194
11.6 Seclusion
Prevailing customs and religious beliefs sustain the segregation of both sexes and the seclusion of women in Afghan society. Many women observe seclusion and wear the burka whenever they leave the
house. Traditionally a woman is not allowed to leave the house without obtaining permission from the husband or other male members of the household. The seclusion of women and restriction of women’s
free movement are still important issues that prevent the realisation of gender equity. In the ALCS 2013- 14 information was gathered about the freedom women have to leave the dwelling.
Table 11.5
shows that three quarters of all women in Afghanistan are not leaving the dwelling without the company of another person. Women in urban areas have slightly more freedom to leave the house
on their own 27.1 percent, while the movement of Kuchi women is most restricted: only 18.8 percent can leave the dwelling without a companion. The percentage of women accompanied when they are
going outside the dwelling is highest among young women between age 15 and 40 see
Figure 11.9
. In this age bracket, the percentage of women who only go out when accompanied hovers around 80 percent.
Between ages 40 and 65, the percentages drop gradually to a level of 56.5 percent in the age group 60- 64. After this age again more women are accompanied when they leave the house. It may well be that
in many cases these older women are assisted by younger persons because they have some physical problems going around unassisted.
Table 11.5: Percentage of women 14 years of age and over, by residence, and by being accompaniedassisted when going out of the compound in percentages
Being accompanied National
Urban Rural
Kuchi or assisted
Total 100.0
100.0 100.0
100.0 Yes
75.2 72.9
75.8 81.2
No 24.8
27.1 24.2
18.8
195
Figure 11.9: Percentage of women aged 14 years of age and over who are usually accompaniedassisted when they go outside of the dwelling, by age
Women who are engaged have a somewhat higher degree of companionship 80.9 percent than married women 76.8 percent and never-married women 74.4 percent. Widowed and divorced women have
the lowest degrees of being accompanied, respectively 58.7 and 64.0 percent. Women are most often accompanied by children 32.0 percent or the husband 31.0 percent when they
leave the dwelling
Table 11.6
. In urban areas husbands don’t leave as much with their wives; as many men work outside the home, their role is often been taken by other female relatives or non-relatives.
Slightly more than half of all women 53.4 percent always wear a burka when they leave the house, while 31.9 percent never wear one
Figure 11.10
. The majority of Kuchi women 60.3 percent never wear a burka, while in rural areas a quarter leave the house without.
Table 11.6: Women 14 years of age and over, by residence, and by person who usually accompanies the woman when she leaves the compound in percentages
Accompanying person National
Urban Rural
Kuchi Child
100.0 100.0
100.0 100.0
Husband 32.0
31.5 32.0
34.9 Male relative
31.0 19.9
35.1 32.3
Female relativenon relative
14.4 12.6
15.3 11.1
Total 22.6
36.0 17.6
21.8 76.9
78.3 80.8
81.5 79.6
78.8 71.3
67.6 60.4
57.8 56.5
64.8 61.8
68.9 63.3
70.5
10 20
30 40
50 60
70 80
90
P er
ce n
tag e
Age
196
Figure 11.10: Percentage of women 14 years of age and over who wear a burka when they leave the dwelling, by place of residence
An important indicator of women ’s restricted freedom is the number of days they left the house during
the month before the survey.
Figure 11.11
shows the mean number of days women, 14 years of age and older, went outside the dwelling. On average on 7.6 days in a month, women left the house, that is about
once in every four days. The median value was 4, indicating that 50 percent of women leave the house per month four times or less; 12.3 percent of women never left the house in a whole month. The number
of women who never leave the house is highest in urban areas 13.8 percent. In rural areas, 10.1 percent of women stay home all the time, while only 1.2 percent of Kuchi women did not leave the dwelling.
Figure 11.11 clearly shows that Kuchi women spend more time outside the dwelling than urban and rural women. The figures show that below age 20 women tend to leave the house somewhat more than
at somewhat older ages. Also, at the very high ages women tend to leave the house even less. Perhaps this may be due to a higher degree of women with poor health condition. On the other hand, girls and
young women tend to leave the house more often, which is likely related to educational attendance.
31.9
10.2 4.4
53.4 45.4
3.4 1.2
50.0
24.9 12.8
5.7 56.6
60.3
10.5 4.9
24.4
Never Sometimes
Usually Always
P er
ce n
tag e
National Urban
Rural Kuchi
197
Figure 11.11: Mean number of days women left the dwelling during the month before the survey, by age, and by place of residence
When women leave the dwelling they most often go to visit family or friendsneighbours see
Figure 11.12
. About 75 percent of women went to see their family during the month before the survey. About 55 percent went to visit friends or neighbours. The lifestyle of Kuchi women is reflected in their pattern
of leaving the dwelling. Compared to urban and rural women they are much more involved in fetching water and firewood and collecting trash. Urban women have more the opportunity to go shopping for
clothes, shoes, cosmetics etc. The internet could be a possible way for women to increase their means of contact and to reduce their
social isolation. However, the low availability of the worldwide web in Afghanistan, together with the low levels of education results in very low use of the internet by women and, actually, men alike. The
use of households were one or more women used the internet in the last 12 months was only 1.3 percent. The percentage of households were men used the internet was somewhat higher 4.7 percent.
5 10
15 20
25 30
Day s
Age National
Urban Rural
Kuchi
198
Figure 11.12: Places women went to the month before the survey, by place of residence
11.7 Women and development
Kategori