This Courageous One-Woman Protest Challenged Gender-Based Violence in Afghanistan

This Courageous One-Woman Protest Challenged Gender-Based Violence in Afghanistan


Since the beginning of 2015, an impressive and growing number of women have braved the streets of Turkey and Egypt protesting sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women. Before the end of February, Turkish men endorsed and joined the mobilizations marching in miniskirts in Istanbul and posting photos of themselves in skirts on social media.



As in these and many other countries, sexual harassment and assault, rape, and domestic violence are omnipresent in Afghanistan. Violence against women here has increased 25% and the country’s first Elimination of Violence Against Women law (2012) is rarely applied with police turning their backs on victims. This culture of violence and its normalization is deeper and more widespread in Afghanistan due to tribal norms, the ideology of religious extremists like the Taliban, and other patriarchic mindsets that result in 60-80% of marriages being forced and/or underage and other atrocities such as arsons and bombings against girl schools, poison and acid attacks against girl students, and the traditional increase victimization of women and girls due to conflict.

Against this backdrop, and the high probability of being harassed on the streets for no other reason than gender, a young Afghan woman artist, Kubra Khademi, designed and wore an exaggerated breast and buttock armor in a crowded street of Kabul to condemn violence against women.

Whether male or female, the reactions of passersby were predominately negative and echoed those expressed in a flurry of Twitter and Facebook posts. Kubra was mocked. Condemned. Called a whore. Threatened. Some even demanded she be slapped in the face. Her protest was seen as offensive to women and to Afghanistan. As a stunt to promote western culture. Her outfit was sexualized and viewed as something she dawned only to draw attention to her body parts. Not surprisingly, Kubra and a few of the women accompanying her were touched.

The media’s response was to sensationalize the street scene. Most only shared social media photos with a caption or scant article portraying Kubra as a nameless woman wearing a controversial costume in protest against sexual harassment.

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http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/03/05/this-courageous-one-woman-protest-challenged-gender-based-violence-in-afghanistan/