Check out my article for the Washington Postabout Afghan women braving harassment and family disprovable to drive:
“Seventeen-year-old Zainab Zawol Shahidy >was driving her Toyota 4Runner home from school in Kabul recently when she noticed two men in a vehicle following her. “One of them pointed a gun at me and threatened me to drive along in their direction, but I refused and kept driving faster to reach home as soon as I could,” she said.
She was forced to pull over when they blocked her. One of the men threw a slip of paper at her with his phone number and said if she didn’t call him, he would kidnap her. She made it home and called security. Thankfully she has not seen these men since.
Although there are a growing numbers of women drivers in Kabul, the sight of Shahidy behind the wheel is still unusual. Everywhere she goes, she gets curious stares and frequent harassment, ranging from people making fun of her for driving to threats. “I can’t drive to places too distant from where I live due to the risk of kidnapping,” she told me through the translation of her brother, Ali Shahidy, a psychology major at Norwich University in Vermont.
Despite the risk and danger, Shahidy says she loves to drive. Besides, she said, she faces more harassment when she walks or takes public transportation.”
Related, from Human Rights Watch:
“Afghanistan’s new government should take urgent steps to combat sexual harassment of women in education, employment, and public life, Human Rights Watch said today. There are no laws in Afghanistan that specifically prohibit sexual harassment or protect victims.
Government institutions lack effective policies to prevent and punish sexual harassment, Human Rights Watch said. On October 5, 2014, President Ashraf Ghani described levels of sexual harassment in schools as “shocking.” He ordered the Ministry of Education to report every incident of sexual harassment in schools to enable action against harassers, and directed relevant ministries to develop a plan to counter sexual harassment in educational institutions.
“President Ghani’s recognition of sexual harassment in Afghanistan as ‘shocking’ is spot-on,” said Heather Barr, senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Afghan government should promptly enact a law against sexual harassment and ensure that every government institution develops and implements an anti-sexual harassment policy.”
