Pam Y. Fields

I recently attended the Othering and Belonging Conference that was held in Berlin, Germany. One of the panels informed on Gender Justice. During the audience questions, a young lady from Afghanistan asked why no one was helping the Afghan women. My heart immediately felt for these women who are so oppressed and restricted in their country.

I woke up the next night with the following thoughts:

I would first suggest for Afghan men to do a fresh reading of the Quran to determine how much of the treatment of women today actually matches with the Quran. I have not read the Quran, but I have read the Bible and I know that some things that have been set up as the Christian thing to do, does not line up with the Bible.

Next, consider if your young women and girls are leaving the country and culture, that all you will be left with are women too old to produce children. The question to ask is do you want to make changes so that women and girls will stay, and your country and culture will survive. If not, you will be responsible for the annihilation of your culture and people.

The choice is yours. People are starting and will continue to help Afghan women and girls. They will continue to leave unless things change.