Kinds of Gender Discrimination

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A. Kinds of Gender Discrimination

care about her, then you make her see that she belongs here at home with her mother. There is nothing out there for her. Nothing but rejection and heartache. I know, akhund sahib. I know. Women are submissive I have customers, Mariam, men, who bring their wives to my shop. The women come uncovered, they talk to me directly, look me in the eye without shame. They wear makeup and skirts that show their knees. Sometimes they even put their feet in front of me, the women do, for measurements, and their husbands stand there and watch. They allow it. They think nothing of a stranger touching their wives bare feet They think theyre being modern men, intellectuals, on account of their education, I suppose. They dont see that theyre spoiling their own nang and namoos, their honor and pride. He shook his head. Mostly, they live in the richer parts of Kabul. Ill take you there. Youll see. But theyre here too, Mariam, in this very neighborhood, these soft men. Theres a teacher living down the street, Hakim is his name, and I see his wife Fariba all the time walking the streets alone with nothing on her head but a scarf. It embarrasses me, frankly, to see a man whos lost control of his wife. 6911 Women are foolish What I meant was, what do they want? Mariam asked. These communists, what is it that they believe? Rasheed chortled and shook his head, but Mariam thought she saw uncertainty in the way he crossed his arms, the way his eyes shifted. You know nothing, do you? Youre like a child. Your brain is empty. There is no information in it. 9715 132

A. Kinds of Gender Discrimination

Women are foolish I wonder, the young Talib said. God has made us differently, you women and us men. Our brains are different. You are not able to think like we can. Western doctors and their science have proven this. This is why we require only one male witness but two female ones. 35547

4. Marginalization Marginalization

from heath facility In Nanas account of the day that she gave birth to Mariam, no one came to help. It happened on a damp, overcast day in the spring of 1959, she said, the twenty sixth year of King Zahir Shahs mostly uneventful forty year reign. She said that Jalil hadnt bothered to summon a doctor, or even a midwife, even though he knew that the jinn might enter her body and cause her to have one of her fits in the act of delivering. She lay all alone on the kolbas floor, a knife by her side, sweat drenching her body. Nana 112 Marginalization from school Girls are forbidden from attending school All schools for girls will be closed immediately. 27137 Marginalization from school Men wielding pickaxes swarmed the dilapidated Kabul Museum and smashed pre Islamic statues to rubble that is, those that hadnt already been looted by the Mujahideen. The university was shut down and its students sent home. Paintings were ripped from walls, shredded with blades. Television screens were kicked in. Books, except the Koran, were burned in heaps, the stores that sold them closed down. The poems of Khalili, Pajwak, Ansari, Haji Dehqan, Ashraqi, Beytaab, Hafez, Jami, Nizami, Rumi, Khayyam, Beydel, and more went up in smoke. 27338 Marginalization from health facility This hospital no longer treats women, the guard barked. He was standing at the top of the stairs, looking down icily on the 27839 133

A. Kinds of Gender Discrimination

crowd gathered in front of Malalai Hospital. A loud groan rose from the crowd. But this is a womens hospital a woman shouted behind Mariam. Cries of approval followed this. Mariam shifted Aziza from one arm to the other. With her free arm, she supported Laila, who was moaning, and had her own arm flung around Rasheeds neck. Not anymore, the Talib said. My wife is having a baby a heavyset man yelled. Would you have her give birth here on the street, brother? Mariam had heard the announcement, in January of that year, that men and women would be seen in different hospitals, that all female staff would be discharged from Kabuls hospitals and sent to work in one central facility. No one had believed it, and the Taliban hadnt enforced the policy. Until now. Laila Marginalization from health facility Go to Rabia Balkhi, the guard said. A young woman pushed forward, said she had already been there. They had no clean water, she said, no oxygen, no medications, no electricity. There is nothing there. 27939 Marginalization from health facility You think I want it this way? she said. What do you want me to do? They wont give me what I need. I have no X ray either, no suction, no oxygen, not even simple antibiotics. When NGOs offer money, the Taliban turn them away. Or they funnel the money to the places that cater to men. But, Doctor sahib, isnt there something you can give her? Mariam asked. ... Tell me whats going on Laila said She had propped herself up 28339