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Nara janma fine, naari janma beda

Najiba is being shot by gunmen in aremotr afghan village . A crowd surrounded is cheering instead of trying to stop the murder. They are even filming the event. This is honor killing in Afghanistan.

I was reading this article in TOI regarding the fate of Afghan women. There have been 56 honor killings in last four months in the country. And we all know that Taliban has almost stopped education of girls. How long will these women suffer and why? And why is the world a mute spectator?

It is not that the country was like this for centuries. In 1970s, 70% of teachers in Afghanistan were women, 40% of doctors were women and so were 20% of civil services.  If so, when did things go wrong so badly?

When the cold war started and Russia backed party started ruling Afghan lands, it declared equal rights for women. On its part America, funded and encouraged Taliban which wanted to take women to 15th century. What happened after that is history.

But in this war between US and Russia, the country has been destroyed. And the worst sufferers are women. According to official figures even now, the female literacy rate is as low as 10%. Taliban has even assasinated a minister for not wearing veil in public.

I am not saying  women are treated with lot of respect and honour in our own country. Today's paper has a news about 13 year old child being rusticated from school for becoming a mother. She was raped by a neighbour. Then the local police mediated and she was readmitted back to school.


Some old poets have described how it   better to be born as an insect or an animal so that they can be near to God. I feel in such situations , it is better to be born as even as dog than a woman. 

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