Struggle For Equality in Afghanistan: Women Treated as Second-Class Citizens

Millions of women throughout the world live in conditions of abject deprivation of, and attacks against, their fundamental human rights for no other reason than that they are women.

According to CNN, 19-year-old Bibi Kuku was forced to marry, therefore, she set herself on "fire in an extreme act of self-harm."

Although the sucide rates, and killings of women have rised, "strides have been made for women's rights in the post-Taliban era, many women are still made to feel like second-class citizens."

Women in Afghanistan are treated like incomplete humans, they do not have the right to go to the doctor or the other rights, to get education. ""Men think that they have the right to kill their wives because they think that when they get married, their wives, or maybe their daughters, [become] their private property and ... you can do anything -- you can throw them away, you can demolish them." Moreover, the article states the simple fact that "the culture allows Afghan men to go even further"

So, at present, women throughout the region are second-class citizens, being denied their full legal identities by being excluded from the rights, privileges, and security that all citizens of any country should enjoy. Should there be a law designed to protect women beyond their role in the family? Should women have the right and freedom to marriage? Or is this the beauty of the Arab culture that should be embraced and preserved?