Re: Compared to Afghan girls, Pakistani girls have it easy
So the best you could come up with was this?
MY POINT:
** Pakistan is one of the worst among the bigger nations when it comes to women abuse. **
Can you refute that? If yes, please do, I welcome a healthy discussion. If not, please accept it.
Re: Compared to Afghan girls, Pakistani girls have it easy
Female abuse is bad where ever it is. Doesn't matter if it is a big country or a small country, a muslim country or a non-muslim country. It should be stamped out period. While we endeavour to make such things a reality we must remain logical and level headed in our analysis of the situation. Is it bad in Pakistan? Yes. It is worse else where? Most definitely Yes. Can we do stuff to combat it? Yes.
Now you want to argue about it in big countries or small countries, by all means. But that was never my assertion.
Re: Compared to Afghan girls, Pakistani girls have it easy
Female abuse is bad where ever it is. Doesn't matter if it is a big country or a small country, a muslim country or a non-muslim country. It should be stamped out period. While we endeavour to make such things a reality we must remain logical and level headed in our analysis of the situation. Is it bad in Pakistan? Yes. It is worse else where? Most definitely Yes. Can we do stuff to combat it? Yes.
Now you want to argue about it in big countries or small countries, by all means. But that was never my assertion.
It seems we are in agreement on most points. Just different ways of looking at it.
Re: Compared to Afghan girls, Pakistani girls have it easy
At least the ones who live in Europe or America. I am not talking about the one who are on work visas here, but the ones who call this home. For one, and probably the biggest, they don't have to worry about forced marriages at the age of 14 to a man who will regularly abuse them. Since there is an educated diaspora in the West, they usually have to go back home to find a spouse, who is a psychotic misogynist.
Their parents are do allow co-ed education, hanging out with friends every now and then and interactions with others in a neutral setting, which doesn't lead to hidden boyfriends or online relationships with married guys pretending to be single. This of course leads to these girls being taken advantage of in their naive and vulnerable age and thus abused. Then, most Afghans do not believe in female education at all. So they are bored 20 somethings sitting at home with 3 or 4 kids, on Facebook all day, doing mostly nothing, not even following the 10 year plan at community college.
Seems like they have it easy compared to Afghan girls who have to worry about getting married at the age of 14 some Talib, strict parents who don't let them go out, limited selection of educated Afghan guys, feeling guilty for not acting religious, etc etc.
Summary: Quit your **ing. * can be a lot worse.
Ok the initial post seems a little incoherent and its hard to figure out when you're talking about Afghan women and when about Pakistani, but my understanding is the age 14 underage marriage issue applies to Afghans and the rest Pakistanis right?
I agree that Pakistani women are WAY better off than Afghan women when it comes to freedom and having a say in their marriage but the whole 'getting a 15-year old married to a 50 something Talib' is not the reason behind it.
The kind of perception you seem to have is something I hear about Afghanistan from Westerners out here as well . It goes something like this:
Afghan men.. beards... Osama...Taliban.. TERRORISTS!
Afghan women... shuttlecocks... OPPRESSED!
Oh and 'A Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' thrown in there somewhere.
I don't really blame you. You mentioned that you've lived there for about a year. I'm guessing you either work for the military or some Governmental Organization / company. You guys, I've heard, are pretty confined inside your headquarter buildings or bases and the only connection you probably have with any real Afghan is the guy who smuggles in your stash of chars now and then :P
You do make a really good point though; there are always people out there who are in a much worse situation than us. Afghan girls have a whole different set of issues to deal with. Pakistani's are a little more open when it comes to marrying their daughters off and some parents don't even mind initiating the Rishta process.When it comes to Afghans, forget about Pashtoons, even so-called 'liberal' Dari speakers are conservative when it comes to getting their daughters married off. Some of these girls don't even get asked.
Child marriages are still common but the ones with older guys not so much. There are rare ones now and then just like any other Muslim country but majority of these marriages happen in Pashtoon families where the girl normally gets married off to a cousin within the same age range, like you know those engaged-at-birth sort of marriages.
The whole abandoned community college plan doesn't apply to just Pakistanis though, I think it's widespread amongst Muslim women throughout. They take classes on the side while waiting for the 'perfect guy' to sweep them off their feet, marry them, provide for them, be good dads to their little rugrats and everyone lives happily ever after. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being that conventional 'housewife' but just telling you the reasoning behind it all.