CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Hajran, Nargis |
|---|---|
| Title | A Study of the Social, Legal, and Religious Complexities of Women???s Protection Centers in Afghanistan |
| Summary | Despite almost two decades since the establishment of the first Women’s Protection Center (WPC) in Afghanistan, the prevention of domestic violence (DV) and the existence of these centers as sites for women’s protection are still meet with widespread opposition by various sectors of Afghan society, including government officials, religious scholars, and the Afghan people in general. Since 2011, the Afghan government has repeatedly sought to take control of the WPCs, which are currently run independently by local non-government organizations (NGOs). However, this plan was met with strong resistance from Afghan women’s and human rights organizations and their international counterparts, who viewed these actions as part of the government’s systematic attempts to close the centers down. Most literature on WPCs has thus far concentrated on the Afghan government’s attempts to take over authority of the centers and the expected consequences. Fewer studies have provided a thorough analysis of why such attempts by the Afghan government were initiated in the first place and the broader context in which these attempts took place. This thesis seeks to address this gap by examining the social, legal, and religious complexities of WPCs in Afghanistan from the perspectives of Afghan women’s human rights activists, who have campaigned for the recognition of violence against women and the existence of WPCs. It does so by engaging with literature on women’s human rights, the social and religious construction of gender, and international and national legal frameworks that establish the context for WPCs as a response to DV in Afghanistan. Drawing upon interviews with eight Afghan women’s rights activists, I argue that opposition to WPCs is directly linked to conceptualizations of DV and how it should be addressed. While WPCs were established as a response to a chronic social problem (DV), the problem itself is not defined as such within Afghan society. In the thesis, I illustrate that the term “domestic violence against women” as ) خش& #x648;ن&# x62a; خا& #x646;گ&# x6cc; علیه زنان/ خش& #x648;ن&# x62a; خا& #x646;و&# x627;د&#x 6af;ی علیه زنان Khanagi Khoshonat/Khanavadegi khoshonat) a form of gender-based violence was first introduced to the post war society of Afghanistan in 2003 within a strong international climate, which can partly explain the complexities surrounding its interpretation and the mechanisms to address it. I argue that while WPCs provide critical services that have saved the lives of many Afghan women, they do not operate as independent centers that are simply embraced by Afghan society. Rather, they are complex institutions that are deeply embedded within international discourses on women’s protection and the prevention of violence against women. The Afghan government has international and national obligations to protect women’s human iii rights, yet there are significant challenges in terms of implementing laws in practice. In addition, there is ongoing opposition to the existence of WPCs that can only be understood by deconstructing the interconnected relationship between patriarchy, gender, and religion in Afghanistan. |
| Supervisor | Loney, Hannah |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/hajran_nargis.pdf |
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