by NOORJAHAN AKBAR
Every day in Afghanistan millions of women and girls make their way through streets, mountains and villages to schools, universities, work places, clinics, marketplaces, etc. The reports on women’s progress in Afghanistan focus on the percentage of women who make or don’t make it to their destinations, be it schools, work places, etc. Rarely any attention is paid to the trip that women take from the relatively safe walls of their houses to the outside world. While many Afghan women have to fight against the traditions observed and values held in their families to be “given permission” to participate in the social, economical and political life of their communities, all women have to struggle against the violence, assault, abuse and the discrimination that they face once they exit their houses.
One of the most common and most noticeable methods of discouraging women from publicly partaking in society practiced by many men, and sometimes women in Afghanistan, is the usage of physical and verbal violence against women on the roads and public spaces. This method, known as “street harassment,” is most common in cities, where women are more publicly active, and has become one of the major reasons behind the lack of women’s public participation. Street harassment, as acts of violence, not only makes women feel endangered and vulnerable in public, but it also prevents them from exiting their houses and feeds the sadist and discriminatory motivations of the assaulter as it promotes the objectification of women, which leads to rape and sexual assault. The common harassment of women in public spaces in the cities of Afghanistan is a mirror of how the society views women and what the people consider a women’s job or place.
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