This is a summary of a story posted a week ago on the United Nations website about one of the most severe human rights violations in recent memory. It must be told.
Women and girls in Afghanistan continue to undergo severe discrimination in what experts call “gender apartheid” by the ruling Taliban. Nowhere else in the world is the situation more dire as millions of females are subjected to complete and utter domination by their male counterparts.
Women cannot move about freely, and when they do go out, they must be accompanied by a male family member while covered from head to toe, even in sweltering heat. Spousal abuse is rampant with the belief of many men that women “deserve to be beaten”. Thousands of these beatings end in death with no accountability.
Child marriage is widespread and because of extreme poverty, mothers have been known to market their young girls or even their body parts in exchange for food. Many victims suffer severe mental health challenges with suicide being the only escape.
When it comes to physical ailments, women can only be seen by the very few female doctors in the country which means millions go untreated, resulting in femicide.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where young women are not allowed to attend school beyond the 3rd grade, relegating them to a hopeless future and a lifetime of servitude.
With the support of virtually the entire world, the United States went to Afghanistan after the attacks on 9/11 in an effort to hunt down the perpetrators, but rather than focus on rebuilding the country and helping it’s residents move into the 20th century, we took our eye off the ball and invaded Iraq under false pretenses. After fighting for 20 years with benefits seemingly relegated solely to defense contractors, Afghanistan has now been forgotten.
The United States has spent $8 trillion on the “war on terror” and close to a million people have died as a result.
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