A to Z world women in culture and business businesswomen
Part 1
Afghanistan
Women in Culture
General View and Position in Society
Afghanistan society is male-dominated.
The family is
given a lot of importance, and the roles of men within
families are to be the bread winners, while women are
responsible for taking care of the house and children.
Practices like endogamous marriages (parallel and cross-
cousin marriages), patrilineal inheritances (in the male
order), and patrilocal customs (married women moving to
their husband’s kin group or clan) are quite widespread.
The Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001 made life a living hell
for Afghan women. They could not work, go out of the
house without a male escort, get an education, or seek
medical help from a male healthcare professional. They
had to be covered from head to toe in a burqa, a long
outer robe-like garment which has only a mesh near the
eyes and nose to enable the women to see and breathe.
Such suppression forced many women to forgo their jobs
and turn to begging or prostitution for sustenance. The
advent of the democratic government has slowly led to a
regaining of their rights.
The new constitution of Afghanistan gives men and
women equal rights and duties. Women are slowly
entering the professional arena and climbing the ladder to
higher positions at work. There are many Afghani women
now who are very successful professionally, and such
women belonging to a higher social or economic class are
treated with respect. They are also exempted from
wearing the burqa, though many still continue to wear it.
The new government has opened hundreds of schools for
both boys and girls, and over 100,000 girls were enrolled
in schools in just one province in that year.
In terms of economic independence, cultural barriers still
remain for women. In rural areas, for instance, women are
not even allowed to go out of the house unescorted.
Forced marriages of girl children and violence against
women are still commonplace. Even the courts have been
known to overlook the general plight of women.
Women are expected to dress conservatively and modestly.
They should not show any bare skin, especially from the
neck downwards. Headscarves are also mandatory in some
families. Professional women wear loose, knee-length
business skirts along with trousers under the skirt. Many
women also continue to wear a burqa.
Legal Rights
The new constitution, which came into effect in January
2004, gives equal rights to men and women. Women
were not allowed to participate in politics until then, but
now Afghan women have the right to vote and to run for
office, and they made up around 40 percent of the more
than 10 million registered voters in 2004. There are also
reserved seats in the parliament for women – 25 percent
in the lower house and 17 percent in the upper house.
There are 102 women members out of the total 500
members in the constitutional Loya Jirga (Grand Council).
There were also two women (out of nine) in the
Constitutional Drafting Committee and seven women (out
of 35) in the Constitutional Review Commission.
President Hamid Karzai appointed two women appointed
to the Judicial Commission at its inauguration. The
December 2004 cabinet had three women ministers
holding the portfolios for women’s affairs, martyrs and
disabled, and youth affairs. A woman also heads the
Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission is also
headed by a woman.
The United States has put in place several programs for
Afghani women aimed at increasing their political
participation and making them equal and active members
of civil society. Women also have the right to drive and to
own, sell, and inherit property.
Women are allowed to have an abortion until the third
month of pregnancy, but only if the pregnancy is
detrimental to the mother’s health and the woman has
obtained permission from the health ministry and acquires
certificates from three different medical professionals.
Education
During the Taliban rule, girls were forbidden to attend
school. With the advent of democracy, girls in great
numbers have started attending schools. Around five
million children enrolled in school in 2003, out of which 40
percent were girls. Regrettably however, the present
government has upheld a 70’s rule that prevented married
women from attending high school – causing the
expulsion of more than 3,000 women from schools. Also,
traditional prejudices in rural areas has impeded women
seeking education and employment. There have been
instances where schools have been burned down and
girls poisoned for attempting to go to school. These types
of incidences are more prevalent in provinces like
Kandahar where people still live under the fear of the
Taliban.
The total literacy rate in Afghanistan is just 36 percent, out
of which the male rate is 51 percent and the female rate
21 percent. Educated women are getting back to their
jobs as teachers, doctors, and other professionals after
years of enforced absence. Opportunities are still limited
however, and there is discrimination against women
joining some sectors.
Dating, Marriage and Family
Afghan women are still forced into arranged marriages.
Women have absolutely no right to select their partners,
which is entirely at the discretion of male family members.
Marriage of girls with older men is also common – the
main reason cited for this is mitigation of debt, as the
groom gives a dowry to the girl’s family. Legally, the
marriageable age is 18 years, but many girls in their early
teens are still forced into marriage.
Open dating is not approved or practiced in Afghanistan.
Professional men and women may meet and socialize in
group settings, but close interaction of the sexes is
frowned upon in Afghan society; and even men from
educated families can be very conservative in their
attitude toward women. According to Islamic law, a man
can marry up to four women, but with approval from the
courts (and his wives) he can marry more than four
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women.
Traditionally, women get to retain their family
name, as well as any money and property they may have
obtained, both before and after marriage, but this can be
difficult to enforce.
Women have a legal right to obtain divorce on the
grounds of a husband’s insanity, impotence, or non-
payment of maintenance. Domestic violence is not
enough of a reason for filing for divorce. Obtaining divorce
without the cooperation of the husband is very difficult and
almost impossible. Women are not granted custody of
children upon divorce or the death of the husband – the
husband, or his family, gets custody of the children.
Health
Healthcare services in Afghanistan are very poor. Access
to emergency and specialist services is almost
impossible. The maternal mortality rate is 1,600 per
100,000 women, and more in certain provinces. Lack of
proper family planning, poor prenatal care, scarcity of
medication and trained medical professionals, and lack of
knowledge of hygiene contribute to the high rate of
maternal mortality, and the government is struggling to
tackle this problem. Afghan women don’t have access to,
or control over, family planning methods like birth control
or spacing of children, due to traditional Islamic
reservations.
Interesting Social Customs
There are some specific procedures for obtaining a
divorce. One of them is the iddah, a waiting period of
three months after the divorce. During the iddah, family
members and relatives try to convince the couple to
reconcile. Another objective of the iddah is to determine
whether the woman is pregnant. In case she is pregnant,
the husband will have to take care of her until the child is
born. Divorced women with very small children are
allowed to nurse their children for two years, during which
time the husband has to bear the cost of maintenance of
both mother and child.
Women in Business
General View
The legacy of the previous Taliban regime still holds
strong in most areas of Afghanistan. Under their strict
Islamist hard-line policies, women were not allowed to
venture from their homes, let alone find employment.
Afghanistan is a strongly male-dominated society and
those perceptions are bound to take some time to
change. Women in Afghanistan who wish to find a job or
start a business are faced with an array of social, cultural,
and economic barriers. The biggest barrier is often to be
found at home, with most husbands and relatives strongly
discouraging women from venturing out of home.
A beginning however has been made after the formation
of the democratic government, and long-held views
relating to women holding jobs and doing business is
gradually changing. The most obvious signs of the
change appear in the increased number of shops and
other small businesses run by women.
Legal Rights
According to the recent Afghan constitution, women are
granted the same legal rights as men in every respect
including the right to vote, to own a business, and to
inherit and own property. In reality, however, most
Afghans strongly disapprove of women performing any of
the above functions. A survey conducted by a Kabul-
based research group found that less than two percent of
women among the 360 households covered in the survey
owned land in their own right.
Though times are slowly changing, there remains a
largeap in the pay packages of men and women
performing the same job. The main issue, however, is not
the difference in pay but the fact that women are actually
allowed to take up jobs.
Women in Professions
The most common traditional job for women in
Afghanistan is carpet-making. With women having to
overcome incredible odds to do something as simple as
holding an outside job, it comes as no surprise that only a
few Afghan women have managed to summon up the
courage to cross traditional barriers and start businesses
of their own. One of them is Fatimeh, who owns two
beauty salons in the capital city of Kabul. Though she had
to overcome numerous obstacles early on, she is now
firmly established, and clients must make appointments
weeks in advance to avail of her services. Another is
Aziza Mohmmand, who runs a leather football
manufacturing factory. Growth rates for women in
business are bound to follow an upward trend, with more
and more women coming out of homes to start
businesses. Though women are theoretically not barred
from any professions, most Afghan men dislike their
womenfolk leaving the house, and even when they are
allowed to do so, they are prevented from mixing with
members of the opposite sex. Since males dominate
most business and employment sectors in Afghanistan,
women are placed in a very difficult situation.
Dress codes
have relaxed considerably from the days of the Taliban
regime, when women could venture from home only after
covering themselves completely from head to toe. Today,
Afghan women are expected to dress very conservatively,
and most women wear a burqa covering the entire body
from the neck downwards while in public. Office attire
typically consists of a headscarf, a knee-length loose skirt,
and loose-fitting professional trousers underneath.
Under the Afghan constitution, women are guaranteed
access to health and childcare, though state-sponsored
child care is currently unavailable.
Women as Business Owners
The number of women who own their business remains
very low, given the social and political hurdles they have
to overcome to establish their own businesses. However,
the situation has improved, and more women are
venturing out to start their own businesses, with some
even traveling abroad to promote their products.
Women-owned businesses typically consist of beauty
parlors, small textile factories, handicraft workshops,
leather factories, and jewelry shops.
Businesswomen Visiting the Country
Foreign businesswomen are expected to follow the
prevailing social and cultural customs that bind Afghan
women. When presented with a business card it is
necessary for the presenter to see the recipient studying
it. Probing questions about one’s family are not welcome.
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