Stefanie Hopkins

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Afghanistan

• Stefanie Hopkins
• April 23, 2003

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Country Overview

• Background
• Leaders met in Germany to make up a new
  government which made Harmid Karzai the Chariman
  of the Afghan Interim on December 22, 2001. In
  June, 2002 Karzai became the president of
  Afghanistan. The Transitional Authority has an
  18-month mandate to hold a nationwide assemebly
  to adopt a constitution and a 24-month mandate to
  hold nationwide elections. In December 2002, the
  TISA marked the one-year anniversary of the fall
  of the Taliban
• Population
• 27,755,775
• Population Growth 3.43
• Slightly Smaller than Texas

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Government

• Transitional Government
• the Bonn Agreement calls for a judicial
  commission to rebuild the justice system in
  accordance with Islamic principles, international
  standards, the rule of law, and Afghan legal
  traditions
• Executive Branch
• chief of state head of government Chairman of
  the AIA, Hamid Karzai cabinet the 30-member AIA
  no elections
• Legislative Branch
• Non functioning since 1993
• Judicial Branch
• Currently establishing a Supreme Court

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Language and Religion

• Languages
• Pashtu 35
• Afghan Persian (Dari) 50
• Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen)
  11,
• 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai)
  4, much bilingualism

• Religions
• Sunni Muslim 84
• Shi'a Muslim 15
• other 1

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Statistics

• Life Expectancy
• total population 46.6 years female 45.85 years
  (2002 est.) male 47.32 years
• Birth Rate
• 41.03 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
• Death Rate
• 17.43 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
• Literacy
• male 51 female 21 (1999 est.) total
  population 36

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Economy
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Economy cont.
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Culture

• Kinship is the basis of social life and
  determines the patriarchal character of the
  community.
• Religion plays a very important role.
• In architecture, the traditional Timurid
  techniques are preserved, particularly in the
  design of the exterior walls of mosques or tombs.
  Handicrafts include the world-renowned Afghan
  carpets and copper utensils.
• Afghans celebrate their religious or national
  feast days, and particularly weddings, by public
  dancing. The performance of the attan dance in
  the open air has long been a feature of Afghan
  life. It is the national dance of the Pashtuns
  and now of the nation. Theatre as known in the
  West has flourished only since about 1960.

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Women of Afghanistan

• Role
• Poverty and the lack of freedom of movement
  pushes women into prostitution, involuntary
  exile, forced marriages, and the selling and
  trafficking of their daughters. Slowly this
  should change with the transition of the
  government and Hamid as the new president.
• Education
• Because of the Taliban, education for women was
  put on hold, but since the fall of the Taliban
  and Hamid as the new president of Afghanistan,
  women all over the country have signed up to be
  enrolled in school. There was an outstanding
  response to the reopening of the University of
  Kabul to women that they had to extend their exam
  times.

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Women and Afghanistan cont

• Treatment
• Such restrictions, since they were first imposed
  in Taliban controlled areas, have been enforced
  through cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments
  and ill-treatment. One of the persistent policies
  of the Taliban has been to "punish" women for
  defying their edicts.
• In December 1996, Taliban-controlled Radio Voice
  of Shari'a announced that a group of 225 women
  had been rounded up and punished in Kabul for
  violating Taliban rules on clothing. Women also
  continue to be subjected to stoning to death.
• In March 1997, a woman was reportedly stoned to
  death in Laghman Province in eastern Afghanistan.
  According to Radio Voice of Shari'a, the woman
  who was married had been caught attempting to
  flee the district with another man. An Islamic
  tribunal reportedly found her guilty of adultery
  for which the punishment was death by stoning.
• Religion
• The Quran often states scriptures of equality
  between men and women, but when the Taliban was a
  part of the government system women were
  oppressed in every way such as education, the
  work force, and clothing.

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THE END