From the New York Times there is an article titled "The 15 Women Awaiting Justice in Kabul Prison." The prison cell where fifteen women are currently living was explained as tiny with only blankets, no light, and blocked by a wooden gate and a guard. Most are here for having married a second time (violation of Islamic and Afghan laws for women, but not for men of course) Muzghan, nineteen years old sits in a cell for two months now because she ran away from a marriage arranged by her parents. She escaped with the boy she loved. Her father tracked them down and brought her back to Kabul and imprisoned. She was also accused of stealing jewelry from her soon to be husband's house and money from her father with no proof what so ever. All because of the fact those men said she did. Another story of a women imprisoned is Siamoo who is twenty-five. She said her husband divorced her five years ago before a room full of witnesses and left her with two small children. But when she remarried and became pregnant he had her jailed saying he had never given her a formal document of divorce. She has given birth to her baby in prison and says her former husbands just motivated by jealousy and greed. The court sentenced her for ten years in prison. .
The article seems to think that women are imprisoned as much for their own protection as anything else. The crimes are usually involved with men, and women create dangerous rivalries between them. When two men insist a woman is their wife hostility grows and the women are in danger. "We found the pieces of the body of one of the women in the street because something was not solved," a prison matron said. So putting women in prison keeps them away from trouble is what the article was stating. .
While reading "The 15 Women Awaiting Justice in Kabul Prison" so many thoughts and reactions ran through my head. First of all I was stunned to see what the prison rooms looked like.