How is life like for women in Pashtun tribal areas?

[Karachi]

For a outsider like me, who has no clue, can any one tell how is life like for women in Pashtun tribal areas? I am not talking about cities, I am talking about places like Waziristan and other tribal zones. What are the daily activities of women in these places? are they allowed to interact with men a bit, or are they completely segregated? what do they do in case of medical emergencies? etc....

[Forreigner]

Women are not allowed to interact with unrelated men after a certain age (puberty)...same as pretty much elsewhere in the Islamic world.

I dont really think life of women is any different than in India, my friend Karachi. Women are housewives while men are out finding the money to support his family and household. To say Life is hard in Afghanistan is an understatement...and perhaps the women have it easier than men breaking their backs all day long to support his family...such is the life of the 99% of the planets 3rd world nations...doesnt matter the country or culture.

[Manzareh]

For a outsider like me, who has no clue, can any one tell how is life like for women in Pashtun tribal areas? I am not talking about cities, I am talking about places like Waziristan and other tribal zones. What are the daily activities of women in these places? are they allowed to interact with men a bit, or are they completely segregated? what do they do in case of medical emergencies? etc....

Now you claim to have no clue haha when you don't get the desired answers you tantrum and act as if your a know-it-all .. Leave it out creep

[DaZahroJaam.]

and perhaps the women have it easier than men breaking their backs all day long to support his family.

what happens when a woman doesn't have someone providing for her?

i do agree that the housework that women do in the villages are nothing in comparison to the work that men do to support a family of 14 or more, at times but it is also a fact that they are going to need female teachers, doctors and police members in such areas. where are they going to come from?? when the idea of keeping women indoors and men outside to tend to the matters outdoors becomes the norm, (regardless of whose job is tougher) even when a woman has genuine reason for being outside the house, she gets judged and treated as if she had stepped out just to find someone to commit zina with. that is not right.
most women who live segregated lives in tribal areas are very satisfied and happy with their lives and that is okay. it's when there is a need for them to get outside the house and the conditions are made unbearable for them, when things get nasty.

i recently read about a woman in afghanistan who was married off to some old man in exchange for money promised to her dad. she had 5 kids and the ****er dies. her dad is telling her to dump the kids and get married again or get out of his house, knowing she doesn't have much of an option. we would like to believe that such things don't happen in our society but they do. because of the conditions that our people live in, chances of losing one's "man of the family" or the bread winner to an illness or the war is very high.

3rd world countries are over populated and poverty stricken because a woman's worth is determined by no other means than taking care of children while the bread winner is one over worked, depressed and probably poorly educated, man. it is not fun for either of the genders.



and i don't like it when some men say "women are too fragile to be burdened with work outside the house". in case you die, you are okay with your women being burdened with having to rely on someone else or begging in the streets but not okay with burdening them with learning a skill or being educated?? did your father burden you from working outside the house and keep you indoors? no because he wanted you to be worth something.

[vsdoc]

When you teach a woman, you educate a generation.

[Da Bannu Mazdigar]

Let me sum it up(tribal areas)

*Starting with prayer in the early morning.
*if winter providing warm water to the rest
*milking the animal and cleaning the dung(ghojal)
*And by the time the men are back from mosque for fajr prayer she has prepared tea.
*In some families breakfast is either last night left roti though now parathas are also common.
*after this the cleaning of the house.
*By 11 AM the lunch is almost ready by them.
*Men again go to mosque and when they are nack so sleep for 2 hours.
*btw 3-4PM tea again and soon after evening prayer the dinner agai prepared to them.
*Some makhshilai after isha prayer and than to sleep around 9 PM.

Pretty much sum up the daily activity
ies of Pashtun woman in say FATA.

[Samandri]

In Pashtun tribal areas and elsewhere, people in the village or part of the village, are relatives of each other.....so burqa-thing is not observed in the locality where every one is "tarbur" of each other........

Village women are very hard working and none of them are obese.......in fact city women of towns/cities in Pashtun belt are more locked and confined than rural ones.....they also assist their males in fields and do lot of outside chores.....

There is lack of education, ........but as girls schools are absent from their areas so its hard to tell how much people are receptive towards female education........

[Forreigner]

what happens when a woman doesn't have someone providing for her?

i do agree that the housework that women do in the villages are nothing in comparison to the work that men do to support a family of 14 or more, at times but it is also a fact that they are going to need female teachers, doctors and police members in such areas. where are they going to come from?? when the idea of keeping women indoors and men outside to tend to the matters outdoors becomes the norm, (regardless of whose job is tougher) even when a woman has genuine reason for being outside the house, she gets judged and treated as if she had stepped out just to find someone to commit zina with. that is not right.
most women who live segregated lives in tribal areas are very satisfied and happy with their lives and that is okay. it's when there is a need for them to get outside the house and the conditions are made unbearable for them, when things get nasty.

i recently read about a woman in afghanistan who was married off to some old man in exchange for money promised to her dad. she had 5 kids and the ****er dies. her dad is telling her to dump the kids and get married again or get out of his house, knowing she doesn't have much of an option. we would like to believe that such things don't happen in our society but they do. because of the conditions that our people live in, chances of losing one's "man of the family" or the bread winner to an illness or the war is very high.

3rd world countries are over populated and poverty stricken because a woman's worth is determined by no other means than taking care of children while the bread winner is one over worked, depressed and probably poorly educated, man. it is not fun for either of the genders.



and i don't like it when some men say "women are too fragile to be burdened with work outside the house". in case you die, you are okay with your women being burdened with having to rely on someone else or begging in the streets but not okay with burdening them with learning a skill or being educated?? did your father burden you from working outside the house and keep you indoors? no because he wanted you to be worth something.

I fully agree...women should be integrated into the wider society, but its not easy, specially not in a culture like Afghanistan...i dont say this as a negative, there are many positive things about this Eastern culture, although some other aspects may be backward/outdated (such as failed integration of women into the wider society, ei. female doctors, engineers, teachers, scientists, etc.)

Afghanistan need to change a little bit culturally for this to happen...it would require dramatic efforts and a huge cultural shift for Afghanistan as a nation...first of all it all begins already at young age with boys and girls in schools are separated from each other already in elementary schools...if you want to integrate women into society similar way to the the western world, it would require you allow boys and girls going to the same school and class...it begins from there.

Now I do know, from experience good amount of Afghan men (and boys past certain age) tend to be very 'thirsty'...unfortunately the culture tends to produce thirsty men (even though these same men and boys have sisters and moms at home, they still lack a certain respect for unrelated women)...how do we let men and women (boys and girls) go to same schools, work in the same fields, interact and talk to each other while still maintaining islamic values?

integration of women into the wider society would require a huge dramatic change in mentality and culture..


In Afghanistan, even though people love their mothers, sisters and wives, above everything else, there is still the old idea of men being superior than women...if you want women to work as doctors, school and university teachers, scientists, etc. this view needs to be changed.

[DaZahroJaam.]

i never said women should be integrated with men. when you shock a society with that sort of change, you end up with women in niqabs mixing miniskirts with skinny jeans or tights. when others see that, forget university, they wont send their daughters to elementary school either and i not only understand but respect that too. it's very unlikely that people from tribal areas would agree to sending their women to unisex schools or universities so instead of forcing them to pick from two very unlikely options, why not provide them with an option that works for them too? give them a women's only university and see how the number of students attending raises. DON'T MAKE THAT COMPULSORY FOR EVERYONE. provide them with the option and then parents who want their children studying together can send them to unisex universities and the rest can go to male or female only universities.
you are not going backwards with progress by providing male only or female only universities, you are going backwards when you make that rule compulsory for everyone.

i also think it's pretty trashy and vulgar to use terminology such as "thirsty" to explain the dilemma our youth is going through. as an individual who is offering an opinion with the intention of helping a problem, you have to approach it with compassion, not mockery. they are not like this because they enjoy being this way but because they were not given the opportunity or example to learn better from. these men have lost their childhood to wars, hard labour and poverty. you can't expect from them the sort of courtesy you expect from men in first world countries.

[Karachi]

Simple village life is actually the best, it is pretty much the same in Pakistan / India just like Pashtun tribal areas

The only problem is when things like Justice or revenge are carried out, this is where the backwardness of people is shown.

[vsdoc]

Do women ride bikes and scooters in Afghanistan?

Its one of the greatest social and economic enablers for the independence for a woman to be independently mobile.

[Forreigner]

i never said women should be integrated with men. when you shock a society with that sort of change, you end up with women in niqabs mixing miniskirts with skinny jeans or tights. when others see that, forget university, they wont send their daughters to elementary school either and i not only understand but respect that too. it's very unlikely that people from tribal areas would agree to sending their women to unisex schools or universities so instead of forcing them to pick from two very unlikely options, why not provide them with an option that works for them too? give them a women's only university and see how the number of students attending raises. DON'T MAKE THAT COMPULSORY FOR EVERYONE. provide them with the option and then parents who want their children studying together can send them to unisex universities and the rest can go to male or female only universities.
you are not going backwards with progress by providing male only or female only universities, you are going backwards when you make that rule compulsory for everyone.

i also think it's pretty trashy and vulgar to use terminology such as "thirsty" to explain the dilemma our youth is going through. as an individual who is offering an opinion with the intention of helping a problem, you have to approach it with compassion, not mockery. they are not like this because they enjoy being this way but because they were not given the opportunity or example to learn better from. these men have lost their childhood to wars, hard labour and poverty. you can't expect from them the sort of courtesy you expect from men in first world countries.

You generally speak very sound, but what you suggest seems like a gender based apartheid (one society for men, and another society for women) and that doesn't seem like progress in my mind...looks like one step forward, two steps back.

[DaZahroJaam.]

I can understand why the idea of a society that sections each gender separately would shock someone who has not been a part of it or heard of it before but it is a reality not only for Pashtuns but many other people of different cultures. In an ideal world, I would love for Afghanistan to be in a place where it's society can easily function by having both genders work together but in a practical world where people are not used to such an idea, forcing it on them is not going to make life easier for them or us. If I don't want to be forced in to a women's only system, who am I to force other women in to a mixed society?? It's abouT making it work, not forcing your way on others so why can't we give them what they want so we can have what we want?? They want to live that way and not mix with men, they should be able to have that. Year is their right.