Repression, Resistance, and Women in Afghanistan

by Hafizullah Emadi

Overview

Afghan women have faced an exhaustive struggle in the battle to change their status and improve their situation. Emadi takes a long look at the role of development and modernization policies implemented by the state in the pre- and post-Soviet eras, under the Taliban, and beyond. He finds that such policies have failed to bring about much- needed change and improvement for women. Modernization strategies benefited only a small segment of urban women and left the plight of rural women unchanged. Although a small segment of middle- and upper-class women organized themselves and fought to bring about changes in their status and to end gender inequality, their efforts alone did not meet with much success.

Islamic orthodoxy and orthopraxy in the Taliban era restricted women's freedom of movement, access to education, and medical care. Using personal accounts not readily available to researchers or scholars, Emadi explores the diverse factors that contributed to women's oppression both at home and in society. This study provides a detailed analysis of state policies toward women's emancipation within the context of a traditional Islamic society. It chronicles the course of the women's movement and women's organizations still active in the political arena and puts forth an alternative plan to involve women in the reconstruction process in both urban and rural areas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275976712
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/30/2002
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

HAFIZULLAH EMADI is a development consultant. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii, Manoa, Emadi taught in the University of Hawaii system, joined the East-West Center's International Relations Program as a Fellow in 1990, and was awarded a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center in 1999.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Peripheral Social Formation: Drive for Modernity
Gender Polity: The Status of Women
Peripheral State: Politics of Modernization
Political Mobilization: Women's Struggle for Equality
Politics of Regression: Women in the Post-Soviet Era
Women's Empowerment: Prospects for Future
Appendix: Bilateral Agreement Between the Republic of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on the Voluntary Returban of Refugees
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Capitalism in the west grew from the bottom up, and so provided women an opportunity to work outside the house, says US-based development consultant Emadi, but in Afghanistan, it was imposed from the top so did not change the feudal mode of production and its corresponding culture and politics. He departs from previous studies of women and development in Afghanistan by founding his in the larger historical and political development of the 20th century. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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