Fourteenth of June is the day that is celebrated for the appreciation of the immense work of the Mothers. One of the roles of being a woman is being a mother, who, along with other things, is coming out of this heavy responsibility. Mothers in the modern world, despite their ease, are still suffering from a series of problems, no matter what kind of facilities they are provided. But in developing countries and the third world countries, Mothers have fewer opportunities than developed countries. In the analysis of this week, we discuss the challenges of mothers in Afghanistan relative to the facilities of Western mothers and especially the European ones.
Challenges faced by Afghan women:
- No access to health services: Afghan mothers who are in provinces, northern Afghanistan, do not have access to health services. Due to the lack of clinics, hospitals and doctors, sometimes mothers die at the time of delivery or suffer from various illnesses. The reason for the lack of health services in the villages is the lack of security in these areas. This has led to an increase in maternal mortality. While In European and American countries, pregnant women have special maternity benefits for pregnant women. And in Australia and some European countries, the average birth cost of a child is $ 5312. And the child mortality rate remains low, In Finland and Spain out of 15100 children one die.
- Educational services \ Education: Lack of access to schools and universities in remote areas of the country has led to a low level of literacy or illiteracy. This is directly related to lack of access to employment and financial resources, which is one of the big problems of women. Due to the custom and religion of Islam, most women don’t continue to study because of the co-education, and this is one of the factors leading to a low level of literacy in Afghanistan. In the European countries for mothers who wish to continue their education then the fees will be free to them. That’s the ease for the subscribers in the program called exchange program. Or certain companies in support women and their education and after completing their courses, these companies will be providing jobs.
- The weakness of government support: War and insecurity in Afghanistan have made the lives of most Afghan families and mothers are responsible of family. However, Ministry of women Affairs says the government has no mechanism to support these women. The ministry’s only thing is that the women and mothers who are interested in training, they will be introducing to the local authorities in this field. The government will consider the reform program, if it is considered to be, specific to the big cities, while the plans for mothers who are illiterate and most of the Afghan women’s populations are not used in terms of their abilities and talents. In European countries for women to progress in their specialized field of gender equality at the highest level as their political agenda, and the role of women in their professional lives as they progress in their mother. Women in some European countries are the largest labor force, therefore, more mothers have benefited from their extensive child protection system in order to return to their careers while the child is too busy. The system is intended by the governments of these countries are considered easy for the mother and using the force of your economy to circulate them. Governments support such systems for the well-being of the people. Government for the welfare of mother’s legislation provides for the protection of mothers and children. Mothers, besides being supported by the government, are sponsored by international organizations NGO They are also supported. And they propose legislation to make it easier for mothers to come to parliament in these countries. Lonely mothers who are in poverty and under poverty line, along with their efforts and government support policy, are educating their children. The government support policy includes: child protection, child support, minimum wage guarantees, equal access and high quality work, support for housing policy and social support.
- Employment problem: women in Afghanistan, due to their low education level and illiteracy, sometimes they may go for heavy work to find a piece of bread and in some cases even they may go for begging in streets, especially in European countries, for such mothers, the state considers a certain amount of money or takes more labor-intensive work so that both the mother cares for her job and her family responsibilities. A mother, who is working and also family pressures, is trying to make a variety of choices to balance her life. For mothers who give birth, they consider leave with pay. For example, in Norway, for a mother giving birth, she has 35 weeks paid leave or 45-weeks leave, with 80% pay.
- Social problems: Social issues and miss-behavior against the women and mothers who’s caretaker of their family, as their husbands for some reason lost or been separated from them is another challenge. Cruelty and violence against mothers are another form of pressure, which sometimes lead to divorce or escape from home and sometimes lead to suicide. The divorce phenomenon in Afghanistan is seen in different ways, and a woman who is divorced often does not marry. While in the West, it is a simple issue for women who separate from their husbands and take care of their families, and if they see violence from one of their family members, they will refer to the judicial authorities, so the Judicial Authorities will look after such issues and they do have support of the community.
Recommendations
In order to improve the status of women, especially mothers, it is necessary for the government and people of Afghanistan to pay close attention to the following issues:
- Establish a legal support mechanism.
- The government should consider economic support for mothers.
- The government should conduct literacy courses and various professions.
- Entrepreneurship for mothers.
- The government should provide security to provide other facilities such as health services and educational services to remote areas.
- Motivation of private investment in this sector to pave the way for women’s self-sufficiency.
- Creating ease of access for women to justice and judicial institutions.
- Struggle with custom and the unpleasant traditions.
- Culture of Impunity.
- The government needs to establish Universities for women in the following fields: Psychology, Medicine, Education, Science and Social Sciences … that can be in the form of public or private Universities, The government need to have at least such universities in the big cities to resolve the problem.