Thanksgiving a day of refection on our rich blessings within our families and that we have in this country. We have much to be thankful for living in the US. At a recent visit to the George W. Bush library I was caught up with the display of how women were treated in Afghanistan and in many of the other Muslim dominated cultures in our world. Here’s what I learned that day:
Before the Taliban in 1977, women comprised over 15% of Afghanistan’s highest legislative positions. By the early 1990’s women comprised 70% of the school teaching positions.
Women made up 50% of the government workers, and 40% of the doctors in Kabul were once women. Then came the Taliban….one of the worlds most brutal regimes.
Here’s a few of the Taliban facts, rules and their agenda for women. I am sure ISIS is not too far off from these as well.
Forbid the schooling for girls over the age of eight.
Shut down the women’s university.
Ban women from working (stripping society of trained female professionals).
Restrict access to women for medical care.
Brutally enforce a dress code
Forbid women from moving about in their communities freely.
Beat women for laughing out loud.
And… as a result of the Taliban:
One in four Afghan children have never made it to their fifth birthday.
Afghanistan ranks number one globally in infant mortality.
One in three Afghan children is an orphan today.
Almost 1/2 of all Afghan children suffer from malnutrition.
50,000 women have lost their husbands or other male relatives to war.
Forbidden to work, they have to sell their possessions to survive.
Pray for the women globally who are suffering. Pray for those who have put themselves in harm’s way to assist, care, and rescue those who are suffering.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 ESV “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”
