Women are burning for a chance at an education, career

Up until 2001, Afghanistan was ruled by the former Taliban government. And under that government, young women and girls were not allowed to attend school. These women were also not allowed to leave their homes without a male family member to escort them.

But for the past seven years women have no longer been controlled by the Taliban government and no longer have to live in fear of death for pursuing an education or a career, right?

Wrong.

The recent attack on at least 15 Afghan female students and teachers from Mirwais Nika Girls High School in the Kandahar province are likely to have been carried out by members of the Taliban, who oppose the education of women, according to British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

In November, two men on a motorcycle using toy squirt guns sprayed the young women with battery acid. The men fled the scene as soon as people came to help the injured women. Some of the women were shielded from the acid by their Islamic burkas or veils, but most of the victims suffered severe burns. At least one of them will need reconstructive surgery on her face and neck.

These women are literally risking their lives to better themselves in a world where the odds are stacked up against them. These women want to be doctors, educators, and have careers – and lives – of their own. At what cost must women pay for basic rights and freedoms?

Ten Taliban insurgents are currently in custody as suspects in the attack. The New York Times reported that Afghanistan officials are saying that the Taliban militants, who were citizens of Afghanistan, confessed to their involvement in the attack on November 12 and that someone high in the Taliban ranks paid the insurgents the equivalent of $1,275 for each girl they managed to burn.

According to the BBC News reports, only two million girls attend school in Afghanistan. Although the government in Afghanistan continuously pushes to encourage the education of women, many conservative families in the country prefer to keep women and girls at home and uneducated.

There have been hundreds of schools and female students attacked by those opposed to female education in recent years. The Taliban strongly opposes women in school and in the workplace, and have protested by torching schools, murdering school employees and distributing leaflets to warn parents not to send their children (specifically girls) to school.

Less than a third of Afghan children actually go to school, and that rate is even lower in the Kandahar province, where the acid attack occurred. Girls make up 17 percent of Kandahar’s students, and women’s literacy rate in the province is only 5 percent.

Acid attacks on female students are happening all over the world, with most recent reports of these types of crimes in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

MSNBC News did a report in August of this year on Saira Liaqat, a Pakistani woman who’s right eye was melted and her hands were severely damaged in an acid attack years before. Liaqat is one of Pakistan’s female victims of acid and arson attacks.

According to the article, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan found that in 2007, at least 33 women were burned in acid attacks and 45 women were set on fire. However, these numbers are well under the actual number of attacks because so many women don’t report incidents out of fear of their attackers are simply unable to pay legal bills.

If you want to learn about how to help some of these women, check out RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, at www.rawa.org.