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Consequences of conflict in Afghanistan continues....
For a majority of Afghan women, rural and urban, now and in the past, the family functioned as the paramount social institution and the primary obligation of the women was to uphold the family honour by conforming to the accepted behavioural norm. Afghan society is strictly patriarchal and male dominance was impossible for women to escape. It was first the initiative of Amir Abdur Rehman Khan (1880-1901) who marked the beginning of transition from tribalism to modernity. He enacted new laws and modified existing ones to bring about social reforms. For instance he decreed that a widow could be set free, if she so wished, rather than remarry her husband’s next of kin. He also brought about a law that allowed women to sue their husbands for alimony or divorce in cases involving cruelty or non-support.
Amir Amanullah (1919-1929), the grandson of Amir Abdur Rehman Khan, was one of the most progressive rulers Afghanistan has ever had. He aimed at complete restructuring of the Afghan society and conducted a campaign for the liberation of women. There was a persistent drive to improve the education of girls, the dispatch of girls to Turkey for secondary education, and he proposed to introduce co-education at the primary grades. However, his reforms were highly misinterpreted by the tribal society that insisted on keeping women in an idealized state though essentially at an inferior status. The subject of unveiling and abandonment of the purdah (veiling) was made a ready-made issue and was regarded as a clear invasion into the rights, privacy and chastity of the family and a violation of the modesty of women, which is highly valued in Pashtunwali, the Pashtun code of conduct.
To be continued.....