Afghanistan Gender Roles

Afghanistan has a population of 34.66 million, with a birth rate of 4.65 births per woman. Throughout the years the country suffered through a civil war which has resulted in prolonging many developments to occur within the country. As a result of the Taliban and their power, including the devastating effects on the country, there have been many negative and lasting effects such as the literacy rates between men and woman. During the Taliban takeover, woman’s rights were seen as insignificant, therefore, access to education for women was very difficult to obtain since it was forbidden. This was powered by the Taliban’s belief of gender roles and the ideology that the duty of a woman was to stay home and take care of their family. Although,

As stated before, Afghanistan has a very high birth rate and there are many reasons that power this. For instance, many poor families in Afghanistan will choose to have more children in order to have additional family members to assist in providing for the family. However, this adds to the overall poverious state of the country since these children will follow in their parent’s footsteps and get dragged into the vicious cycle of poverty. Not only that, but there are growing families in Afghanistan since boys are prefered and are seen as more valuable. Therefore, families are having more children in order to make up for the ratio of girls that might’ve been born into the family. This is because boys are seen as an economic/financial asset since they can provide for their parents when older. However, girls are only seen as a liability since it is expected that they will get married and provide for their own

Having more knowledge on the issue will allow them to make better choices that will be most beneficial towards themselves and their families. Since it was noted that, “More than 50 women die every day from complications in pregnancy and childbirth, mostly linked to limited knowledge of maternal health issues and lack of obstetric care facilities close the community”. (Issues facing children and women in Afghanistan)

Therefore, the main projected efforts to fix this issue is based around educating others on birth control and family planning services. Organizations such as the World Health Organization are educating women in Afghanistan about contraceptives and making it accessible. More specifically the World Health Organization has a program called The REACH Project which is providing family planning services in rural parts of