Afghan women's campaign to the right to use their own name

[ErrolTheDragon]

DH sent me this link. Women in Afghanistan are rendered essentially nameless.

WhereIsMyName: Afghan women campaign for the right to reveal their name www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-53436335

This story has broken my heart. When I hear people say that we no longer need to fight for the rights of women, I get so angry. We must never stop.

I messaged Chadari to ask about support & they said it needed to be via MoneyGram or Western Union, so I’m setting that up with them.

I’d way rather support groups of women directly than trust the big charities, especially the ones who can’t even define women.

Brilliant, Empress.

Brilliant, Empress

Cheers Scrimpshaw. And Errol, thanks for sharing this!

@stillathing

Oh look the BBC knows what a woman is when she's not from a western culture.

I'd like to be able to support this campaign too.

Where are all the men deciding to identify into a life of abuse & erasure as an Afghan woman? 🧐

It's truly horrifying what Afghanistan has become since the 1970s. I'm sure this type of making women invisible was an inspiration for the naming of women in The Handmaid's Tale.

It's true though that most countries have had lesser forms of this in recent history and countries like Afghanistan and Iran are why we always have to be vigilant about female erasure.

I would like to support these women in some small way if I can.

I agree with a PP that I would rather give asylum to 100 Afghan women to live in the UK than 1 Afghan man with the hateful attitudes their culture seems to have towards women.

It's something I have huge reservations about. Are some cultures fundamentally incompatible with ours?

Bloody hell this is appalling. Those women don’t exist as entities in their own right, merely as an extension of a man.

Where did this come from? Is it religious or cultural? I’ve not heard of it in other countries.

This is why I get the rage with the Christmas cards threads

“dear mrs husband’s firstname husband’s secondname”

NO

NAY

NEVER

It stems from women as property and facets of it exist all over the place although this is really extreme.

My guess would be that a name is too intimidate for a strange man to know.

Horrible
People in our own right, how dehumanising to not even have the right to be referred to by your name

In the early nineties, newly married, I tried adding my brand-new husband to my credit card (American Express). The card came back with him as the cardholder and me as the dependent!

At that time I earned more than he did and had the better credit record.

So yes, the prioritizing of male identities and the view of women as dependents is not uncommon everywhere, but not being able to be named (or photographed in some cultures) is the most extreme form of erasure.

Thanks for setting that payment system up, EmpressJKRowlingSpartacus

When I say ‘setting it up’ I mean Chadari emailed me their details so I can make a payment - I’m not doing anything more helpful than that! They got back to me very quickly though.

@rosy71

I didn't know that before. How shocking.

Me neither. I'm horrified.

Radio 4 had a programme a year or so ago about this but fairly sure they were talking about parts of Egypt

The thing that is really troubling is that women's rights do often get rolled back. Pics of women in Iran before the cultural Revolution Vs after as an example.

As a side issue, pictures of women p[re and post the revolution are, to me, exactly the same. Women forced to dress a certain way because a man dictated it.

How so you think the grannies of Tehran felt when their hijab was forcibly removed in the street?

I'm not for one minute suggesting Iran is a wonderful place to be a woman, but it is more complex than clothing, those 'modern' clothes you see on women in the 1950s-1979 are worn by women with a literacy rate of 30%, before 1963 they are worn by women who cannot vote.

When something is not named, it is difficult to protect.

Yes I saw something of this ilk a while ago but it was about how boys in Egypt wouldn't say their mother's name in public because it was embarrassing or something. Egypt also has some of the world's highest FGM rates, why we consider some of these places holiday destinations I don't know.

Its surprisingly common, even in the UK I have experienced it, at a friends married the vicar referred to them as Mr and Mrs Mans first name Mans surname.

I’m from Baltistan and I’m a Gilgit, we’re technically administered by Pakistan. Where I’m from a mans name isn’t worth more than a womans and if a woman has a higher status then her husband and children all take her name so they inherit her status. In other areas of Pakistan it is very similar to Afghanistan but women are named on official documents. It also varies by religion.

There are a lot of Afghani refugees in Western Pakistan, due to Pakistan licking Afghanistans arse their essentially invisible, they’re not included on the census etc.

A major issue is that because women don’t officially exist once they enter a country they are basically trapped there as they do not have documentation unless they are owned by a very wealthy family on their husbands side.

So there is a big issue with men dumping their wives in Pakistan and then going back to Afghan so they don’t have to support them anymore, its particularly common if she hasn’t produced sons or if she becomes ill.

Amd yet the woman shown in the photo at the end of this article runs a think tank in Afghanistan... are there big cultural differences in different parts of the country?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-53450688

I saw this and I wish them luck!

There are interesting videos on YouTube about women in Afghanistan pre revolution, interesting and relatively recent too. Depressing when compared to their situation now.

Not the same at all, but personally I hate (talking of names) a letter to myself addressed to Mrs (husband’s first name) surname. It makes me so cross and I always tell him there is a letter for him. My late mum always did this and it drove me mad!

(Please note, I am not for a moment suggesting that the original story isn’t true. Just in case it came across that way. I appreciate there can be big differences between individual situations...and also that some „empowerment“ can be nothing more than an illusion)

I didn't think you were @fascinated. It is curious. I think prominent people have a habit of mysteriously disappearing don't they? If that's the right place i'm thinking of.

That article makes it clear that the drugs trade is completely dominating the country, or at least that area of the country. Very much a failed state for so many reasons.

Where are all the men deciding to identify into a life of abuse & erasure as an Afghan woman?

A good point! I have maintained for a while that the reason why the trans movement has emerged as this point in history in the Western world is precisely because a man identifying as a woman would not instantly lose the right to vote, buy property, pursue certain careers etc etc. The continued disadvantages are biologically based and a TW doesn't have to suffer those.