To: SilentZ who wrote (205770 ) 10/8/2004 2:59:22 PM From: tejek Read Replies (2) | Respond to Women in Afganistan are better off than they were under the Taliban. However, women in Iraq are probably not better off than they were under Saddam. Free vote just illusion for millions of Afghans "My husband and his family, they say I cannot vote," the 24-year old mother of three said in her native Afghan Dari tongue. "All I am allowed to do is work at home, cooking and cleaning for my children and my husband, who when he does not like me, he beats me with a stick." Even though U.S.-led forces toppled the oppressive Taliban regime almost three years ago, millions of Afghan women like Farida still face conservative social and cultural barriers. Some are forced into marriages to men two or three times their own age, they are jailed for running away from abusive homes, courts almost always give fathers custody rights in rare divorce cases and young girls are exchanged to settle feuds. Several times, he has said that almost 42 per cent of Afghan women have registered to vote in tomorrow's presidential election. states a Human Rights Watch report. Some Afghans sold their voting cards to political factions aiming to rig the vote; others believed their cards would entitle them to money, prescription drugs or food rations. thestar.com
