Afghan Women Demonstrate in Kabul
Dangerous Times, Heroic Women

by Phyllis Chesler
Pajamas Media
April 16, 2009

http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/448/afghan-women-demonstrate-in-kabul

Excerpt:

When I lived in Kabul, women simply did not rise up, take to the streets, and mount brave demonstrations. Hell no. Wealthy women wore decorous long headscarves, long coats, and gloves, and were driven around by chauffeurs in expensive European cars. Poor women wore the full burq'a and were forced to sit separately from men on public buses; they were also kicked to the back of the line in the bazaar when the male servants of wealthy families came to make their purchases. Occasionally, if a country girl or woman was out working or walking and a male non-relative chanced by, she would swiftly, shyly turn her face away and simultaneously cover it with her headscarf. This was a practiced, perhaps terrified motion.

Imagine my joy today, nearly fifty years later, when I read that Afghan women just took to the streets to protest a new law which legalizes rape within marriage, requires a husband's permission in order for his wife to be able to work, and requires wives to "dress" as their husbands desire.

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