Engendered Violence Against Afghan Women in Atiq Rahimi’s A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear (original) (raw)
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Rubina Saigol, 'At Home or in the Grave: Afghan Women and the Reproduction of Patriarchy'. Working Paper Series # 70. Sustainable Development Policy Institute. , 2002
This paper focuses on the relationship of Afghan, mainly Pashtoon, women with the protracted war in Afghanistan. The paper is divided into four sections, namely 1) Absence of the State, Conflict and Identity Formation, 2) The Reproduction of Patriarchy, 3) Cultural Sensitivity, Aid Programs and the Reproduction of Patriarchy, and 4) Afghan Women’s Resistance to Violence and Patriarchy. Section 1 examines the effects of statelessness upon women in terms of the way in which the absence of a legitimate central authority, including judicial and administrative systems, affects the lives of women and the population in general. This section contextualizes the Afghan war and explores the complex relation between conflict and the formation of identity. Section 2 examines the ways in which the prolonged conflict has intensified patriarchal practices by means of increased restrictions, veiling, domestic violence, rape and murder of women. An attempt has been made to shed some light on the way in which conflicts tend to reinforce and strengthen patriarchies. Section 3 examines the discourse produced by aid agencies and international assistance in the 1980s and 1990s, with a view toward exploring how aid and assistance practices can themselves become the means of disempowering women and reproducing male systems of power. Section 4 is based on the recognition that Afghan women have not remained silent and passive observers of the conflict, but have actively offered resistance in various forms. Some of the forms discussed include cultural forms of resistance as expressed in poetry and song, individual resistance to violence against women, and collective resistance by organizations such as the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. An attempt is made to demonstrate that Afghan women have been active interlocutors in the ethnic and sectarian struggles, especially by being the most vociferous champions of peace, democracy and justice. Published/Presented as: ‘At Home or in the Grave: Afghan Women and the Reproduction of Patriarchy'. Working Paper Series # 70. 2002. Sustainable Development Policy Institute.