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Background 

What is the situation in Afghanistan?

• Only 23 percent of the population has access to safe water, and only 12 percent have access to adequate sanitation, thereby increasing the incidence of dise At least 15,000 Afghans die of tuberculosis every year, of which 64 percent are women.
• Malnutrition of women, which negatively affects pregnancies and deliveries as well as the health of children, is not only caused by the food scarcity linked to the conflict and the drought, but is also related to traditional preferences for males which makes women reduce their own food allowance in favor of men and
• The poor health situation has been aggravated by the lack of basic health services and resources, particularly in rural areas; there is a strict segregation of medical staff and the small number of trained women doctors, nurses and midwives that remained in the country after since the rise of the
• 23 years of war have destroyed the infrastructure of the educational system and further increased the illiteracy rate in Only 5 % of women are able to read and write (during the 1980s, the female adult literacy rate was only 8 %).
• 54 % of girls under the age of 18 are ma Families of girls and young women were reportedly forced to marry them to the Taliban or give them large amounts of money instead. Often, families married young girls at an earlier age in order to use the bride price to assist in the family's survival.
• The conflict in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule and the militarization of society led to an increased number of abductions of young girls and women by Taliban The exact numbers are unknown, as families have been reluctant to come forward and report cases of abductions for fear of reprisals and due to the social stigma attached to a daughter or sister kidnapped or sold for sex.
• Source: Report of the Secretary-General on "Discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan" (E/CN.6/2002/5)

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Background 

What is Chador and Hijab wear?

Chador Etiquette-In a Kuwaiti shopping mall, Christine Michaud learns that dressing like the locals is not as easy as it looks. A hijab looks deceivingly easy to put on, especially when you receive instructions from a woman who has been wearing one for twenty years. Basically, the Muslim head covering is nothing but a large square of cloth folded once into a triangle. The fold goes over the forehead and the sides are pinned tightly under the chin to completely cover a woman's hair, ears, and neck. One of the tips of the scarf is then wrapped around the neck to hide the unfashionable pin.

Now, how hard can this be? Well, for someone who's got a perfect cube for a head, I suppose it's a cinch. For the rest of us sporting somewhat rounded skulls, no hijab will ever fit tightly and entirely hide a full hairline unless it is slightly folded in on each side just above ear level, symmetrically of course.

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Background 

Who are the Taliban?

The Taliban was created in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Taliban came to prominence in Afghanistan in the autumn of 1994. At first, the Taliban were well liked and welcomed by the Afghan people. Their early popularity was largely due to their success in stamping out corruption, curbing lawlessness and making the roads and the areas under their control safe for commerce to flourish.

By 1998, they were in control of almost 90% of Afghanistan. However, the Afghan people were fed up when the Taliban started to enforce strict rules - such as public executions of convicted murderers and adulterers and amputations of those found guilty of theft. Men were also required to grow beards and women had to wear the all-covering burka. The Taliban banned television, music, movie theaters and disapproved of girls ages 10 and over from going to school.

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Background 

What continent is Afghanistan on?

Look at maps and structures of towns in Afghanistan.

What are Afghanistan’s neighboring countries? List the capitol, rivers, and mountains.

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Background 

What is a SWOT matrix?

Like Parvana, we are often confronted with many problems and have to make difficult decisions. Using a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) matrix can give you some ideas and help identify a solution.

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Background 

What is child labor?

Not all work done by children should be classified as child labor that is to be targeted for elimination. Children’s or adolescents’ participation in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as something positive. This includes activities such as helping their parents around the home, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays. These kinds of activities contribute to children’s development and to the welfare of their families; they provide them with skills and experience, and help to prepare them to be productive members of society during their adult life.

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Background 

What are the Taliban’s Rules?

The Taliban created the following rules for women.

• Complete ban on women's work outside the home, which also applies to female teachers, engineers and most professionals. Only a few female doctors and nurses are allowed to work in some hospitals in Kabul.
• Complete ban on women's activity outside the home unless accompanied by a mahram (close male relative such as a father, brother or husband).
• Ban on women dealing with male shopkeepers.
• Ban on women being treated by male doctors.
• Ban on women studying at schools, universities or any other educational institution. (Taliban have converted girls' schools into religious seminaries.)
• Requirement that women wear a long veil (Burqa), which covers them from head to toe.
• Whipping, beating and verbal abuse of women not clothed in accordance with Taliban rules, or of women unaccompanied by a mahram.
• Whipping of women in public for having non-covered ankles.
• Public stoning of women accused of having sex outside marriage. (A number of lovers are stoned to death under this rule).
• Ban on the use of cosmetics. (Many women with painted nails have had fingers cut off).
• Ban on women talking or shaking hands with non-mahram
• Ban on women laughing loudly. (No stranger should hear a woman's voice).
• Ban on women wearing high heel shoes, which would produce sound while walking. (A man must not hear a woman's footsteps.)
• Ban on women riding in a taxi without a mahram.
• Ban on women's presence in radio, television or public gatherings of any kind.
• Ban on women playing sports or entering a sport center or club.
• Ban on women riding bicycles or motorcycles, even with their mahrams.
• Ban on women's wearing brightly colored clothes. In Taliban terms, these are "sexually attracting colors."
• Ban on women gathering for festive occasions such as the Eids, or for any recreational purpose.
• Ban on women washing clothes next to rivers or in a public place.
• Modification of all place names including the word "women." For example, "women's garden" has been renamed "spring garden".
• Ban on women appearing on the balconies of their apartments or houses.
• Compulsory painting of all windows, so women cannot be seen from outside their homes.
• Ban on male tailors taking women's measurements or sewing women's clothes.
• Ban on female public baths.
• Ban on males and females traveling on the same bus. Public buses have now been designated "males only" (or "females only").
• Ban on flared (wide) pant-legs, even under a burqa.
• Ban on the photographing or filming of women.
• Ban on women's pictures printed in newspapers and books, or hung on the walls of houses and shops.

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Background 

What is education like in Afghanistan?

With the fall of the Communist government in 1992, the country was divided among warring factions, many of them religiously-inspired groups opposed to modern education and education of girls. Millions of Afghans fled the country, particularly the educated. Of the schools not destroyed by war, many were shuttered because of lack of insecurity, the lack of teachers and teaching materials, or simply poverty. Under the Taliban, education went from wretched to worse. They denied nearly all girls the right to attend school and many boys were without an education as well.  Only a small number of girls were able to attend secret schools or received an education abroad. Upon the defeat of the Taliban by US forces in 2001, and as a result of the Afghan Constitution, education is now compulsory and free from grades one through nine and free up to the undergraduate level of university. Formal education options also include vocational education and teacher education as well as Islamic education. 

It is important that more girls and women now gain access to higher levels of education so they can have better jobs and can gain leadership roles in local and national government.

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Background 

What is Bone Digging?

When the Taliban were in charge, it was difficult to work. Many people in Afghanistan became desperate enough to dig up human bones to sell. Bones were often sold in bulk to Pakistani traders. The bones were used to feed animals and make soap and cooking oil. A male skeleton weighing 13 pounds was worth about 50 cents.

Source: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1996-12-09/news/9612090060_1_capital-of-afghanistan-bones-kabul

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Background 

What are the Taliban’s unusually cruel punishments for petty crimes?

Taliban officials carried out lashings, stoning, amputations and executions in public places such as squares, schools or sports grounds. The sports stadiums in Kabul and Kandahar were notorious for such spectacles with thousands of people attending. Taliban fighters would ensure a high turnout by driving through neighborhoods announcing punishments through mounted loudspeakers. Trained doctors, who operated with their faces covered for fear of reprisals, usually carried out amputations. In many cases a local anesthetic was applied before the limb was removed with simple surgical instruments. The punishment for theft was the loss of a hand, depending on the severity of the crime.

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Background 

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Background 

What is Child Marriage in Afghanistan?

Child marriage is defined as marriages where either spouse is below age 18. There is a growing global trend, including in some Islamic countries, of setting 18 as the minimum age of marriage. According to the Afghan Ministry of Public Health’s 2010 Mortality Survey, conducted in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan including a nationally representative sample of 24,032 households, 53 percent of all women in the 25-49 age group were married by age 18, and 21 percent of the women were married by age 15.3. A 2012 global study by the United Nations Population Fund put Afghanistan among 41 countries in the world that reported 30 percent or more of its women in the 20-24 age group married by age 18.4

Source: “Afghanistan Ending Child Marriage and Domestic Violence” http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/Afghanistan_brochure_0913_09032013.pdf

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Background 

What was the conduct of war?

This is the issue of how a war should be fought, rather than why or if it should be fought.

While the issues of when is it right to go to war are high level issues for governments, the issues of the conduct of war often end up on the desk of military commanders, or fall to the instant decision of individual soldiers.

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Background 

What are 11 Facts about Refugees?

Consider how radically your world would change if, without notice, you were forced to leave your home and possessions behind and relocate to an area where you don’t know anyone and have no idea when you will eat next. This is the reality of millions of people across the world.

• A refugee is legally defined as a person who is outside his or her country of nationality and is unable to return due to a well-founded fear of persecution because of his or her race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.
• In early 2012, there were 15.2 million refugees around the world, with the highest number in Pakistan (4.8 million) and the most refugees originating from Afghanistan (2.7 million).
• It’s estimated that 80 percent of refugees are women and children. In 2012, 46 percent were under the age of 18 and 48 percent were women.
• An asylum seeker is a person who is looking to be recognized as a refugee, but has not yet received formal refugee status. The most asylum seekers come from Pakistan, Iran, and Sri Lanka.
• Internally displaced people (IDPs) are those who have been forced to leave their homes as a result of armed conflict, generalized violence, or human rights violations. Unlike refugees they have not crossed an international border.
• In 2011, there were roughly 26.4 million people displaced internally (within their country of origin) by conflict.
• Under international law, refugees are not allowed to be forced back to the countries they have fled.
• Developing countries host 80 percent of the world’s refugees.
• In 2011, the countries with the most number of IDPs were Colombia (3.8 million), Sudan (2.4 million), Democratic Republic of Congo (1.7 million), Somalia (1.4 million) and Iraq (1.3 million).
• A total of 895,000 individual applications for asylum or refugee status were submitted to governments and UNHCR offices in 166 countries in 2011. Roughly 11 percent of these requests were fulfilled.

2011 saw a significant number of people seeking asylum or refugee status from countries experiencing recent or ongoing conflict or security concerns.

Source: http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-refugees

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Background 

What was Journalism like under the Taliban in 1999?

There are more than a dozen state-owned newspapers around the country. However, the daily newspaper only runs two to three times a week. In line with the Islamic ban on human representation, their pages are free of pictures. News is limited to official announcements, accounts of Taliban military victories, and anti-opposition propaganda. And there are no newsstands in Afghanistan: the papers are distributed mainly to government offices.

Afghanistan is largely an illiterate society therefore radio is the mass communication medium of choice. Bereft of music, Radio Kabul (now known as Radio Voice of Islamic Law) is heavily oriented towards religious topics. In the provinces, however, local media seem to enjoy greater independence, according to local journalists. In the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, for example, a recent radio drama explored the racy topic of girls choosing their own husbands.

This is not to say that the Taliban are press freedom champions. A Peshawar-based Afghan woman journalist was reportedly jailed when she visited Afghanistan earlier this year, and two Pakistani reporters were detained on espionage charges after visiting opposition-held territories in northern Afghanistan. Several Peshawar-based Afghan journalists reported receiving threatening calls after writing critical articles about the Taliban. The latter deny threatening journalists, although Taliban officials say privately that they oppose "independent" newspapers because these could become propaganda vehicles for the opposition.

While there is no clear ban on independent journalism, state-owned publications and radio stations dominate the country's media. This has been true in Afghanistan for at least a quarter of a century. Afghanistan's last and only free press flourished during the so-called "decade of democracy" from 1963 to 1973.

Source: “CPJ Briefings: Press Freedom Reports” https://cpj.org/reports/1999/12/taliban15dec99.php

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