Target: Shabana Mahmood, UK Home Secretary
Goal: Do not prevent oppressed Afghan women from pursuing higher education.
A woman seeks a divorce from her allegedly abusive husband. During the court case, the woman recounts prolonged periods of physical and verbal abuse, culminating in an incident where the woman was reportedly beaten with a phone cable because – suffering from the pain of a chronic condition – she did not fix her husband dinner. Following her harrowing story, the judge rejects this woman’s motion for divorce and scolds her with the following directive: “Go back; you have a nice husband. Live with him. A little anger and a few beatings won’t kill you.”
While this account may sound horrific and taken from a work of fiction, for the women of Afghanistan it has become an every-day reality. Since the Taliban resumed their crushing rule, women have been effectively oppressed and silenced in all aspects of public and private life: circumstances critics refer to as “gender apartheid.” Aside from the cases such as the one described above, scores of already-granted divorces – including for child brides – have been invalidated by courts. And under a strict new criminal code, men have essentially been granted permission to beat and abuse their wives, so long as the vaguely termed “obscene force” is not used. Even men “convicted” of abuse serve scant days in jail.
Sign the petition below to demand the international community step up and provide educational refuge to these forgotten women.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Mahmood,
“I have knocked on many doors asking for help, including the UN, but no one has heard my voice. Where is the support? Don’t I deserve freedom as a woman?” These questions – asked by an abused Afghan woman refused a divorce from her husband – could be the collective voice of the 98 percent of women in Afghanistan who feel they have no autonomy over their own lives. This despair has prompted too many girls and women who have nowhere to turn to weigh the unfathomable. Consider the following confession from another woman living under a regime that has essentially given a permission slip for domestic violence: “Once, I went to my room and hung a noose around my neck, but I couldn’t go through with it because my daughter was crying so much. Another time, I thought about taking rat poison. If I don’t get a divorce, I might go through with it next time.”
While non-profits do what they can, governments far and wide have failed these women. A UN report put the crisis in the starkest terms: “in every and any form of engagement, we need to be asking how do we meaningfully include Afghan women and how do we break the pattern of women’s exclusion? The world is watching what happens to Afghan women and girls. In some cases, it watches to condemn, but in others, it watches to emulate the Taliban’s systematic oppression.”
Will the Home Office follow through with its own emulation? Your decision to revoke study visas from Afghan students essentially closes one of the few doors of opportunity these girls had to achieve a better future. By effectively stating that these students don’t matter because of where they are from, you are validating the Taliban and upholding every rigid dictate imposed on women with precious few means of escape. And you are making all the impassioned statements about violence against women made on International Women’s Day by this very office ring empty and hollow.
Reverse this heartless policy and stand with – not against – women and girls in search of a better life.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Pixabay
