The most unfavorable countries for women. The lives of Afghan women

About 10 years ago, a new craftswoman appeared in a hairdressing salon, where I periodically visited. She had huge black eyes, gorgeous hair and gorgeous hands: she cut her hair and did her hair quickly, easily and beautifully. Dark skin suggested that she had come from afar. Once we got to talking, and she said that her homeland is Afghanistan. She left with her husband, or rather, fled from there after the Taliban came to power. "They wanted to kill us." In her former life, the hairdresser was a teacher, and her husband was a doctor. She admitted that she really yearns for her homeland, but is unlikely to return there - it is still too scary.

Then I did not have time to ask the hairdresser in more detail, and then she left somewhere and I forgot about her. A thin, dark woman with huge sad eyes came to my mind only when I came across materials on the situation of women under the Taliban regime - the regime that created the most sophisticated system of oppression of women in the 20th century.

T. naz. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, aka the Taliban state, was created in 1996, and by the end of 2000, the Taliban controlled about 90% of the country's territory. The Taliban took power in a country badly battered by war and devastation, but still remembering the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan that collapsed in 1992. You can treat the socialist regime as you like, but the fact remains: on October 13, 1978, the government adopted a decree on granting women equal rights with men, subsequently a ban on forced marriages was introduced, age restrictions on their conclusion and the custom of kalym was abolished. The socialist government introduced a single, free, 10-year, three-tier school system for all children, regardless of gender. The education of women in universities was encouraged, and by the end of the existence of the DRA, a stratum of women specialists appeared in the country, primarily doctors and teachers. (In royal Afghanistan, despite the well-known opportunity to meet a woman in a short skirt on the streets of Kabul, women with higher education were rare.)

Director of the basic experimental school named after Muhammad Eti-bar in Shahr-Nau Mahmud Aziz and head of the educational department Parvin Rasuli. December 1981.

Of course, it makes no sense to idealize the then Afghan reality: in the provinces, especially in the mountainous villages, everything remained the same, but in the cities and especially in the capital, the process of women's emancipation was slow, with a creak - but still started. The civil war that began after the fall of the DRA put it on hold. And then the Taliban came, professing, in their opinion, the purest Islam. The religious doctrine underlying the state ideology created a monstrous monster - a state that practiced gender apartheid.

Gender apartheid meant the exclusion of women from of all spheres of public life, including banal movement on the streets. The group of persons subject to complex discrimination included all female persons from the age of 8 (eight) years of age. From this age, they were forbidden to enter into any contact with a man, if it is not a husband or relative; learn anything (and before that they were only allowed to study the Koran); to leave the house unaccompanied by a husband / relative. They were forbidden to work outside the home (only female doctors became an exception, and that was out of necessity, since male doctors were forbidden to treat women). As a result, according to Wikipedia, 7,793 female teachers were fired in Kabul alone, and 63 schools were closed due to an acute shortage of staff. But this circumstance did not bother the Taliban: why schools and books if there is a Koran?

Of course, the harsh supporters of "pure Islam" could not ignore the appearance of women. First, they banned bright clothes, then tight-fitting clothes, then heels, then cosmetics and perfumery, and finally settled on the obligatory wearing of the burqa - a dull bag with a net for the eyes, which is very "comfortable" in the summer heat. According to a Taliban spokesman, a woman's open face can lead a man into vice, even if he is "morally clean."

The standard appearance of a woman under the Taliban regime.

This was one of the main problems of the regime: how to minimize the harm caused by women? After all, they strive to lead a true Muslim into sin. Suppose they are almost absent on the streets, but they are in houses behind thick walls! And if you go to the window and look ... oh, you can see a woman with a bare face! How can one not fall into temptation? To alleviate men's suffering, all the windows on the ground floors of buildings had to be painted over / repaired so that the women inside could not be seen from the street.

Great, the living women are no longer visible. But a devout Muslim can accidentally see a photograph or a portrait of a woman! And this is a double sin, since the prophet forbade portraying people. Therefore, it was not allowed to photograph / shoot on video, their images were prohibited in newspapers, books, magazines and even at home.

The women were locked in houses with caulked first floors, they were forbidden to move freely, work, study, read, attend any events, play sports, visit baths and hospitals; they were forbidden even to speak loudly in the presence of a man; they were no longer photographed or painted, but they could be sold at 10 years old, like a sheep, they could be forcibly given in marriage; could be beaten for "inappropriate" clothes or for visiting an underground hairdresser, for trying to learn to read and write, for trying to survive. The case of a woman named Latifa, who was severely beaten for walking on the street alone, became famous. Latifa did not have a single man in the family, and she was forced to break the law in order to earn a living. "My father was killed in battle ... I have no husband, no brother, no son. How can I live if I cannot walk alone?" especially during childbirth, it went up sharply. Women were stoned and shot for "underground" work, their fingers were cut off because their nails were covered with varnish, and they were whipped for clothes of the wrong color or style.

Still, it was not possible to finally solve the "female question": women were needed to procreate, but it turned out to oust them from the information space and even from the language. All phrases where the word "woman" was present changed, for example, "women's yard" to "spring yard". Women disappeared as citizens, as professional specialists, as city dwellers, as readers and spectators, interlocutors and neighbors, as patients and doctors, teachers and students, remaining only as domestic servants and bearers of queens. To put it very briefly and obscenely - it was completely fucked up.

However, one should not think that Afghan women have accepted the role of silent victims. In those conditions, any banal action took on the character of an act of resistance. Make up lips. Furtively read an old magazine. Go outside. Some women teachers continued to teach in “clandestine schools” in their homes, teaching local children or other women. For this they were threatened with the gallows - but they could not do otherwise. And somewhere in the mountains for women the same nightmare continued as in the Middle Ages. And it continues to this day.

It is noteworthy that the Taliban justified apartheid by caring not only about men, but also about women themselves. It's so familiar, isn't it, to justify oppression by caring for the oppressed. So the Taliban did not want to offend women, on the contrary: they created a completely safe environment where they could maintain their dignity and chastity. And one more thing: not only the religious "morality police" were involved in the implementation of the oppression regime, but also a bunch of volunteers. As Wikipedia writes, “many women were subjected to public punishment without the participation of the Taliban, while the Taliban themselves opposed their members taking part in the punishment, describing it this way: we cannot directly punish women for their misdeeds and therefore we assign this task to taxi drivers and salespeople who can successfully press and suppress women, so that they do not forget who is in charge in a patriarchal society. "

Do not think that the fall of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is all over. At present, the Taliban actually controls about 70% of the territory of Afghanistan, including the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Paktia, Uruzgan, Nuristan, Kunar, Badakhshan, Zabul, Ghazni and others. There, women are still deprived of their rights, schools are blown up, and rebellious people are killed. And in Kabul itself, the situation is not at all happy - violence against women is flourishing. And there is no end in sight :(.

In 2010, a photograph of this Afghan girl appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Her nose and ears, with the approval of one of the Taliban commanders, was cut off by her own husband as punishment for trying to escape. She was married at the age of 12 as payment for blood feud - given against her will to the family of her husband, a Taliban fighter.

A woman holds her baby in her arms before seeing a doctor at a clinic in western Afghanistan. She still doesn't dare to bare her face.

This Afghan woman became famous thanks to the photographer Steve McCurry, who took a picture of her face when she was still a little girl. This happened during the Soviet-Afghan war, when Gula ended up in a refugee camp on the border with Pakistan.

She was born around 1972. Why such an approximate date? You can find out about this and who the Afghan girl with green eyes is, about the events concerning Afghanistan in the late 70s and early 80s in this article.

About photography

The photograph, popularly called "Afghan Girl", is very famous. She is sometimes compared to the portrait of the famous Mona Lisa by the artist Leonardo da Vinci, and therefore she is often called the "Afghan Mona Lisa".

A photo of a mysterious girl with surprisingly unusual green eyes has been the object of close attention of the whole society for a long time.

What is the Afghan girl with the photo thinking? What's in her eyes? Confusion, fear or anger? Looking at the face of this girl, every time you can discover something new for yourself. This is the secret of the popularity of photography. The girl's face will certainly remain in the memory of people who saw her, because it carries ambiguity.

She has become a kind of symbol of the Afghan refugee problem. McCurry himself said that in the last 17 years, there was practically no day when he did not receive any e-mail, letter, etc. about his work. Many wanted to help this girl, send money or adopt. There were also those who wanted to marry her.

The image was widely replicated and published: on postcards, posters, in magazines, etc. Most of the major publications used photos on the covers of their magazines. Even the T-shirts had prints with her image.

Afghan girl Sharbat Gula: biography, meaning of the name

Much has been written about the girl's history. Sharbat is an Afghan (Pashtun) by nationality. She does not know her exact birthday, as well as the year, because she was left an orphan as a baby. After her family died, she ended up in the Pakistani refugee camp Nasir Bagh. Since then, she has not learned to read, but she knows how to write her name.

An Afghan girl married in the late 1980s to a simple baker Ramat Gul and returned with her family to her homeland in Afghanistan in 1992. In total, Sharbat now has 3 daughters: Robin, Aliya and Zahid. There was also a 4th daughter, but she died shortly after birth. The woman hopes that her children, in comparison with her, will receive a good education, learn to read and write. Sharbat herself did not have any opportunities for this. She is now over 40 years old.

This woman never even suspected how famous she became, how much has been written about her piercing gaze. However, according to her stories, the memory of how she was photographed by some white man. She never appeared in her life again, especially a year after that famous shooting she began to wear a chador.

The name of an Afghan girl (Sharbat Gula) means “flower sorbet”.

A little about the author of the photo

This photo was taken by renowned professional journalist and photographer Steve McCurry at a refugee camp in Pakistan (Nasir Bagh).

In 1985, a 13-year-old Afghan girl with green eyes was featured on the cover of a magazine (National Geographic).

The history of photography

One morning, photographer McCurry, walking through the Nasir Bagh camp, saw a tent in which there was a school. He asked the teacher for permission to photograph several students (there were only about 20). She allowed.

His attention was attracted by the look of one girl. He asked the teacher about her. She said that the girl and her remaining relatives traveled for several weeks through the mountains after the helicopter bombardment of their village. Naturally, the baby was difficult to experience this situation, because she lost the people closest to her.

McCurry made a portrait of the Afghan girl Gula (he did not recognize her name then) on color film, and without additional lighting.

This "photo session" took only a couple of minutes. It was only after returning to Washington that McCurry realized what an amazing picture he had taken. Photo preparation (pre-press) was made by art agent Georgia (city of Marietta).

The photo was so soulful and difficult to view that the photo editor of National Geographic at first did not want to use it, but still ended up putting it on the cover of this magazine with the caption "Afghan Girl".

Sharbat life today

For a long time, the fate of the heroine of the famous photograph remained unknown. After McCurry found her again after a long search in 2002, something became clear about how her difficult fate developed.

Sharbat's life is quite difficult. She got married at the age of 13 (according to her recollections, and her husband believes that at 16). Every day before sunrise and after sunset, she always prays. Every day he does his usual household chores: carries water from the stream, does laundry, prepares food, takes care of his children. The meaning of her whole life is children.

Her husband, Rahmat Gul, lives mainly in Peshevan, where there is a bakery, where he earns a little money for a living.

There is also a serious health problem. Sharbat suffers from asthma, and this does not allow her to live in the city. She's better in the mountains. She lives with her family in the most warlike tribe (Pashtuns), which at one time formed the backbone of the Taliban movement.

Afghan girl about herself and those events

In 2002, led by Steve McCurry, a team from National Geographic magazine was organized specifically to search for that very girl (before that, certain searches were also undertaken).

And so, soon a new picture was taken, but already matured Sharbat: in a long robe, a woman's cloak and with a raised chador (with the permission of her husband). And again, the lens captured the eyes of an Afghan girl, but already matured.

In her opinion, she survived by God's will. She believes that her family lived better under the Taliban than under numerous bombings.

She also says that Americans are destroying their lives, as the Russians once did. People, in her opinion, are tired of wars, invasions and blood loss. As soon as the country has a new leader, the people of Afghanistan gain hope for the best and brighter, but each time they are deceived and disappointed.

Sharbat also expressed dissatisfaction with that very childhood photo of her: do you see there she was taken in a shawl with a hole, which she still remembers, how she burned it over the stove.

Conclusion

The girl's beautiful face with her mesmerizing gaze speaks of hidden excitement at the same time as decisiveness, steadfastness and dignity. Although it can be seen that she is poor, there is genuine nobility and strength in her. And most importantly, in her eyes you can see the full severity of the suffering and anguish that the simple long-suffering Afghan people endure.

This post is dedicated to the International Day of Solidarity of Working Women of the World.

Before the conflict and civil war, the situation for women in Afghanistan was good. Afghan women gained the right to vote in 1919, the wearing of the burqa was abolished in the 1950s, and women achieved equality in the 1960s, which was enshrined in law in the Afghan Constitution.

Two liberal rulers

The "women's" question arose in Afghanistan about 120 years ago. In the 80s of the XIX century, the country was ruled by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan, and he was the first to attempt to prohibit early and forced marriage, to legislate the rights of women. The Emir's wife set her own example: she did not wear a veil, represented her husband at court hearings, rode a horse, and participated in political life. Abdur Rahman Khan wanted to give a woman the right to initiate a divorce.

In the 1920s, following the Anglo-Russian agreement that guaranteed the independence of Afghanistan, the ruling emir, Amanullah Khan, the grandson of Abdur Rahman, began to modernize Afghanistan. He brought about political and social changes that expanded personal freedom and guaranteed equal rights for all Afghans. Social reforms made it possible for women and men to wear Western clothing.

His wife, Queen Soraya, encouraged women to become freer and set her example. In 1926, Soraya outlined her opinion on the status of women: “I don’t think our women are created just to serve men. Women must also take part in public life, contribute to the development of Afghanistan, and this contribution cannot be made without knowledge. Therefore, I believe that it is necessary to give knowledge to women ”.

Amanualah Seraj al Banet, a woman rights activist, agreed with Soraya: “Knowledge should not be monopolized by men. Women deserve to be educated. "

In the 1920s, women's emancipation was taking place all over the world, and Afghan women took part in this movement. In 1921, the first girls' school "Masturat" was opened. Notable alumni included future ministers, members of the governing council, and university professors. In 1923, women were legally granted the freedom to choose a spouse.

In 1928, the first group of Afghan women left the country to attend school in Turkey. One of them was the mother of the founder of an Afghan women's organization in Toronto, Adina Niyazi. Adina recalls: "My mother felt very fortunate to be one of the first Afghan women to be educated abroad."

The Status of Women in the 1960s

After women became eligible for higher education, many teachers, doctors and nurses emerged in the 40s and 50s. Many women attended the Faculty of Law at Kabul University. By the 1960s, women could move freely without a burqa through the streets of Kabul, unaccompanied by men.

Women were promoted to top government posts, with the first women senators appointed in 1965. In the period 1966-1971, 14 women were appointed as judges of Islamic jurisdiction. During this period, there were many female technical specialists, female administrative workers, Afghan women worked in the Ministry of Health and Education. There were women in the police, the army, they worked in airlines and in industry: textiles, ceramics and food. There were even Afghan women entrepreneurs.

In 1973, Muhammad Daoud became the head of Afghanistan. During this time, fundamentalist extremists began to work against Daoud and his reforms.
An important period in the development of the course for improving the position of women was also the 80s, the period of the so-called communist rule and the presence of Soviet troops in Afghanistan. There were programs to combat illiteracy among women.

For them, special educational and professional courses were created, the opportunity to receive higher and secondary specialized education abroad. Afghans could get a job in government agencies, with equal pay with men. All these events contributed to raising the level of self-awareness of Afghan women and their involvement in public life.

Bookstore in Kabul during the "Soviet occupation":

Fashion in Afghanistan

In the 1960s, more than two-thirds of the women in Kabul dressed in Western style. The Afghan coat has become the hallmark of fashionable Kabul. Jeanne Beecher has become one of the iconic figures in Afghan fashion. Beecher created a sewing school with the support of Vogue Pattern Services - one of the few companies that has the right to copy models from famous designers.

In 1969, the young designer Safia Tarzi caught the attention of Vogue magazine.

Tarzi helped to blur the boundaries between men's and women's clothing, "interfered" with Western and Eastern styles of clothing. Designed Western-style turbans and vests to be worn with skirts and stockings. In 1969, the famous issue of Vogue was released, which presented the history of Afghan fashion and called the "Afghan adventure". In addition to models and ancient ruins, Safia Tarzi appeared in the room.

Zhanna Beecher noticed the interest of Kabul women in Western fashion after the magazine was published. She drew up a plan to set up a sewing school in Kabul to teach women how to dress according to Western patterns. Jeanne Beecher was able to negotiate with Vogue Pattern Services for the campaign to donate 200 models to the school. 32 Afghan women graduated from the course and learned to sew under the guidance of the spirit of American instructors. The school trained 15 fashion designers, which for that time was a breakthrough in the field of Haute Couture in Kabul.

Civil War

However, the outbreak of civil war suspended and then, after the change of regime, completely reversed the process of socio-political modernization of Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghan women were forced to leave their homeland, many were killed or wounded during the hostilities, and became widows. Poverty, social and legal insecurity, the psychological shock experienced brought to naught all the efforts of the previous decades.

The last devastating blow to gender equality was the rise to power of the Taliban, and the establishment of a medieval regime based on blind adherence to the literal understanding of Sharia law.

In 1994, the Taliban emerged in Kandahar and then came to power in Kabul in 1996. They immediately imposed their concepts and the life of women according to the "Sharia law", although it was more like "gender apartheid". Women were forbidden to work, schools for girls were closed. Women have been deprived of all the rights they have sought and worked on in recent decades. Now they were not even allowed to leave their homes, they could only do this accompanied by a male relative and completely wrapped in a veil. The women were imprisoned, tortured and executed for "moral crimes" such as "prostitution" and "infidelity" and were often beaten by Taliban police for showing their ankles or wrists. The Taliban's Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices grew more powerful and found new ways to punish women and girls for failing to comply with the rules.

Constant manifestations of various forms of violence against women, poor health care and desperate poverty have made Afghanistan the most dangerous country in the world for women.

In second place is the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to the horrific rates of rape and sexual assault of women.

Pakistan, India and Somalia ranked third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in a global study looking at all kinds of threats to women around the world.

These threats include domestic violence and economic discrimination, female fetal death (destruction of the fetus in the womb), forced genital alteration, and much more.

The survey, compiled by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, places Afghanistan at the top of the list of the world's most disadvantaged and dangerous countries for women.

TrustLaw asked 213 gender experts to rate countries in terms of overall severity, as well as six risk categories.

Potential risks included health threats, sexual violence, non-sexual violence, cultural or religious factors, lack of access to resources, and human trafficking.

1. Women in Afghanistan are practically a complete absence of economic rights, which poses a serious threat to life and well-being. An Afghan soldier uses a wooden stick to maintain order among women waiting in line for humanitarian aid at the World Food Program humanitarian center in Kabul, December 14, 2001.

The UN launched its largest food distribution program in the world in the Afghan capital, distributing bags of wheat to more than three quarters of the war-torn city's population. 2

2. “The continuation of the conflict, NATO airstrikes and the near absence of a humanitarian program have made Afghanistan a very dangerous place for women,” says Antonella Notari, head of Women Change Makers, a group that supports women around the world.

In the photo, a woman walks past the special forces police at the Kabul stadium on February 23, 2007.

3. The injured woman was taken away from the explosion site in Kabul on December 15, 2009. At least four civilians were killed in the bombing of a suicide bomber in a car near a predominantly foreign hotel in Kabul's main diplomatic district and across the street from the former vice president's home.

4. An Afghan woman next to her daughter's bed in a hospital in the city of Charikar, May 11, 2009. Nearly 50 Afghan teenagers were hospitalized after an unknown gas hit a girls' school in the northern town of Charikar, the second mass poisoning of female students in a month. Attacks on girls' schools have increased, especially in the east and south of the country.

A year earlier, a group of schoolgirls in Kandahar had been thrown acid in the face of a man who objected to their right to attend school.

5. The almost complete absence of economic rights endangers the lives of Afghan women. Photo: Women beg on a road in Kabul as snow falls on January 13, 2009.

6. "In Afghanistan, women have one in eleven chances of dying in childbirth." Afghan mothers visit a clinic in the Eshkashem district of Badakhshan province, northeast of Kabul, on April 23, 2008.

7. Seventeen-year-old Shamsiya, in whose face the Taliban splashed acid, lies in a hospital in Kabul, November 15, 2008.

8. A relative of an Afghan prisoner cries outside Puli Charkhi on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, February 28, 2006.

The siege of Pul-i-Charkhi, the largest prison in Afghanistan, lasted several days, but the government until recently expressed hope for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, despite the bloody uprisings of hundreds of prisoners.

9. Women who dare to stand out or pretend to be some kind of importance are exposed to the constant threat of violence and death.

The photo shows a damaged poster of an Afghan woman who decided to run for parliament, on a wall in Herat, western Afghanistan, September 8, 2010.

10. An Afghan woman in a traditional burqa burqa on the road in front of an armored car with armed Northern Alliance soldiers on the outskirts of Jebel Us Seraj, about sixty kilometers north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, November 4, 2001.

The Northern Alliance, a grouping of mostly ethnic Uzbek and Tajik fighters in the north of the country, is viewed with suspicion and hostility by ethnic Pashtuns who live in other areas.

11. Afghan women wait their turn at the World Food Program distribution center (in Kabul, February 10, 2011.

12. An Afghan girl touches her mother's prosthesis at the Ali Abad Orthopedic Center in Kabul, November 12, 2009. The center, run mostly by people with disabilities, aims to educate and rehabilitate landmine victims and people with any type of physical deformity or disability to help them integrate more effectively into society.

They also provide patients with interest-free microloans of up to six hundred dollars for up to eighteen months.

13. Afghan mother is holding her baby at the time. as she visits a clinic in the Eshkashem district of Badakhshan province, northeast of Kabul, on April 23, 2008.

Women die in childbirth every day in Afghanistan, a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.

14. An Afghan woman in a burqa with her son, whose legs were amputated, asks for alms on a street in Kabul, August 4, 2008

15. Women who attempt to speak out or take on social roles that challenge entrenched gender stereotypes of what is acceptable to women, including women who dare to work as police officers or news anchors, are often subjected to intimidation or violence.

The woman in the photo takes part in an event to discuss presidential candidates in Kabul on August 11, 2009.

16. The staggering level of sexual violence in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo makes the country the second most dangerous place for women.

One recent study by American experts states that over 400,000 women are raped there every year. The UN has recognized the Congo as the capital of the rape of the world.

The photo shows a woman who recently underwent surgery lies in a hospital bed at a general hospital in Dungu, northeastern Congo, on February 17, 2009.

17. “Human rights activists say militant groups and soldiers target women of all ages, including girls as young as three and older women,” according to a study. “Women are subjected to gang rape, rape with bayonets, and there have also been cases of women being shot in the genitals after the violence.

Photo: People flee after renewed fighting in the village of Kibati, November 7, 2008. Fighting between rebels and government forces erupted in eastern Congo, and African leaders have called for an immediate ceasefire to end the conflict.

18. A mother breastfeeds her two emaciated children at a Catholic humanitarian mission center in rebel-held Rutshuru, 70 kilometers (50 miles) north of Goma in eastern Congo, November 13, 2008.

19. A woman displaced by the war prays during a Sunday service at a church in the center of Don Bosco in Goma, eastern Congo, November 23, 2008.

20. A woman homeless as a result of the war is in a tent with a child in a makeshift camp in Kibati near Goma in eastern Congo, February 13, 2009.

The military authorities of the Congo claim that more than forty Rwandan Hutu rebels were killed in an air raid According to human rights activists, about a hundred civilians were killed during the hostilities.

21. Women from a church choir sit on benches amid streams of solidified lava from a 2002 volcanic eruption in the eastern Congolese city of Goma August 14, 2010. 22

22. A government soldier carries a baby on his back in Mushak, eastern Congo, on January 26, 2009.

23. War displaced 71 Helen Namikano, 75-year-old Rebecca Martha Canigi, 65-year Venanzia Ndamkunzi Atiya 74 Eugenia Mobato sit together on the steps of a building in the village of Mugunga, west of the eastern Congolese city of Goma, August 24, 2010.

All four women have fled the fighting in North Kivu more than once over the past four years, despite efforts to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

24. A dying woman from Rwanda tries to breastfeed a child next to hundreds of corpses awaiting burial in a mass grave near the Munigi refugee camp, twenty kilometers north of Goma.

25. Pakistan ranks third for cultural, tribal and religious practices that harm women. “Threats include acid attacks, child and forced marriage, and punishment or retaliation by stoning, and other physical violence.”

In a photograph, a woman is comforted by her mother as she awaits a medical examination at a hospital in the Swat region, located in a troubled area on Pakistan's northwestern border on March 21, 2010.

26. The daughters of a Pakistani Christian woman, Asia Bibi, take a photograph of her mother outside her home in Sheikhupura in Pakistan's Punjab province November 13, 2010.

Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four, was sentenced to death for blasphemy.

27. Mukhtaran Mai gives an interview at a school in Meerwala, located in the Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan's central Punjab province, April 22, 2011.

Mai, a Pakistani woman who has been the victim of a collective rape sanctioned by a rural community, has become a symbol of the country's oppressed woman.

28. "Pakistan has one of the highest dowry murder rates, so-called honor killings and early marriage." According to the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan, at least one thousand women and girls die from so-called “honor killings” every year.

In the photo, schoolchildren sing the Pakistani national anthem during a rehearsal at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinn, the founder of Pakistan in Karachi, on August 13, 2009, on the eve of Independence Day.

29. India is the fourth most dangerous country for women. “The Central Bureau of Research in India notes that in 2009 about 90% of trafficking in persons took place in the country and that at that time there were about three million prostitutes in the country, of which about 40% were children.

A woman cries outside her home after police arrested all of her male family members in the village of Bhatta Parsaul in the Gautama Buddha Nagar district of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh on May 8, 2011.

30. Women work in onion fields in Pimpalgaon, about 215 silometers (133 miles) north of Mumbai, January 23, 2011. Onions are the main ingredient in almost all Indian dishes.

The soaring prices of plant foods often spark street protests in a country where more than 40 percent of the 1.2 billion people live on less than $ 1.25 a day.

31. Forced marriage and forced labor also add dangers to women. “Up to 50 million girls are believed to have 'gone missing' in the last century due to the killing of newborn girls and abortion,” say representatives of the United Nations Population Fund.

In this country, parents prefer to have boys over girls. The photograph shows a Muslim woman in a burqa holding a poster during a protest in New Delhi on May 16, 2007.

32. A woman carries empty jugs as a second woman fills a jug with drinking water from a drying river in the village of Banas Sukfur, north of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad May 12, 2011.

34. Somalia, a State in a state of political disintegration, is characterized by high rates of maternal mortality, rape, female genital mutilation and limited access for women to education and health care.

The photo shows Somali refugees who arrive at the Dagahali camp building temporary shelters in Dadaab, near Kenya, on the Somali border on April 3, 2011.

35. “Rape happens on a daily basis and genital mutilation is a must for every girl in Somalia. Add hunger and drought to that. Add to this the constant armed confrontation ... and it all means that you can die any minute, any day. ”

Photo: Mogadishu residents carry a woman injured during fighting between African Union peacekeepers and Islamist forces in the Somali capital on October 28, 2009.

37. The most dangerous thing a woman can face in Somalia is getting pregnant. When a woman becomes pregnant, her chances of surviving are fifty to fifty, because there is no antenatal medical supervision. There are no specialized hospitals, no healthcare system, nothing.

A photograph shows a woman holding her malnourished child in her arms at Banaadir Hospital in the Somali capital Mogadishu on May 5, 2009.

April 22, 2010 3:04 pm

I want to say in advance that this is a problem of individual words of the population, separately taken provinces of the eastern states. Earlier I made a post, but now I came across information on Afghanistan, and more specifically, its province of Herat. _____ The problem of female self-immolations is becoming more painful in Herat, the western province of Afghanistan, on the border with Iran. Afghan women are increasingly bitter about the difference between women's freedom in other countries and their bondage. Many women in the region have died of self-harm, finding in this gruesome death an escape from an intolerable marriage. Human rights defenders and activists from international missions note that Afghan women often do not turn to them for help due to social prejudice. Also, they believe that in reality, suicides and self-mutilation of women are much more widespread than documented, since only those patients who made it to the hospital are recorded. Charity workers say that regardless of how the woman was injured - during a suicide attempt or as a result of an attack, it is in both cases on the conscience of the local government, which cannot and does not want to protect its citizens from forced marriages. During the 5-year Taliban regime, women were not allowed to work or study. They could not even leave the house unaccompanied by a man, and of course, their bodies and faces had to be hidden under the veil. After the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, women again received the right to work and study. But activists say that in many parts of Afghanistan, including Herat, women continue to be enslaved and oppressed. Many of them do not see the difference between their existence now and under the Taliban, and despair pushes some to take a terrible step. Zahra, 20, shows scars from self-inflicted burns 5 years ago. The problem of female self-mutilation is acute in the region of Afghanistan bordering on Iran, as women increasingly painfully feel the difference between their servitude and the freedom of women in other countries. Fariba is only 11 years old. She sits with her family and shows the reporter the burn scars she inflicted on herself a year ago. Simagol, 26, shows her hands that were burned 3 years ago. Wasiyeh, 16, shows off her scarred face and chest. She set herself on fire 2 years ago. Simagol shows his chest, forever disfigured by fire 3 years ago. Charity workers sadly say that many women do not turn to them for help due to centuries of prejudice. Elahel, 33, also bears the seal of fire. She set herself on fire 10 years ago. By self-immolation, Afghan women express to society their unbearable pain and protest against the servitude. Afizekh, 40, shows her hand that was mutilated during an attempted self-immolation 10 years ago. Such incidents are now more common - Afghan women are increasingly experiencing their oppression 16-year-old Kadijah shows marks from a fire 3 years ago, also inflicted on herself. After the overthrow of the Taliban regime, women were officially granted broader civil rights. But in reality, the situation of many of them has changed little. The province of Herat is ruled by the iron hand of Ishmael Khan, a local despot and military leader. Simagol, 26, shows 3-year-old burn scars. Quite a few women in Herat face daily oppression and bullying. They see no improvement in their lives since the overthrow of the Taliban, and this is pushing some to commit suicide. Rahimeh, 30, shows off her 16-year-old burnt breasts. Currently, there are several non-governmental organizations to help women in Afghanistan, and there is even a committee on women's issues, which constantly tries to draw public attention to this problem. But the catch is that local women are often so crammed and shackled by age-old prejudices that even leaving the house alone and looking for help may seem like an unthinkable step for them. Photo by Majid Saeedi / Getty Images