know what is going to happen next. In the last five years, many high profile Afghan women have been killed for trying to raise the profile of women or defend their human rights. I take one day at a time but try to work on issues that will have a lasting effect.”
Shinkai Karokhail, 36
Occupation: Member of the Afghan Parliament
-Jade
Having endured six years of torment and abuse, I escaped to the only place I could go, back to my family home. It was here that the Taliban arrived one night and demanded that I be handed over to face justice. I was taken away to a mountain clearing, where the local Taliban commander issued his verdict. I was then held down by my brother-in-law, while my husband first sliced off my ears and then cut off my nose. I passed out from the pain but soon awoke choking on my blood, abandoned by my torturers and the ad-hoc judiciary of the Taliban.
With the help of the American military, aid workers took me to a women's refuge in Kabul run by an Afghan-American organisation, Women for Afghan Women (WAW). There I remained, under the care of trained social workers, until August of this year.
I was then flown to California to undergo reconstructive surgery at the Grossman Burn Centre in California. However, following psychological assessment, the medical staff at the foundation decided that I required more counselling and therapy before I could give my informed consent to the gruelling series of operations that surgery would entail."
Bibi Aisha, 18, 2009
"They shot my father right in front of me. It was nine o'clock at night. They came to our house and told him they had orders to kill him because he allowed me to go to school. The Mujahideen had already stopped me from going to school, but that was not enough. I cannot describe what they did to me after killing my father..."
A fifteen year-old girl in Kabul, 1995
“You can't be an active woman in Afghanistan and not feel threatened. It is part of my daily life. I never know what is going to happen next. In the last five years, many high profile Afghan women have been killed for trying to raise the profile of women or defend their human rights. I take one day at a time but try to work on issues that will have a lasting effect.”
Shinkai Karokhail, 36
Occupation: Member of the Afghan Parliament
-Jade