Anthropologists need to work with the people of Afghanistan to understand the complete upheaval of their traditional values causing such distress with their people. So much for nation building.
I would suggest Afghan anthropologists if there is such a thing, but, probably better a European group if no one else is available. This is an emergency in Afghanistan and it needs to be addressed. It won't disappear by itself.
This is a national emergency, the people have been demoralized at a level to profound for even parents and family can realize and it is becoming endemic through at the very least young females.
In this undated file photo, Malala Yousufzai, the 15-year-old girl who was shot at close range in the head by a Taliban gunman in Pakistan, reads a book as she continues her recovery at the hospital in a Britain hospital. (Queen Elizabeth Hospital/AP/File)
The families are unaware of any 'early warning signs' and there are no significant hospital facilities to stop these women from causing their own deaths. This is somewhat generational. The families, the parents, are applying their traditional values to a changing social paradigm with their young women. It is a form of oppression they are not willingly accepting. I am sure their romantic relationships are source of comfort in a war torn nation. This is not a minor problem and I am sure it is palpable daily among the citizens.
This is not a Taliban problem, this is a clash of cultures based in Western Freedom. NATO is being a focus of anger for many reasons and I betcha the Green-on-Blue attacks are somewhat based in what is occurring in the communities of the country.
The changes in the Afghan society is going to be felt by the young first. They are being educated with goals to improve the brain trust so the country can stand on it's own in regard to prosperity and a movement out of poverty. The young people are seeking a higher form of status as well. They are being empowered by freedom and choice but not by cultural norms. It is a common problem called "The Generation Gap," but when new freedoms for women in a country that has influence to continue the Burka there is going to be dire consequences.
President Karzai needs to rise to the occasion, stop worrying about his negotiations with the Taliban and tell his people how proud he is of their advancement into the modern era. The young people are seeking new venues of freedom for themselves and it won't happen in a sterile environment void of sexual expression either. It is human nature and not a matter of sexual oppression while the world changes otherwise. It never happens that way.
Sexually modest clothes and behaviors are socially okay in a country laden with sexual expression. It is THE FASHION of the new Afghanistan. Being an 'attractive girl' is something the young women and men need to learn in a way that promotes the freedom they are looking for. Afghanistan has a real opportunity here, but, it needs to do it right.
An example of this is Saudi Arabia. That country has moved forward in a way that has provided education for women and their own sense of social control. Saudi Arabia has been very successful with The Generation Gap. The problem here of course is that CONSERVATIVES such as The Taliban threaten lives with guns and otherwise. I can't say that was not a problem in Saudi Arabia at one time. Today, Saudi women are even driving cars.
Saudi Arabia has anthropologists. There may be an acceptance of such specialists through The Red Crescent Society. This is war zone, the work will be difficult, complicated and grueling and gruesome but it needs to be done. We are talking about loss of populous and could effect minimally a loss of an entire generation of children.
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan: On the surface, (click here) the Gul sisters seemed to have it all: They were young, beautiful, educated and well off, testing the bounds of conservative Afghan traditions with fitted jeans, makeup and mobile phones.
But Nabila Gul, 17, a bright and spunky high school student, pushed it too far. She fell in love.
Her older sister, Fareba, 25, alarmed at the potential shame and consequences of Nabila's pursuit of a young man outside of family channels, tried to intervene. Their argument that November day ended in grief: side by side coffins, both girls dead within hours of each other after consuming rat poison stolen from their father's grain closet.
Interviews with family members and government and hospital officials here reveal a tragedy of miscalculation: Under pressure from her older sister to halt communication with the boy, Nabila tried to eat just enough poison to scare her family but not kill herself. But she misjudged. Overwhelmed by guilt and grief, Fareba followed by taking her own life on the doorstep of the city's most holy shrine.
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The sisters' deaths shattered their family and have struck a chilling chord for the residents of Mazar-i-Sharif, a city increasingly marked by the despair of its young women. For many, the deaths have come to symbolise a larger crisis: an intensifying wave of suicide attempts....
Although the government says it does not collect data on these cases, the city's main hospital says it has been overwhelmed, with three or four such patients coming in every day, up from about one or two a month a decade ago....
