News-Letter

Afghani women were forced to cover herself under during Taliban rule. (Courtesy of Zohra Rasekh) [Click to enlarge]

In 1994, the world became aware of the Taliban, a new sect occurring in Islamabad.

A group of Afghans that were trained in Pakistani religious schools started an uprising that spread slowly across the country to Kandahar. In Sept. 1996, the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, was overthrown by this growing group.

Almost immediately, Afghan women in these areas began to see their lives slowly crumble.

They were forced to wear long, suffocating cloth pieces, called Burdquas, when venturing outside. They were no longer allowed education rights, and no longer allowed to have a voice in the country's affairs.

The Taliban regime worked to make women as invisible and as low as possible. They were denied basic rights and freedoms, and were also denied proper healthcare.

During the Taliban's reign of terror, the maternal mortality rate was 1,600 women per 100,000 live births. Women are not allowed to be treated by male doctors and neither were they allowed to receive the education needed to garner these skills.

As a result, many of these deaths could have been preventable simply by giving a woman midwife training. After Sept. 11 and the United States' Operation Enduring Freedom, the situation became slightly better. However, much more progress needs to occur.

In Quetta, Pakistan, there is only one hospital that will treat women, and it is being run mostly by volunteers. The Malalai Hospital will treat on average about 5,000 women monthly on a budget of $20,000.

In Pakistan, one woman will die every minute as a result of pregnancy --related complications.

In the United States, similar deaths occur in less than one percent of all pregnancies.

Pakistani women's healthcare is in desperate need of improvement. Women in this country have a severe lack of education, proper healthcare, and are suppressed by domestic and social violence as well as restrictive religious beliefs.

According to Dr. Sher Shah Syed, the general secretary of the Pakistan Medical Association, more than 30,000 women die during childbirth, and 375,000 are paralyzed from complications during childbirth.

The main cause of these problems is postpartum hemorrhaging. Insufficient medical care and the women's relatives' (mainly husbands and male relatives) refusal of using hospital facilities due to stubborn traditional viewpoints exacerbate the situation.

Many of these casualties could be prevented with standard midwivery training.

However, the education level for women is in dire need of improvement. The refusal of society to give women an opportunity for education leaves about 75 percent of the rural area women of Pakistan illiterate.

Pakistan is an Islamic country, and the vast majority of the population practices the muslim belief and follows the Koran, the Islamic equivalent to the Christian Bible. However, the country has also been ruled by a military regime which has subordinated women.

There have been about 5,000 women that have been acid burned by their spouses of relatives since 1994, and only about four percent of these victims will live, but with severely disformed features.

According to law, half of a woman is equivalent to one man. Spouses are known to severely beat and sexually abuse their wives. There has been little or no prosecution for these men. In addition, the poverty level in rural areas has created a fertile breeding ground for diseases to develop.

Women and children are stricken down by common diseases and are susceptible to diseases, such as polio, that are virtually eradicated in places such as the United States. Tuberculosis is rampant among areas of Pakistan, as well as a poor education in HIV/ AIDS prevention.

One main concern is the forced selling of women and children into sex slavery that gives HIV an opportunity to spread.

Women are mostly afraid of the physical and emotional abandonment that can follow diseases that will physically alter the way they look. For example, breast cancer in countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan is considered an "unattractive" disease, according to the European Society for Medical Oncology.

A lot of men are prone to leave their wives and refuse to protect their female relatives after they have received a lumpectomy or mastectomy to remove the cancer. As a result, a lot of women are afraid to seek treatment. In rural areas of these countries, 22 percent of women are alive after detection of breast cancer.

Currently, the majority of these medical endeavors have been funded by NGOs -- Non Government Organizations.

After Sept. 2001, the United States Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration has allotted a total of $209.6 million to be distributed as needed for the gradual development of a freer Afghanistan.

Non-profit organizations such as the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan have risked their lives to work for a better healthcare system for women.

Education is highly encouraged and necessary for women to carry on with a healthier life. As a result, the need for a better education for the women is key.

Today in Pakistan and Afghanistan, volunteers and community members are working tirelessly to dispense medical knowledge to the women, and slowly work towards a more liberated society. With freedom, they are given the necessities to live.

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