“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”, a hard realization of the life of Afghan women, written by Alissa J. Rubin of the New York Times. Rubin writes about the extremely stressful life of women in Afghanistan who Rubin says live as a form of “outcast” and “Women and girls are still stoned to death”.
Rubin visits a Hospital for burnt victims which is full of women who attempted to commit suicide and other who were being punish by their own family, one of the surgeons mentions ‘“We have two women here right now who were burned by their mothers-in-law and husbands”’. The stress and anguish the women suffer leads them to such desperation from feeling alone and captive in their society, something that can be seen as acceptable not only in life present day Afghan Women but in the women of “The Pillow Book”. In the book by Ban Zhao it gives the framework of what is expect from women of her family, stating that the women should put their family overall. In addition the husband is the one in control of her, Zhao says “[W]ives must be controlled and that the husband’s roles of conduct manifesting his authority must be established” (B,28) an oppressive role of the husband is allowed and expected. The Pillow Book also mentions the rules for proper behavior expect by a woman, which are, speech should be kept to minimum and her appearance is everything, two rules that belittle the women to less than a human.
The women of the article and the women of “The Pillow Book” are over 1000 years apart but there situations are very much alike, women who are expect to be less and treated even worse. This inequality leaves women feeling captive and alone also, has led women to commit suicide because of how there society treats them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/world/asia/08burn.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=For
