Confucius/Afghan Wives
“Even the poorest families in Afghanistan have matches and cooking fuel. The combination usually sustains life. But it also can be the makings of a horrifying escape: from poverty, from forced marriages, from the abuse and despondency that can be the fate of Afghan women.”
“There is little chance for education, little choice about whom a woman marries, no choice at all about her role in her own house. Her primary job is to serve her husband’s family. Outside that world, she is an outcast.”
According to the Human Development Index, Afghanistan is the second least developed country in the world. Every half hour, an average of one woman dies from pregnancy-related complications, another dies of tuberculosis and 14 children die, largely from preventable causes.
Historically women were not treated fairly out there, also while in power in Afghanistan, the Taliban became notorious internationally for their treatment of women.
“Women were forced to wear the burqa in public, because, according to a Taliban spokesman, “the face of a woman is a source of corruption” for men not related to them. They were not allowed to work, they were not allowed to be educated after the age of eight, and until then were permitted only to study the Qur’an. Women seeking an education were forced to attend underground schools such as the Golden Needle Sewing School, where they and their teachers risked execution if caught. They were not allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperon, which led to illnesses remaining untreated. They faced public flogging execution for violations of the Taliban’s laws. The Taliban allowed and in some cases encouraged marriage for girls under the age of 16. Amnesty International reported that 80 percent of Afghan marriages were considered to be by force.”
Confucius said , “Analects 7:23: The Master said, Women and little people are hard to handle. If you let them get close, they presume, and if you keep them at a distance, they resent it.” That obviously shows his attitude toward women, although some scholars might doubt it. Pretty much women were created to serve men, and a man could divorce a wife on a ground of being to talkative. Although Confucius’s attitude toward women was not that impressive still it wasn’t that oppressive as he propagated very humanistic ideals.
