What the Surge Means for Women

Women’s advocates hope that with the new law and support from Afghan leadership, they will be able to bring more resources to bear on behalf of domestic violence victims like Shukria, a soft-spoken young woman with high cheekbones and an ice-melting smile. She says she is 20, but she looks even younger. At 13, Shukria’s family forced her to leave school and marry an older cousin, who began abusing her a day into their marriage. She was tortured by electrocution and endured hours of beatings with metal sticks at the hands of her husband, who later tried to force her into prostitution and beat her when she refused to go along with his plan. Her own pleas for permission to work outside the home—to support her children and her husband’s gambling and drinking habits—went unheeded. Instead, she spent years attempting to escape the marriage, only to be returned to her husband each time.

Finally, when even her brothers-in-law said they could no longer help her fend off her husband’s attacks, she at last fled for good, seeking help from the country’s Human Rights Commission. The commission referred Shukria and her two small children to the shelter where she now is finding the first bit of peace she has had in years, and pursuing a divorce. It is impossible to know how long the process will take, particularly if her husband refuses her request.

While she waits for her case to be settled, Shukria sits with her roommates at the shelter and thinks about her future.

“I will kill myself before I go back to my husband,” she says in a tone that leaves little room to doubt her. Then her face softens.

“My hope is for my children. I want them to have a good life.”

Get Involved: Women for Afghan Women has served over 900 female survivors of human rights violations at its Family Guidance Center in Kabul. Last month the group opened a Children's Support Center to house 40 kids who would otherwise live in prison with their mothers.

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Gayle Tzemach Lemmon covered presidential politics as a producer at ABC News in Washington. Since 2005, she has been reporting on women entrepreneurs starting businesses in post-conflict economies such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Rwanda. She is working on a book scheduled for 2010 publication by HarperCollins about a young Afghan entrepreneur whose business supported her family and community during the Taliban years.

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