2. Please go to and listen: http://www.ted.com/talks/shabana_basij_rasikh_dare_to_educate_afghan_girls.html
Now go her school's website: http://www.sola-afghanistan.org/.
Now suppose you were invited to be a global social worker at her school and you are asked to use your social work practice skills to help those girls who seem to be struggling with learning or behavior there. Now imagine that your client is a 10 year old girl who is so extremely quiet and compliant that it is hard for her to speak up in class and even to write about her own opinions. Please write about how you would:
a) handle the problem that your girl client is from a very different culture than your own
b) evaluate what problems might be affecting the girl's learning and behavior (family, community, for instance) and how you might help her and her family.
Remember to cite your sources in terms of readings for our class about the impact of culture and family life on children's behavior.
c) how does this example represent a global issue in terms of women's equality, and how do the difficulties women have in being educated contribute to the problem of global poverty?
It is very important to be mindful of our client’s culture and recognize that culture plays a large role in shaping us. Additionally, as a global social worker, it is very important to be cognizant of our own culture. Furthermore, I believe it is important for global social workers to be aware and mindful of any biases or stereotypes we may have. I believe that being aware of our biases can help to minimize the impact these biases have on our work with clients. It would be very important to mention culture and education when working with this client. For example, in order to help meet the client where she is, it could be helpful to ask the client what it means to her, her family, and in her culture, to be attending school. Being respectful of culture and aware of the impact that it has on people can help global social workers work with individuals from cultures different from our own.
ReplyDeleteOne potential issue that may be affecting the client’s learning and behavior could inhibition, and how her family of origin views inhibition. Chen et al. (1998) notes that some cultures value inhibitive and passive behaviors while others value bold and outgoing behaviors. An additional area to explore could be what the client’s family and culture’s views are of individualism (Chen et al., 1998). For example, does the client’s family value and highly encourage individualism, or is collective and group/family oriented mentality more valued? It also could be useful to explore how the parents viewed socialization of children (Chen et al. 1998). For example, was socialization during young childhood primarily in the household with family, or was it out of the household with other children? It is important to note that this particular school setting could be the first time this client has had large amounts of exposure to people outside of her family or tightknit community. While these issues would need to be directly addressed with the student/family, the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA) website notes that many SOLA students come from uneducated families and must hide their ambitions (SOLA, 2013). Based on this knowledge, it would be important to explore if this student is the first to be educated in her family, first to live away from home, and how these concerns impact her, her school work, and her family. Exploring the above mentioned issues with the child and her family could be a helpful step to encourage the client to speak up more in class. The global social worker could hold a meeting, utilizing capacity building tactics, and work in collaboration with the family and client to discuss the issues in school. The social worker, family, and client, could work together to try and support the client to be successful in school while being mindful of the values that are important to her and her family.
The above example and Shabana Basij-Rasikh’s journey illustrates the ongoing struggle that many women face globally to achieve equality. As Ms. Basij-Rasikh explains in her speech, her father valued both education and his daughters, but this sentiment was not universally shared in Afghanistan. Additionally there are numerous safety concerns and barriers, from the government and culturally imbedded, to educated girls (Basij-Rasikh, 2012). Furthermore, many students at SOLA come from uneducated families and must hide their ambitions from the wider community (SOLA, 2013). This notion that women do not deserve, or should not become educated, is bound to make a lasting impression on the students, and would be difficult to overcome and strive for success.
The barriers women face to become educated has a significant impact on global poverty. As Seipel notes in “Global Poverty: No Longer an Untouchable Problem”, “one of the most important ways to fight poverty is to educate the poor, since education opens up a wide range of economic opportunities for people (Seipel, 2003, p. 203). It is very difficult for women to compete in the workforce market without access to education, which in turn perpetuates both inequality and global poverty. I believe that greater gender equality and equal access to education would greatly help alleviate the global poverty problem.
ReplyDeleteLacey, I really enjoyed reading your opinion. I think it is extremely important to meet client where she is; to ask the client what it (attending school) means to her, her family, and in her culture. I think it is important for us as social workers being respectful of culture and aware of the impact on people who are from different cultures from our. I agree with roles of social worker, which you have mentioned, when talking about girl’s problem. I think your idea of that is very difficult for women to compete in the workforce market without access to education, is rightly pointed out.
Deletea) Every social worker, who is working with different culture, should have knowledge about general traits of cultural groups. Social worker should look out at girl’s values, taboo topics, relationships with other people, physical and spiritual world, and structure of family, history, nonverbal aspects, and culture of communication. Social worker should understand that human needs arising from expectations of cultural groups. The understanding of culture groups recognizes the uniqueness of individual (Johnson, 2003).
ReplyDeleteb) According to Chen, Rubin, Cen, Hastings, Chen, Stewart (1998), individual differences in behavioral inhibition have been observed in many cultures, thereby suggesting that it may be a universal phenomenon. Nevertheless, human inhibitory behavioral systems operate within social and cultural contexts. Cultural imparts meanings to the behavior; determines how individuals, including parents and peers, perceive, evaluate, and react to the behavior; and eventually regulates and directs the developmental processes of the behavior. The girl’s learning and behavior might be also affecting by the community. People in this country can say that girls who are going to school are non-Muslims and warn them not to go there. Because of this girl can be so extremely quiet and compliant. The girl’s learning and behavior might be also affecting by the family. The most important thing is a parenting style. If mother is highly protective, tend to have inhibited children. This mother is extremely concerned for their children’s well-being and, to meet her goals of child protection, she restricts their children’s activities to the point at which the children do not enjoy adequate opportunities to develop comfort, confidence and skills in novel situations (Chen, Rubin, Cen, Hastings, Chen, Stewart, 1998).
For global social worker is very important to work with client’s ecosystem (micro, mezzo and macro). The school and the family are the most important things, which are responsible for child’s independence. When child is growing up in family, he is in socialization process. Children’ and parents’ relationships should be warm and build on the confidence and love. Social worker can organize for family the parenting skills program. When we are talking about the girl, it is also important to make work groups of children. Global social worker should educate children how to respect for others, how to trust others, how to take care for others, how to listen, hear others, how to request for a help and how to communicate at school and the family. The next important thing, what the global social worker might do is the collaboration with SOLA community. SOLA community should be included in problem solving. It means that social worker needs to develop the safe environment, need to work with SOLA’s teachers, volunteers and other staff. In macro level global social worker need to gather friends, family and colleagues from the entire world for talk about what can be done to raise awareness and support for educating Afghan girls (School of leadership Afghanistan, 2013). Social worker and SOLA community should participate in international conferences, meetings, for sending the news about School of leadership Afghanistan.
c) Shabana Basij-Rasikh speaks on International Day of the Girl, shows the big efforts when seeking equality. The family is not valuable in Afghanistan, if it does not contain at least one male offspring. As Ms. Basij-Rasikh experience shows, girls need to be boys, if they want to get education. This example shows the big isolation of woman in Afghanistan society. According to SOLA students’ speeches, some of them come from educated families and some of them come from not educated family. However, in all this students hopes, we can recognize believe in the equality of women. All of them had learned to be hopeful, to feel strong for being a woman instead of feeling sorry for them (SOLA, 2013).
ReplyDeleteGlobal poverty and women education are related. According to Seipel (2007), commitment to education must go hand-in-hand with poverty reduction efforts, because education remains one of the most effective ways to create wealth for individuals and society. In this way, poverty involves not only lack of income, but also broken spirit. Therefore, each country must not only create wealth, but must also organize a method of equitable distribution of that wealth to all citizens. The NASW code of ethics is instructive, for instance it mandates: ‘social workers should engages in social and political action that seeks to ensure that all people have equal access to resources, employment, services and opportunities they require to meet their basic human needs and to develop fully’ (NASW, 1996)(Seipel, 2007). I think that global social work efforts can help to reduce the inequality in Afghanistan.
Natalja, you mentioned many interesting and important points in your response. I agree completely with your first statement, as global social workers, we should seek to have general knowledge about the individual we are working with cultural group. I feel as though this cannot be stressed enough because as social workers, we are bound to interact and work with clients from cultures different from our own in our own country. As global social workers, our quest for knowledge, understanding, and cultural competence must be ongoing. Additionally, I believe that your idea to form a parenting skills program is a wonderful idea. This intervention could reach a larger group of people and teach sills which could positively impact families and communities. Parenting class as a form of capacity building could be a great way to work in collaboration with the parents and families (Healy, 2008) to help enhance parenting skills and in hope, promote education for girls. Finally, I agree with your idea to have social workers work with the other staff and volunteers at SOLA. Collaboration among different professions is key to success and can help foster a safe environment.
Deletea) handle the problem that your girl client is from a very different culture than your own (read as much as i can about the specificity of this culture, talk to this girl asking about her country, history, culture asking some things to explain, talk with high respect )
ReplyDeleteb) evaluate what problems might be affecting the girl's learning and behavior (family, community, for instance) and how you might help her and her family ( during the general talk about the culture in Afganistan i would ask bit by bit about how is in her family and community, asking more about her mother, father, brothers, sisters)
c) how does this example represent a global issue in terms of women's equality, and how do the difficulties women have in being educated contribute to the problem of global povety? ( it is typical example of the patriarchalic culture and women oppression and inequality. This school brings a bright light to the girls that are student there and in other similar schools a better life. Educated women will influence different culture, better ( can be not easier, but still more interesting ) future.
Not educated women have no chance to change their life, they fully depend on their husband‘s and family situation. It is good if husband is as bright as the father of this girls, but unfortunatelly most of them think that they own their wifes and they can do with them what they want.
Possibility for women to get education and qualification would influence a changes in Afganistan culture and hopefully would bring them back to the times when women had possibilities to study, work and participate in the countries economy, politics and culture.
As in the web page of the sofa school there was a brilliant cite : When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 or 40 percent for a man.( Chris Fortson, Yale News Daily, 2003) this a very true
I agree with you and I am of the same opinion, that in talking about the situation of women Ahganistane, you will have the opportunity to learn is very important because it is the first of every human desire and right. The world is an international document that announces the human and child rights, but unfortunately, that often these rights are limited. Science is more than a chance to earn more money, it is self-expression, self-realization and familiarity. Human knowledge - human strength and freedom in representing yourself, trust yourself. Lack of knowledge opens the door to manipulation and lies. I admire the Afghan women in their strong desire to learn, to achieve, belief, faith.
DeleteThere are so many things to consider when working with someone from a culture very different from you own. The reason for the problems in the first place may be very different from culture to culture. If I were working with a girl in this school I would want to educate myself to start with. It would be very important to learn the culture in which I am surrounded by. This would include everything from the history of the country to the village to the specific family. I would want to try to build up trust with this young girl I am working with. Although she is quiet, there is a good chance there is something that would spark her interests. I would want to learn about the girl’s family and learn about her culture through her. It would be very important to learn all that you can about her and try to relate to her. She clearly wants to gain an education, because she is facing many risks when she chooses to come to school every day. Sometimes what I would maybe see as a problem in my culture might not be a problem in her culture.
ReplyDeleteThere are many things that could be affecting this girls learning and behavior. Like the young women said in the video, the girls who choose to go to school face many serious risks, including danger or death to themselves or to their families. Evaluating the problems that may be affecting her reminded me of the article by Garbarino and Kostelny. This article is about how political violence affects the behavior problems of Palestinian children. This can be directly connected to the young women going to the school in Afghanistan. In the Garbarino and Kostelny article it was found that the number of risks present in the child’s life was significantly correlated with the number of behavioral problems exhibited by the child. It also found that the community context had a bigger affect on girls than boys. If this was applied to working with the young girl in the school it could help explain some of the problems affecting her. The Taliban make it extremely hard for the girls to feel safe and comfortable going to school. The communities are surrounded by war, which would have a profound impact on the children in those communities.
There are many countries and cultures around the world that look down on women and deny them the opportunity to get an education. In the United States it is pretty acceptable, normal even for women to pursue and education. This allows them not only knowledge you receive from an educational experience, but it gives you the opportunity for women to widen their future in terms of prospective jobs, and even further higher education. Around the globe women are not equal to men. We have come far, but something as important as education is something that has implications that add to global poverty. Uneducated women are also more likely to be unemployed or unable to earn a high enough way to support herself or a family. Without an education women can miss out on so many opportunities, monetary and otherwise. As someone who has always had an educational opportunity at my disposable, it is easy to take that for granted. I can see how much I struggle with supporting myself, and I have a high enough education to earn a decent salary. Without the education I do have I would be working a job that would most likely have me living in poverty. Which would not really seem to in itself add to global poverty, but imagine a community(s) or a whole country(ies) of women deprived of the opportunity to education. This has a much bigger effect on the problem of global poverty.
I really enjoyed reading your opinion to the question. It’s very nice that you look so seriously to the situation and I must agree that the culture differences are in the first place and we as social worker can’t ignore that. We don’t have any instruments like doctors or mechanics so because of that we ourselves are our own work tools. That means that we always need to be ready for learning process and observe new culture without prejudice. Your selected way to learn about new culture through the girl is very rational because discussion and talking is the best way to get understanding what real meanings gives other people.
DeleteFrom my point of view it’s completely necessary to support organizations which are fighting for women's rights. Our society is getting modern every day but there is still a lack of equality between women and men. Also talking about education I agree that there is interconnectivity with poverty. All of us must have opportunity to choose how we want to build our feature.
In order to begin working with this client, it is important to first acknowledge that I would be bringing my culture and values into my work with her, and that I must respect the differences between our collective cultures, values, and experiences. I would want to establish a therapeutic alliance with her and I would attempt to learn what she enjoys doing for fun in the hopes that I could incorporate some of her interests into our work together. I would also ask her to educate me on some aspects of her culture in order to gain an understanding of some of the reasons for the behaviors she is exhibiting.
ReplyDeleteI would also engage in research to understand what problems may be affecting the client’s behavior and learning. For instance, the political context of this client’s culture greatly impacts the treatment of women and girls due to restrictions on behaviors implemented by the Taliban from 1994 through 2001, such as prohibiting women from working outside of the home or being unaccompanied by a close male relative in public (Cardozo et al., 2005). In 1997, the Taliban enforced a policy that segregated men and women which resulted in limited access to healthcare for women, and very few mental health resources for women existed (Cardozo et al., 2005). Additionally, women who attend school are often persecuted and threatened (Cardozo et al., 2005). This client may have observed women and girls being treated in ways that resulted from these policies, and her family or her community may hold conservative views considering the Taliban’s harsh enforcement of gender discriminating policies. Considering the client’s compliance and quietness, it is possible she has internalized feelings that her role is to comply to instructions and to not express her opinions. Her family’s participation in working with this client may be beneficial since the fact she is attending school indicates her family is supportive of female education. Incorporating this client’s family support system may be the first step in helping her to recognize her value as a female student, and this may begin to empower her to express her opinions and recognize her own strengths.
This example demonstrates the issue of female education since women comprise two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population (Healy, 2008). In the Middle East, 57% of women are illiterate which indicates the disparity of educating women compared to education men (Healy, 2008). The feminization of poverty continues to be a growing global issue since women-headed households are more impoverished in all countries which is particularly problematic since this poverty affects both women and children (Healy, 2008). This issue is even more complex since studies show that higher education is crucial for women globally since these studies have found that higher-educated women are more likely to access prenatal healthcare and utilize preventative health measures than women who have only a primary-level education (Sen, Ostlin, & George, 2007). These studies demonstrate that higher education is imperative for improved health among women and children globally, and that primary-level education is insufficient in providing women with information and skills for accessing necessary services. A study of women in Zimbabwe found that education was one of the most prevalent factors in whether or not women accessed contraception and pre- and post-natal care (Noureen & Awan, 2011). Furthermore, a study of women in West Bengal found women who received secondary education reported higher self-esteem, better ability to handle domestic violence situations, and greater independence due to literacy and mathematical skills (Noureen & Awan, 2011). It is evident that access to higher education for women dramatically improves health and well-being for women and their children, but it is imperative to work towards eradicating gender discrimination and oppressive gender norms that prevent women from receiving education globally.
As global social workers it is imperative that we be receptive to the cultural differences of others and respect the traditions of those cultures without imposing our own beliefs on the clients that we serve. We also must be aware of the beliefs that we have that may affect our outlook on our own clients including biases and stereotyping. As a female social worker from the US, a country that has seen it’s own struggles for gender equality in the past, my own experiences cannot compare to those that women and girls face in Afghanistan a country where women’s rights are still heavily restricted. While working with a client from a culture that is vastly different from you own it is important to understand the cultural context and the effect that that has on attitudes and behaviors of those within that particular culture. As in all social work client interactions it is important to meet the client where they are at and not push them past their boundaries, and instead work toward a common understanding.
ReplyDeleteAs discussed the article by Chen et al., child rearing beliefs and practices are heavily influenced by ones culture. In order to understand a child’s behavior it is important to look at their background and how they were raised, in the case of a girl going to boarding school in Afghanistan it is important to recognize the factors that would have made her extremely silent and afraid to speak her mind. Coming from a westernized society where individualism and assertiveness are admirable qualities one must recognize that the opposite is true for many other countries in the world. In the case of some eastern societies, they may tend to value behavioral inhibition as well as self-restraint over assertiveness which can lead to differences in the way children are raised and the beliefs that they are brought up with (Chen, et al., 1998). It is also important to understand the significance of growing up in a country that was under Taliban rule for many years, which gave women virtually no rights as citizens including the right to an education.
As Shabana discussed in her Ted conference speech, women were heavily persecuted in Afghanistan under the Taliban and had to hide the fact that they attended school, and still do so to this day even though the country is no longer under Sharia law. To fight for gender equality is seen as a struggle that cannot be won by many within the country. This child has likely grown up with outside factors that have threatened her wellbeing for seeking equal education as a woman and therefore may struggle to take actions on her own behalf (Healy, pg 281). Her family has likely felt persecution as well for choosing to educate their child, and as a social worker working with the child and her family system as well I would hope to help them understand the good that they are doing by sending her to SOLA and providing her with a future. Working on the community level with this child could be a struggle based on the fact that Afghanistan still has restrictions on women, however it would be important to advocate for a family’s choice to educate their daughters while still respecting their cultural belief system. Another important component of working on the community level would be educating them about the background of the school and that the main goal of SOLA is to provide women with opportunities to give back to their home country of Afghanistan in the both the private and public sector order to provide more insight into the program (www.sola-afghanistan.com).
In countries such as Afghanistan women are typically regarded as citizens with extremely limited social and political rights. This has lead to very few women getting the chance to receive a quality education, as discussed in the women’s seminar video only about 6% of women in Afghanistan actually graduate from high school. Women who do not have access to education are not given equal opportunity as men to obtain jobs and therefore cannot earn a living wage leading to poverty and other injustices. It is important that more fathers of young daughters in countries like Afghanistan recognize the value of educating their daughters to make them equal to men, and give them opportunities that otherwise would have never been had.
ReplyDeletea) Global social worker, who works with client from different country and different culture, need keep principles of human rights and social justice which are fundamental to social work. Social workers should recognise and respect the ethnic and cultural diversity of the societies in which they practice, taking account of individual, family, group and community differences. Respect diversity and different cultures and values. Cultural differences require social workers to appreciate the strengths of different cultural practices. They state that social work must recognise it needs to respond effectively to people of all different cultures, ethnic backgrounds, religions, social classes and values the worth of individuals, families and communities and protects and preserves the dignity of each (Littlechild, 2002).
ReplyDeleteb) Behavioral patterns that reflect the construct of inhibition and wariness in novel situations have been found in many cultures. Important to examine whether behavioral inhibition carries with it psychological "meanings" that vary across culture and how culture is involved in the development of behavioral inhibition. In this situation also important parental behaviors and beliefs are guided by general cultural norms and value systems. The social behaviors valued by a culture may be reflected by parental goals, beliefs, expectations, and behaviors. Parents can be more controlling and protective and this may lead to the child's passivity, silence (Chen, Rubin, Cen, Hastings, Stewart, 1998).
Global social worker need to work with the girl, her family and teachers. Very important understanding your family’s culture, it is meaning what is parenting style, family values and traditions. Just working with these systems we can achieve results. But, before the girl introduce in school, in class social worker need work with her individual. Because from this situation (“so extremely quiet and compliant that it is hard for her to speak up in class and even to write about her own opinions”) we can see, that she don’t want or don’t learn work in group. Again we can meet with family’s culture. How I said need work parallel with girl, parents, school and explanation real situation that can take real help.
In another way, if we don’t understand this situation and if don’t help her and her family, could be that she girl and her family feel uncomfortable and feel like discrimination from another’s. And family, where was tradition, that in school can go just boys, take away girl from school saying that the girl in school is not the place – this my opinion. Just explanation, learning can help the family understand how important education for all family’s members is.
c) Education is a basic human right and a significant factor in the development of children, communities, and countries. And women education will help break the intergenerational chains of poverty because education is intrinsically linked to all development goals, such as supporting gender empowerment, improving child health and maternal health, reducing hunger, fighting the spread of HIV and diseases of poverty, spurring economic growth, and building peace (UNFPA, 2008). Changes in Afghanistan, it is meaning the women can take more responsibilities, to accept more responsibilities in government and society; however, such possibilities become meaningless without a population of appropriately-qualified women (Eng Khoo, 2010).
a) When entering a foreign country, a different culture, firstly, I would learn about the context of the situation. What are the traditions, what are the values, the goals and expectations from society / community towards the individual, and vice versa. According to Minkler, 1994, a social worker needs to start where the people are, recognize their strengths, work on empowerment and for social justice, and, very important notion – think globally, but act locally. So while using the global social work knowledge and traditions, based on international social work values and principles – respect and value every human being , do not judge, accept differences that arise, with every individual case we would have to find an individual method of approach, while staying conscious about own (re)actions, thoughts and ways of doing the social work .
ReplyDeleteb) As noted in SOLA‘s homepage, it is very difficult for women to start their way into the education and equal rights in a country, where solely men have ruled for 500 years. So a lot of predetermined problems will go on – children carry many concerns for their safety, their families‘ safety, unclear future, to begin with. So another thing that these girls may be encountering – a post traumatic stress disorder, living in a country that has been at war for many years, and that has been ruled by Taliban.
Another key issue , discussed by Galagher, 2005- that by Amnesty International – all women in Taliban –controlled Afghanistan were called „prisoners of conscience“ . AI even extended and called it apartheid to women living in such segregated societies as Afghanistan.
Cultural child rearing differences and values might also affect the girls‘ learning and behavior. Cross cultural research says, that „behavioral inhibition is associated with indexes of social awareness during the preschool years ( Kochanska &Radke – Yarrow, 1992). Also, other researches argue that “inhibition and social wariness may serve as dispositional bases for the display of shy and socially reticent behaviors in the child and adolescent peer group” ( Kagan, 1989, Rubin &Asendorpf, 1993). So conclusion can be made that behavioral inhibition can be critical in social and emotional development. ( Chen et al,1998) .
So while keeping all those issues in mind, help for the girl would have to encompass collaboration with the SOLA community, the family, and peers. I think that group work would be a great opportunity for the girls to share their thoughts and emotions, while sharing a common history and perspectives together. Empowerment, self determination and trauma treatment, to my mind, would be of the essence of the social work in this case.
c) The example of Afghanistan girls brings a lot of issues – of global problems in Muslim women‘s human rights, national Post traumatic stress disorder in the war countries, and , of course, the link between women's education and their better future. Poverty is linked with women's rights, therefore, increasing women's education, helping them earn a living would drastically reduce the global poverty and discrimination.
Women's equality problem is present in a lot of countries, not only in Muslim societies.This problem exists even in the western world, where men have higher salaries and better positions, and unequal opportunities to be employed, raise children, etc.
a. For a social worker to effectively work with others from cultures unlike their own it is important for them to gain sufficient self-awareness. This awareness can only strive to eliminate personal biases in working with diverse groups. It is also important to practice with respect, knowledge, and a working skill set related to the clients’ background.
ReplyDeleteb. Children in Afghanistan experience political violence as a fact of life. War, occupation, resistance, civil disturbance, and paramilitary conflict are continuous occurrences in the life of Palestinian families. Many have had to deal with loss and grief almost all of their lives: loss of institutions, families, childhood. Garbarino and Kostelny (1996) research study examined the behavioral consequences of experiencing political violence on Palestine children. The study concluded that the number of risk factors a child experienced correlated to the number of behavioral problems the child exhibited. As the number of risks related to political violence and family negativity increased, the level of the child’s symptoms also increased significantly. Some affects of the violence listed in the study were:
• 159 Palestinian children had died as a result of gunshot wounds, tear gassing, and beatings
• Approximately 6,500 to 8,500 children were injured by gunfire during the first 2 years, and more than 25,000 children required medical treatment for beating injuries (Nixon, 1990)
• Constant worry of arrests, detention, and imprisonment
• A great sense of loss after witnessing the arrest of a caregiver or relative
To effectively aid the child, an assessment of the child’s living conditions and current mental state should be conducted. Creating a stable environment would be productive as she may be in a state of constant worry or fear of change; high alert.
c. According to Seipel (2003) education is one of the most effective ways to create wealth for individuals and society. The study explores the diminishing wage gap in South Korea and Brazil with the increase if education. On the same note, access to education coincides with women’s inequality. Women account for approximately 70% of the poor and equate two/thirds of the world’s illiterate adults (Healy, 2008). Empirical evidence also shows that increases in female education improve human development outcomes such as child survival, health and schooling (Schultz 2002). Better educated mothers adopt safer health and hygiene practices, which improve their children’s health and survival (Glewwe 1999) Uneducated mothers perpetuate the cycle of uneducated children.
Howe-I really like your ideas on how to work with the girl considering the environment's hostilities and the cultural expectations. What is more, you back up your suggestions with great information. Very good work indeed. I would also like to know how you would work to create a stable environment for the client-what specifically would you do? These are also important points to consider. You have great facts, but I don't see many suggestions to alleviate the situation with facts to back them up. But I do love how committed you are.
DeleteI. In my opinion, as for social workers, it’s not a problem at all that a girl is from different culture, than ours. It’s the difference, but not a problem. As professionals we have social work values. It’s the most important thing in our profession that we shouldn’t forget and always remember. Every person is unique, and when we look at the person, firstly we see a human being, after that it’s a man or a woman, from one country or another and so on. Of course, it’s often challenge to work with people from different cultural contexts. That’s why it is necessary to understand, from what culture person is. It means, that we should understand the context, try to know about it more, but don’t forgot, that the girl is expert of her culture and live, not us. We will never know much about that girl culture, than she knows. That’s why, I think, the global social worker should by patient, empathic, “flexible” and intelligent. I think the social work values goes throw the cultures and continents.
ReplyDeleteTo evaluate, what problems is affecting girl’s learning and behavior, we need to look carefully at the whole environment: family, community, cultural things, religion. The Afghanistan is very different from Lithuania, that’s why we need to be look broadly and deeply at people from that country. Social workers know, that for children is very important the first socialization, which comes from the family in which child grow up. The first understanding about everything comes from the family. Of course, family is in the context of the country, traditions, religion and so on, it’s influenced by environment too. ‘The cross-cultural literature has suggested that child-rearing beliefs and practices are important factors that may mediate cultural influences on child development” (Chen X., 1998, p. 687). The family input in a child comes with the cultural aspects of the context. Afghanistan is paternal country, where man is a “head of the family”, in the public sphere, at work, and woman is responsible for private, domestic sphere. As it’s shown in research of X. Chen and others, it’s a big differences how the child is growing up, which values is implant. I think, we can understand from the Shabana Basij-Rasikh story, that parents mostly are not encouraging theirs daughters to be independent, autonomy and so on. Men and women roles are very clear and different along traditional lines. Of course, it leaves a distinct mark on behavior of girls. Parents are influenced by environment too, as X. Chen mentioned “parental behaviors and beliefs are guided by general cultural norms and value systems” (Chen X., 1998, p. 687).
II. How big influence the family support had shows Shabana Basij-Rasikh amazing story. We can imagine how a big challenge is for those girls to pursue the education. It’s so heroic to reach the goals, regardless that consequences can be very serious. I think, that Shabana Basij-Rasikh father did a big and great job for her daughter and it shows, how father’s opinion is important in those families. It’s very important, I think, to support that family and girl. It’s not so easy to say, how to help that family, because we should need to know, what kind of help they need. I think, it’s necessary to try to speak with the girl, try to understand, why she is so quiet and can’t write about her opinion. Of course, nothing will change from the first conversation, if the girl was growing up in conditions to be not active, to be quite and so on. But we can try to encourage her step by step, to show her self-determination and make her more self-confident. It would be necessary to speak with the family members about that, how it’s important for her to believe in herself and have family support. I think, the big step is already done, if the girl is in that school. It means, that she is motivated and have acceptance of her parents. The social worker, client and her family should work together for better future of girl and her relatives.
ReplyDeleteIn many countries in the world still we can’t speak about women equality, though gender equality is foremost human right. It’s not easy solved problem, because it’s related with cultures, tradition, religions, economic situations and more. Women equality is very much connected with poverty, because “as a woman living in poverty, she represents the majority of the world’s poor. Women make up 70% of the world’s one billion poorest people” (http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/infobank/women). It means, that majority of poor people in the world are women! What equality we can speak about? We have to keep in mind, that women usually is very much connected with children, which are the risk group too then. According to Seipel, “commitment to education must go hand-in-hand with poverty reduction efforts, because education remains one of the most effective ways to create wealth for individuals and society” ( Seipel M.O., p.198). Women need to see, that they can live differently, nor they live. It’s not normal to be poor, or to be non-educated. Very important to show people the wider view of live, that they have a freedom to choose. An education gives big opportunities to get out of poverty and change lives. And even women decided to reach the education, it’s not the easy way for them, because of environmental hostility. We only can try to imagine how difficult it is… Anyway, hope can do miracles.
a. When working with a client outside of you culture it is important for the social worker to become aware of the client’s culture. I think it would be extremely important for this global social worker to ask the girl about her and her family’s culture and their views on being in school. Before talking to her about her and her family’s view, I think it would be important for this worker to do her own research on the culture. Keeping in mind it is extremely important to be respectful of any culture your client might have as well as your own personal biases. You do not want to harm the relationship with your client, so it is important that you understand their views as well as your own.
ReplyDeleteb. Some of the issues that this girl could be facing is the fact that she may have to hide their dreams and wants from their own family members. On the SOLA website they talk about how many of their students come from uneducated families. It may be hard for them to know that for some people in their country the type of education they are receiving is denied to others (SOLA, 2013). This client may be the first to be educated from her family, which can be hard on someone. It would be important for the worker to find out facts about her family and the neighborhood where she comes from. In the reading from Chen, Rubin, Cen, Hastings, Chen, and Stewart (1998) they stated that people’s differences in their behavioral inhibitions have be shown in many cultures. Knowing this, it could be possibly that this could be common for their cultures.
“Highly protective and directive parents tend to be “overly” involved and dominant in parent-child interactions; they are less likely to encourage their children to explore independently in novel environments (Chen, Rubin, Cen, Hastings, Chen, & Stewart, 1998). This girl’s parents may be extremely dominant to where she is quiet, because she is used to being told what to do. It is then important to talk to the girl about her parent’s parenting style to better understand her.
c. This example represents a global issue in terms of women’s equality. In some cultures women are viewed to be inferior to men, which gives them fewer opportunities then men. In many Middle Eastern and African countries, the government confines freedom. They do this by the “suppress[ion] of civil society by restricting freedom of the press, expression, and assembly” (Frater, 2008). This imposes strict regulation for all people, but women are implemented to even severer regulations. This society imposes a male dominant culture in which the man is the head of the household. This bias leads to the belief that women are inferior to men and should be treated differently. When women go against what their cultural norms and government regulations say, they are viewed as rebellious and a danger. This leads to backlash by individuals and government in the form of vicious threats and deadly violence to them and their families. In Shabana Basij-Rasissh’s speech she talked about dressing up as a boy in order to go to school. This example shows the measures necessary for a woman in order to receive an opportunity for an education. When deprived of an education, woman have no other chances in life than uphold the house and continue the male dominant family structure. This limits the house to only one income to support an entire family. In a crippled economy and unstable government, this causes poverty and no opportunity to overcome it. Unskilled labor workers are in high supply with a much lower demand in these countries. Jobs available pay low wages and are mainly reserved for men. When the man of the house in no longer able to work, they rely on their children to support for them. This type of lifestyle has tremendous pressure both financial and physically on individuals with little opportunity for advancement. This creates an economy where the majority is poor with continuing growth in poverty levels.
Cultural competency is one of the hallmarks of social work. The NASW Code of Ethics states that, “social workers should obtain education about and seek to understand the nature of social diversity and oppression with respect to race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, political belief, religion, immigration status, and mental or physical disability” (NASW Code of Ethics, 2008). As an American, I would need to be aware of Afghan culture generally, tribal culture specific to the student, and the unique challenges she faces as a woman in a highly patriarchal society. The history of Afghanistan specifically as it relates to the challenges and risks women face in order to be educated is also important to be aware of. Because Afghanistan has such a different culture and history than my own, it would be my responsibility to educate myself and be aware of my own cultural biases when talking with the client. Trying to understand her perspective and reasoning for her behavior in the context of her culture would be essential in assisting her.
ReplyDeleteSOLA students face a multitude of challenges in addition to the reasonable amount of stress any student faces. Many SOLA students “come from uneducated families and must hide their ambitions, even their whereabouts, from wider family, neighbors, and friends” (SOLA, 2013). The client’s reluctance to speak and advocate for her opinion needs to be evaluated in light of how women are/were seen and held in Afghanistan. According to Deif, many Muslim countries have “codified a system that treats women as perpetual legal minors under the eternal guardianship of their male relatives” (Deif, 2005). As this client is in school, she obviously comes from an immediate family that values the role and contributions of women but she did not grow up in an isolated environment. Her behavior could be the result of genuine fears for the safety of both herself and her family. The fact that the client grew up in a country at war could also be affecting her behavior. Many studies have shown that repeated exposure to violence “increases children’s susceptibility to developmental harm and traumatization” (Garbarino & Kostelny, 1996). It would be important to create a warm, welcoming, and safe environment for the client. If trauma is at the root of her learning difficulties, this type of environment may allow her to relax and feel comfortable enough to open up to others who have similar experiences. Group work in the form of support may also be helpful for both the client and her family. It might put the client at ease if she knew her family was safe and supported as well.
The client’s behavior also needs to be evaluated in context with family and cultural values. Generally, every culture raises children a little bit differently. This is why cultural competence is so important. Americans are usually seen as individualistic and other cultures are more collectivist; some cultures value assertion while others value submission; some value conflict, others do not (Wong & Tsang, 2004). Figuring out what values the client was raised with would hopefully prevent me from pushing Western ideals onto her, even subconsciously. I would work in small steps, for example, putting her ideas on paper for her eyes only, instead of using a rewards system for turning in assignments.
According to Seipel, one “of the most important ways to fight poverty is to educate the poor” (Seipel, 2003). And as Basij-Rasikh mentioned in her TED talk, fewer than 6% of women her age have made it past high school. According to Oxfam, “the quality of education in Afghanistan is highly variable and the school conditions are often poor. Nearly half a million girls who are enrolled in school, do not attend regularly” (Oxfam International, 2011). Both boys and girls face unique challenges as they struggle to gain an education and this is not unique to Afghanistan. Globally, education has been found to be “a factor in the more equitable distribution of the benefits obtained from growth. When half of a country’s population has severely restricted access to education, a country cannot grow and just as importantly, cannot be free. Poverty will continue to be a global issue unless women’s equality is addressed and the first place to start is with education.
ReplyDeleteGlobally, and Internationally informed social work practice allows for social workers to provide better services to a growing diverse population. Having clients from other cultures triggers anxiety in me for the simple fact that I may not have a clear understanding of their cultural norms. To resolve the tension, I can researched the birth country, and cultural norms for this population, and try to bring some of that valuable information with me when explaining therapy to my client as well as how to shift my approach of therapy to better suit her.
ReplyDeleteb) evaluate what problems might be affecting the girl's learning and behavior (family, community, for instance) and how you might help her and her family.
According to a study done by Garbarino and Kostelny (1996) the number of risks present in children’s lives significantly correlates with the number of behavioral problems children exhibit. Taking into consideration social, economic, and political risks a child may face allows social workers to have a better understanding of the trauma that has affected her. Developmental risk factors contribute to low performance in school as well as behavior problems. (Garbarino & Kostelny, 1996)
As this child’s social worker, I would expose myself to information regarding the home country that may have affected the development of the child as well as help her family understand how these risk factors have contributed to learning and behavioral challenges. I find that many times children are blamed for problems rather than risk factors that contributed to their behavior.
c) how does this example represent a global issue in terms of women's equality, and how do the difficulties women have in being educated contribute to the problem of global poverty?
According to the Amnesty International, more than two thirds of the world’s poor are women. The organization asserts that for women violence is a cause and consequence of poverty. They also suggest that, “Violence keeps women poor, and poor women are most exposed to violence. Women who suffer from violence lose income and their capacity to earn a wage is impaired. Being poor may make women make difficult choices which puts them or keeps them at risk from violence. A woman who is economically dependent on her abusive partner may see no way to support herself and her children if she leaves.” (Unknown, 2009)
Women all around the world are denied equal rights. Patriarchic roles of domination have been a driving force in the subjugation for women globally. Even in the land of the free, it has taken to 2013 for women to be paid equally as men, and for policies such as the Violence Against Womens Act to be sustained by congress. Because of the lack of education equality and opportunities for women, women continue to struggle to provide for themselves and their families. Discrimination often exists in laws governing some countries, as well as existing in countries where laws are supposed to protect womens rights.
a) As a global social worker, it is important to be mindful of both one’s own culture and the culture of the client he or she is working with. Being aware of one’s own biases of an unfamiliar culture and its customs is vital to being a culturally aware and effective social worker. Before starting with this young girl, I would educate myself as much as I can about the culture of the country and its history, as well as the best communication form to take with a young girl from the Middle East. I would also like to learn more about the client herself. Understanding the environment where she is coming from, as well as the country’s cultural expectations, can help with learning about the girl’s learning and behavior, and come up with solutions to help her with her learning and behavioral difficulties. By learning more about her life growing up in Afghanistan, her interests, her family, what school means to her, and building a strong foundation with her, working with her will be easier to do as we both come from different countries with different cultures and cultural expectations.
ReplyDeleteb) Factors which would likely be considered for the girl’s learning and behavioral issues, not just from her family and community, but overall political and social culture of the country. According to the Chen et. al. article, children’s issues are a reflection of the “culturally prescribed expectations and socialization goals” from both parents and society at large (1998). As the Taliban has ruled Afghanistan for over twenty years, women were denied the right to everything, including education. Even though the client is able to receive an education, the fear instilled by the Taliban has left a great impact on her overall development. The parents may also be a factor in the girl client’s learning and behavioral issues as their parenting styles and cultural beliefs may have lead to these issues in her. For some families, “inhibited behavior is positively valued and considered adaptive”, and the client’s family may value that in women as well due to cultural conditioning (Chen et al., 1998,). This conditioning may have also lead to the client having difficulty with learning. It is also possible that because Afghanistan is a country under Taliban rule, the fear of persecution for getting an education is very high (Cardozo et.al., 2005). The fear of being the Taliban’s next target could be impacting her ability to learn and interact with others, and why she is so overly compliant. In order for me to best help the client, having her family be included would be the best route to take. By incorporating all of the elements of her biopsychosocial sphere (her family, her classmates, her teachers, and the rest of the SOLA school system), the girl would start to realize how large and strong her support system is, and that she is wanted and valued, while also respecting cultural ideals.
c) The girl’s situation represents the global issue of women’s equality because it is a reflection of the continuing struggle to obtain full equality for women on a global scale. Women have the highest illiteracy rates in the world as education for women is not as valued as it is for men. In the Middle east, only 57% of the woman’s population is literate, and even fewer have access to education (Healy 2008). What makes this lack of education most staggering is that more and more, women are becoming the primary or sole caretakers of families. Without access to education, women are unable to gain knowledge about healthcare needs, access to social services, find adequate employment, and other important necessities. This feminization of poverty also impacts children, as women’s poverty is a big factor in lack of opportunities for children (Healy 2008). And without adequate living wages, they live in terrible conditions brought on by their economic inequality, and also cannot participate in the global market overall. Despite this, there are still barriers in obtaining education for women due to cultural ideals of women not being suited for education. This inequality contributes to the issue of global poverty.
ReplyDeleteA: Behavior inhibition is positively valued and considered adaptive, and the behaviorally inhibited children may not be recipients of negative parental emotions and behaviors in the Chinese culture (Chen, et al…1998). Children who are being quiet and compliant are also praised by the Chinese teachers most of the time, which is a culturally bound situation. Though, there are a lot of differences in terms of Chinese culture and Afghan culture, similarities still can be found in those two countries—both are patriarchal countries and emphasis on the honor of families. However, given there is difference between Chinese and Afghan cultures, multiple considerations should be given to this case due to the culture and history background of Afghanistan. Generally in Muslim countries, a woman is supposed to be compliant to her father, brothers, or husband. Furthermore, in the case of education, the situation is more serious since before, women were prohibited to have access to education, even nowadays there are still threats to women accepting education in Afghanistan. The girl’s inhibited behavior might be possibly linked to her country’s context—afraid to express her ideas, being extremely compliant. 1) Firstly, I might interview with her teacher and get to know the girl’s background such as her family and her usual performance in the school. 2) If it is possible, ask the teacher to arrange a home visit to the girl family, in an effort to make clear whether her behavior is also connected to other
ReplyDeleteB: 1) Whether her family, especially her parents advocate education for women. If not, try to find out the reason instead of just questioning—have they have been threatened or mistreated by extremist?
ReplyDelete2) Whether the community in which she lives, if there is strong disapproval toward women accepting education, which may even threats the safety of her or her family. If there is threat, what resources are available or to protect the safety of the family and in the mean time make sure that the child can continue to study.
3) Whether the girl has been affected/ traumatized by negative speech or threats toward women accepting education directly or indirectly. If so, there might be a necessity to give proper therapy and work out a plan of intervention, considering the specific situation of the girl and her family, under the principle of being sensitive to their culture and belief.
3) Putting aside the disposition of the child per se, parenting style might play an important part in her inhibited behaviors. If so, there might be possibility to discuss with the Afghan peers by giving the basic theoretical intervention guidelines what might work for their family.
4) Peer relationship. Try to find out the girl’s relationship with her counterparts. Is she isolated, and if so, why? Has she been bullied? According to the findings, we might work out different intervention or helpful plan.
C:
ReplyDeleteWomen should enjoy rights equal with men, such as decision-making, fair political representation, and education etc. In the Ted talk, women had been deprived of the right of education due to the Taliban extreme political policy against women’s right. People, who enjoy the privilege, in order to maintain their position or status quo, endeavor to suppress the effort of women of fighting for their rights. The manner in which women have been treated in Afghanistan is an epitome in one of those numerous inequalities with regard to women’s right.
The deprivation of education is a way to prevent people from being enlightened and being aware of the long term inequality they have been suffering, the rights they deserve, the opportunities they might get if they are educated and the different ways of life they might choose if they have access to education, though, how women in different parts of the world choose their life styles and use their rights is a matter of self-determination.
Education has been proved to be effective way to reduce poverty and to create wealth for individual and society by opening up new opportunity for poor people (Seipel, 2007). However, in most countries’ labor market where women have less opportunities than men, the lack of proper training or education worsen the situation of employment of women. Women who have a lack of education or skills are less competitive than men in the labor market. Furthermore, women also have heavy responsibility to take care of the family and of child rearing. Women who don’t have proper education also are prone to be inflicted by infectious deceases, which probably will further reduce women into poverty and a miserable situation. According to UN Women, women represent 70 percent of the world’s poor, and in Arab states, only 28 percent of women participate in the workforce, because of the systematic discrimination they face in education, health care, employment and control of assets.
(PART 1)Social worker as professional has huge responsibility to make changes in human life. People hopes, that social worker suddenly could help person to solve their problems, but there are professional paradox – should we help client to solve problems which he see's or those which social worker thinks are important. We can discus about ethic in this case, and it is very hard to found. By Aristotle is very important to find balance (golden mean). If we go deeper to this case, we can notice, that there is lack of information, because we do not know specific information such as – age, family structure, relationship with other people and most important events of this Afghan girl which has had impact to her life and personal traits.
ReplyDeleteBut if we look to this case globally, we should understand more about cross-cultural social work, and especially, social work which is based on culture differencies, tradition's of Muslim religion and last but not least thing, events linked with war, terror, repression, restraining, control and intimidation. Can we imagine our self's growing in such aggressive environment, and hope that these things could not impact our as personalities? According (Terr, 1990) single incidents or brief periods of intense stress tend to have limited effects on children, repeated and chronic stresses may lead to anger, despair, and severe psychic numbing, which in turn result in major personality changes. That hinders the development of the child and causes behavioral problems (Garbarino, Dubrow, Kostelny, Pardo, 1992)
In this particular case, we can notice war influence to person and infinite wish to get education, brave empowering who is coming from hope of equal rights and specific support from defenders of those who believe that in the world everybody could live according human rights.
a) How I should handle the problem that this girl is from very different culture than my own? It theoretical way it looks very simple. According Mercedes Martin & Billy Vaughn (2007) there are four main components of cultural competence: (a) awareness of own cultural worldview, (b) attitude towards cultural differences, (c) knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews, and (d) cross-cultural skills. In practical way is very important communication. I should understand that other person is a person like me, and individual, a human being. We suppose look depper, behind differences in appearance (headscarves, colour of the face and ect.) and notice the person, human being and get know him or her better. I should not impose her decision or thoughts about her life, I should not say what is wrong what is right in life. We should together discus “unfair” life, and with her experience and my knowledge, as a global social worker, to try to find out strength which will empower her to fight against crucial life and seek that her dreams will come true.
b) If we want to understand the problems which has impact to girls behaviour we should know more information about her previous experience's, life conditions, the way community are (is it strong community, is it weak community, is it help-full community or harmful which are always looking suspiciously at any initiative person), family, friends, the religion and the tradition impact to her, environment situation or even how much unrest is going in her neighborhood. According J. Garbarino and K. Kostelny „community context (as indicated by high or low level of political violence) was significant factor for girls but not for boys“. So we only can image how sensitive girls are to environment.
ReplyDeleteI think if I would like to help her, first of all I would like to talk with her, with her family to see that kind of attitude they have. It is hard to imagine, that girl in Afghanistan could go to school without father permision. So I strongly believe, that parent's are motivated, that her daughter will have an education. This aspect (in Afghanistan it will be impossible to be educated, if you are girl, and you do not have parents permision, not even permission, if you would not receive permanent assistance from your parrents)is very important, and shows family strengths. I think that is family strength in which I can use as a global social worker. The parents should get support and advocacy for their courage letting their child to be education. And the child should get support and advocacy as well, because she are so brave fighting for her dreams to come true. Those learning and behaviour problems could be easily solved if only family, community will completely accept that women is also well-being, and also have her own opinion and wishes like other 6.3 milliard people living on our planet. Wishes and dreams are borderless, it is no matter what kind of gender you are, what kind of culture or religion you belong, and nobody gave right to nobody to prohibit that.
c) Education for all people and promoting gender equality and empowering women is very important thing and UN countries are trying to improve these human rights all other the world. If we look at Millennium development goals we can see that second goal is - achieving universal primary education and third goal is to promote gender equality and empower women.
If we look to this particular case, it is great example to understand what are the barriers some of people living in strictly society. It reveals, how hard to get education in Afghanistan for girls – family's are persecuting, illegal schools works with interruptions. Community looks sceptical to girls who want to have education and be leaders of the country. There are a lot of barriers which stops to get education in this country. Uneducated girls become uneducated women and the poverty of gender inequality continues to worsen. Can we imagine, what kind of society will be if we wont allow girls to be educated? After a while this problem will be so huge, that will explode and manifests in real fight against pressure. Or even worst those countries, who will not accept human rights properly will return in middle-age. It is big dilemma, but I think that human rights should be respected all over the world and I hope that MDG (millennium development goals) will help to maintain.
a. As a Social Work student, I have been asked some version of this question repeatedly over the past year. The key to the question is to understand that culture is a very broad term but people often assign a specific meaning to it, usually race and/or ethnicity. But culture is much more than one’s race or ethnicity. It includes anything that describes an individual or their behaviors that is deemed important by the social environment around them. Examples include but are not limited to age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, different ethics and value systems, etc. The reason this is so important is that people are dealing with different “cultures” all the time even if they are interacting with people from their own race or ethnicity. In this light, these questions essentially ask the same thing all the time: How do you handle someone who is different from you in some way. As people, we do this all the time without realizing it. We just need to be more aware of what we are doing when we interact and work with any other person. Some things that we can do (and already do on a regular basis) include:
ReplyDelete• Understand and learn about the other person’s differences as much as possible. Race and ethnicity is but one thing to learn about. It is also important to treat each person as an individual and not assume that everyone from a particular background is exactly the same.
• Find commonalities to help build a rapport. As much as people are different, there are also many ways people can connect with each other. Usually people can connect over things such as food, family, friendships, games, sports, music, and other forms of entertainment.
• Build the therapeutic relationship and develop a sense of trust and respect for each other. This job can be accomplished a lot more simply by appreciating differences and bonding over commonalities as already described.
Hello Marcus,you have a point and I agree with you. About culture difference, sometimes when we try to know more about it, but on the other hand it probably will become stereotype. For example, I met two Spanish two days ago and they kept telling me how hardworking Chinese people are.But the truth is not all Chinese are hardworking. Therefore, your point of treating each person as an individual is quite important when we, as social workers, deal with different clients. However, to try to appreciate the differences between us and clients and not try to impose our values on them unconsciously,which I have experienced in my work, are needed to pay attention to.
Deleteb. For the girls at this school there are a few things that may be influencing their learning and behavior. These girls are in a stressful environment where they are in danger of physical harm for going to school. They could also be exposed to family tensions and acts of violence towards their friends and family. In addition they are in a culture where women are seen as inferior and not worthy of an education. Garbarino and Kostelny (1996) describe some of the effects on children of being consistently exposed to similar types of stressors in Palestine. This research could be extended to the girls in Afghanistan who have stressors that could cause developmental and behavioral issues. Examples include PTSD and major changes in personality and behaviors.
ReplyDeleteIt is especially dangerous for those girls who are exposed to political violence as well as family dysfunction. Garbarino and Kostelny (1996) state that the combination of those two stressors exacerbate the situation for children. International studies by Hart et al. (1998) and Chen et al. (1998) also support the importance of stable parenting and family support for the healthy development of children. As a result, a global social worker should start work with the family to ensure that there is proper support for the girl. A global social worker could help teach healthy culturally sensitive parenting techniques as well as performing family therapy sessions to help the girls in the school.
c. Article 26 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to an education. By denying this right to women in Afghanistan, it denies them basic equality not just in education but also other areas that are tied to receiving an education. One of the major related areas is the ability for women to receive economic equality because of the emphasis on education in the job market. A lack of an education limits the earning potential of women which also contributes to the disproportionate number of women who live in poverty. Healy (2008) examines this issue in her book and points to illiteracy as one of the causes to poverty especially among women.
General women’s rights issues also contribute to overall global poverty because women tend to be the primary caretakers for children. Disadvantaged women have a tougher time raising children which may stunt their development. Developmental issues can reduce the productivity and potential of these children which increases the likelihood they will be subject to poverty. This issue could repeat continuously for many generations and is pervasive throughout many cultures. The phrase “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” appropriately describes this cycle.
One of my most important goals as a global social worker would mean being culturally competent. Therefore, when working with this client I would make sure to learn as much as I can about her culture. I think it is important become knowledgeable on your client’s culture and not be afraid to ask questions when you aren’t really sure of something, whether it is a tradition or a type of food. Culture is an important sector of social and human development, which contributes to identity-building and self-esteem, which is why I believe it is important to be open to all cultures and let the client see that I am eager to learn about her and where she comes from. I also think it is important to share some similarities and differences between our two cultures. That way she feels like she is getting to know me and that regardless of what part of the world we come from, there are some traits within each culture that can be found everywhere.
ReplyDeleteThere are many different problems that might be affecting the girl’s learning and behavior. She may be feeling torn towards two very different directions. The school is giving her a sense of individualism, a sense of determination to be educated and giving her empowerment. However, she probably comes from an uneducated family and because education can lead to putting herself danger, she must hide her ambitions and is scared to of what can happen to her family. Afghanistan is also a very patriarchal community, therefore there were probably many instances where she couldn’t share her own opinions or speaks up for herself and instead had to keep her opinions to herself. I also think it is very possible that this little girl has seen war-related violence. According to Garbarino’s article, The Effects of Political Violence on Palestinian Children’s Behavior Problems: A Risk Accumulation Model, girls are more resilient to independence and lack of overprotection. To help the girl and her family, I think it is important to regularize individualism and letting her know that it is okay to have a voice and have an education. I think by normalizing this, it gives the girl a boost of confidence in her own thoughts and opinions and lead to her being proud of her voice.
In many countries, women are not considered equal to men, which has caused countless violations to human rights that woman experience because of their gender and gender inequalities. As we heard in Shabana Basij-Rasikh’s story, women risked being killed in order to receive education. According to Nancy Gallagher, women have suffered from sexual humiliation, forced pregnancies, exploitation of family relationships, and female genital mutilation, all because they are women. (Gallagher, 2005) In Egypt, men have the right to divorce and it is as easy as saying, “you are divorced” three times and registering that with a religious notary. However, in order for a woman to divorce, she must get a legal counsel and provide proof of harm, and go through a court-ordered mediation (Deif, 2005). Even in the United States, women wages are lower than men and there are higher rates of women and children in poverty than man. In our readings on global poverty, Michael Seipel discusses how there are multiple trends that can increase global poverty even more (Seipel, 2007). One of the problems is that in too many parts of the world there isn’t a commitment to education. This is a problem because education is the gateway to wealth and knowledge for individuals and therefore, with a lack of education in many parts of the world, poverty continues to dominate our world’s society.
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ReplyDeletea) the first and foremost, person and particular global social worker, working in a such context, has to be open-minded. Person, working in another country, should be well aware of that culture, history and traditions. When a person has this knowledge, it is easier for him to understand another culture and people of that culture. Before start working in another country, it would be needed a lot of time for preparation, self assessment if you were able to work in that situation, and if you were completely freed from prejudices and were opened to accept another culture. And only then you can think about working there.
ReplyDeleteb) talking about family and it‘s influence on each member, we can use T. Parsons systems theory. According to this theory, family is a system, which every member is influencing each other. So if we work with one client, we have to remember that he is influenced by others in his family. So if we want to help our client we will have to help to all his family. Talking about particular situation, we have to understand culture and find out what place family takes in humans‘ life. Kaip padėti nežinau gal tau kils minčių?
c) human history leaded to a restricted women from ancient took a different position than men. This fact was influenced on biology and these days context. Our current modern society is very different from the previous, hundreds years ago, but it has been still influenced on the past events. Therefore, despite the fact the majority of modern society recognizes gender equality, individual rights, freedoms, there are still conservative countries where gender equality does not exist. We, who were grown up in society, which recognized equality, it is very difficult to understand the injustice, but the people who have been living many years in this context, they do not see the point in the exchange, the way of life is acceptable for them, and our European values distant and incomprehensible.
In the movie girl talked about very sensitive problem. This example is filled of unjustice and ancient attitudes, which destroys women lives. It was the “huge” “concentrated” example, but in all societies we can find cases, in which women rights are ignored. For example Lithuania is a legal country, recognizes gender equality, but women get lower salaries than men (according to Department of Statistics the average salary of women and men before taxes in 2011 were: women - 2105, men - 2522 litas a month). Women are discriminated in employment, better positions are allocated for men, because they do not have to leave labor market during the pregnancy.
Philip H. Brown and Albert Park in their article „Education and poverty in rural China“ discussed about how lack of education affects poverty (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775701000401). Deepa Narayan-Parker in her book „Voices of the Poor– Poverty and Social Capital in Tanzania“ (http://www.google.lt/books?hl=lt&lr=&id=veqBiebLCZ8C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=women+education+and+powerty+survey&ots=RDFhdb5RJZ&sig=N97po4x93j09dSBYjmrcuGywn5w&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=women%20education%20and%20powerty%20survey&f=false) wrote that three additional years of education per person increases incomes by 4,8 percent. This idea shows that women’s non-education is related with poverty. So if we wanted to decrease level of poverty we would need to increase the level of education.
A)My client is 10 years old girl, she live in Afganistan, that is very different country in many ways: culture, religion, political system, economic, traditions, history. Big challenge for social worker to understand context, where live this 10 years old client. A lot of information is needed for helping. Especially information about girl and her family, how and where they live, its very important environment resources in the place, where live girl and her family.
ReplyDeleteB)1 The Global Research in International Affairs (2012) writing about Afganistan women, show the situation of human rights. The situation for Afghan girls and women remains deplorable, despite concerted efforts to improve their freedoms, rights, and quality of life. In a June 2011 global survey, Afghanistan was named as the “world’s most dangerous country in which to be born a woman.” Afghanistan has staggering maternal mortality rates, poor and inaccessible health care, decades of conflicts, and “near total lack of economic rights,” rendering the country “a very dangerous place for women.” In addition, “women who do attempt to speak out or take on public roles that challenge ingrained gender stereotypes of what is acceptable for women to do or not, such as working as policewomen or news broadcasters, are often intimidated or killed,” according to Antonella Notari of Women Change Makers.
ReplyDeleteThe main impediments to female education in Afghanistan and among Afghan refugee populations are related to security and safety. The primary security and safety problems in the post-Taliban era include the following: Criminal acts and behavior: general lawlessness, warlordism, drug trafficking, and extortion. Gender-specific violence, such as rapes, gang rapes, murders, kidnapping, child and forced marriages, and domestic violence and abuse. Threats to girls and women from fundamentalists including the Taliban, (Northern Alliance) mujahiddin, al-Qa’ida members, and various mullahs. Terrorism (including suicide attacks) and firebombing of schools (especially girls’ schools), the presence of foreign troops battling against the Taliban and al-Qa’ida, and a generally increasing level of violence. Landmines and unexploded ordnances (UXOs), dangerous roads, and poor infrastructure.
B) 2 The situation of women in Afganiztan is very bad, there no respect of human rights, all kinds of needs, health protection, a lot of risk in the environment where women lives, I just can tray imagine, that those women, girls feels a lot of stress, tension, anxiety. There is a lack of basic needs satisfaction for women. I think in situation like this is especially important international help for women. How it can possible to read or learning something when around is bombing, you don’t know what to aspect, there is big risk for life and so on. I realy glad when in this article I found positive things, not so much, but there are institutions, law regulations for helping, so that is very important to know this things if you are social worker in Afganistan:
ReplyDeleteInitial trends pertaining to Afghanistan’s female population were positive soon after the Taliban regime was toppled, mainly between 2001 and 2005. Of course, the removal of the Taliban itself was a relief for Afghan women and girls. The Bonn Agreement (December 2001) addressed some women’s rights and issues and created the Ministry of Women. Other positive developments have included: Ongoing activism and work by various NGOs for women’s rights and issues; Heightened activism and resource allocation to women’s issues and gender mainstreaming efforts in Afghanistan from the USAID, U.S. Department of State, and the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, as well as various UN agencies, especially the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM); The creation of Legal Aid Referral Centers for women provide much needed legal assistance; Proactive government agencies and ministries for women’s rights and empowerment, including: the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA), Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Education, and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC); Ongoing recruitment efforts for female police officers; Afghanistan’s ratification (in March 2003) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and ratification (in March 1994) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); Quota (25 percent) for women’s representation in the Afghan parliament; Forced marriage is considered a crime according to Afghan law; Creation of Family Response Units (FRUs), women-only staffs in police stations that serve to: (1) document cases of family violence against girls and women; (2) document cases of sexual violence and child and forced marriages; and (3) provide women law enforcement personnel to deal with women’s problems; The passage of the Elimination of Violence against Women law (EVAW), which President Hamid Karzai signed in August 2009;
Unfortunately, for each positive development there exist numerous setbacks and shortcomings, and in fact, various post-2005 trends have been negative. Implementation and enforcement of policies, laws, and initiatives are extremely difficult. The principal material deficiency is lack of funding for institutions working for Afghan women (http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2012/11/12/women-in-afghanistan-a-human-rights-tragedy-a-decade-after-september-11.html#ixzz2NoqBYgMH).
C) This Example of Shabana Basij – Rasikh shows that family members support and attitude is very important to reach dream and goals for a girl. How strong values in this family, one of them is education, it’s a human need and right and freedom, independent. I very like the sentence I heard from the speech of Shabana that ,,you can loose every thing, your own in your life, your money can be stolen you can be force to leave your home in the war, but the one thing will always remain with you it what is here”. For me this example shows that could be million bad things happened, but one good thing, or example shows that can be different, its good experience of believing, move on, make changes and help people who are vulnerable and suffer. According to Seipel (2007) one of the poverty reduce strategy is education, he notice that one of the most important ways to fight with poverty is to educate the poor, since education opens up a wide range of economic opportunities for people. Without an educated labor force, neither individuals nor countries may be able to compete effectively in the global labor market and cipe with ever – changing economic environments. Chung (1994) notes the success found in Zimbabve, South Korea and others countries in expanding educational opportunities for their citizens. I think, first education is a need and right of human to self realization. Second its insurance of good qualification work, better salary and well-being, to satisfy the needs of family, good life conditions. Thirdly, it is the opportunity to raise the economic level, paying taxes to the state and the ability to contribute to the family budget increase, and its shows the equality between men and women to participate in labor market and education.
ReplyDeletea) Global social worker is very important to understand that cultural differences are very sensitive and important issue to each person behave in a different in another culture.
ReplyDeleteBefore proceeding with the analysis of this case, first of all I need know this culture, to find out what are the main features of this culture, as it is unique. And of course, very important - how this culture affects the life of this girl, the basic problem in this case. It is also starting to work on this case, it is important to understand the girl's family history, family traditions, hobbies, or just to gather information about the family. Still need to analyze the environment in which she lives: what are the conditions of life, which is a family social status, what social factors influence the girl and her family life. Need to find out what the members of the family approach to girls education need.
b) For global social worker is very important to work with all client’s ecosystem, it’s micro, mezzo and macro. In this case girl family and school are most important things. So, dealing with this case, in my opinion, the main job of a social worker interacts conducted in cooperation with the girl's family and SOLA community. This should be the "key" to the clarification of the problem and find solution. Also, I think to the help process may also include other persons, that is, neighbors, family friends, girl friends, classmates and community members. I think that the social worker and the girl's parents and school representatives should have the teamwork and to help each other, and of course focusing on the girl, to solve this problem (so extremely quiet and compliant that it is hard for her to speak up in class and even to write about her own opinions).
c) In many countries, women's discrimination is relevant and quite painful subject. Often there is a violation of women's rights, women even suffer and are abused. This problem is particularly relevant to the Middle East countries, which include Afghanistan. This example is very well represent a global issue in terms of women's equality, and about girls education problem. As for these problems naturally arise thoughts on feminism and feminist ideas. Education is very important and should be accessible to everyone, regardless of gender, race or religion. However, this case is a perfect example of the fact that education is definitely not for everyone and available in some countries it are hard to reach thing. Education has been proved to be effective way to reduce poverty and to create wealth for individual and society by opening up new opportunity for poor people. (Seipel, 2007) Thus, the education for women is very important in all cases: find a job, to take a better place in society, to be respected and it's all about self-respect and self-confidence. Because of the lack of education equality and opportunities for women, women continue to struggle to provide for themselves and their families.
A)Review of this video was the first minde that science, knowledge education is important. It is very interesting to look at this as a girl trying to get knowledge and education, I think it's a big plus. I think that the approach to education, the education consists of many different things. Both touching the political system and the public traditions and attitudes, and cultural aspects of family culture and surely. So, I think Lithuania science is valued, pursued education. And throughout in the society accepted that the completion of the school they have to study. I think it would be very useful to be a volunteer for a year at the end of school (both in Lithuania and abroad) in order to see the different jobs, different cultures, different areas. After that I think would be easier to choose a more specific area where the youngster would like to educate themselves. However, this again depends on the norms of the society that after school you must to study as well as from the Price list of the situation (if the family is poor, difficult to give the opportunity to volunteer to leave, easier option - to go to work) and from the family of the provisions and values. If a family always emphasis sciences, education, money - the year a good chance that there will volunteer for a youngster, but if the family cherished values such as helping others, support and social support. Help - when a young person is free to search for and find such an area, it is interesting, where he want to be a volunteer.
ReplyDeleteB) Of course, as a social worker I must to respect the girl‘s situation - the approach and the same situation. Maybe it is facing hostility within the family, maybe it is from other causes. I think it's best to talk to her individually. To talk about her views about her own situation, because as the saying goes "The customer - the best expert on his problem“. I think that I should give her a chance to speak about the reasons that she is depressing, where the brakes, which prevents it from fully engage and open up, improve. Of course, the reasons I would like to talk with her family. Maybe there is a problem in the family (I think that's probably in the family) where is somthing wrong . Maybe the family is not respected, her position, her pinion and she is scared to talk public. Of course, this is only a hypothesis, the real situation I try to know in a meeting with her parents. Prior to that, especially I analizing her nationality culture, because I have knowledge about it not very much.
C) Women's equality - very controversial issue about which there is much talk. I am often heard about it in terms of scope of violence, but when I started to read, to go deeper, I see that there are many spheres (not only in Lithuania but also abroad) where women are discriminated against. I think, in Lithuania, in terms of access to education, the right to choose a specialty fascinates you and where you want to grow as well as can be observed in certain provisions of adhesive labels. I know one example of how a girl go to study aeronautical engineer, and immediately condemned by the majority, saying that she will not survive here, very mannish specialty, etc.), but she has successfully completed the university has achieved her goal. I think it is very hard to achieve your goal, when you face the difficulties and regulations in negative view to you and your choices. On the external situation noticed very serious discrimination in Egypt, Women are very hard to have a divorse, but men absolutely simple.
First, I would attempt to understand how girls are socialized in her country and how this contributes to her compliance. As a global social worker who is striving for cultural competency, I would certainly not assume that Western individualist values of assertiveness and independence are shared in her culture, but would instead consider the cultural meaning given to her inhibited behavior (Chen, et al p. 667). Whereas an extremely quiet and compliant child might be stereotyped as weak in a western culture, these behaviors might promote survival and safety in a war torn country like Afghanistan. Ultimately, I would handle our cultural differences by seeking indigenous knowledge and contextualizing her behavior within her cultural environment (Hare, 2004, p. 414).
ReplyDeleteUsing a family approach, I would observe interactions between the student and her parents and ask questions about their child-rearing attitudes (Chen et al., 1998). Parental child-rearing attitudes around acceptance, rejection, punishment and protection are shown to influence inhibited behaviors of children (Chen et al., 1998). If her parents’ attitudes seem overly harsh when compared to parental child-rearing attitudes of her classmates’ parents, then changing these attitudes with culturally sensitive therapy is one possible intervention.
Another important factor is to gather developmental history, including any exposure to trauma. Because she lives in a community that has a history of violence, there is a high probability that she has been exposed to stressful events. The prevalence of social, psychological and behavioral problems depends on the severity and repetition of trauma in the community context (Garbarino and Kostelny,1996, p. 37). Further assessment of family functioning will also provide clues to whether she is more or less vulnerable to environmental violence (Garbarino and Kostelny,1996, p. 41). High family negativity, including domestic violence and verbal aggression increase vulnerabilities to community violence and put children at higher risk for psychological disorders like PTSD (Garbarino and Kostelny,1996, p. 41). Interventions might include building resiliency in her family through supportive services.
Her inhibited behavior might also reflect a fear that attending school is risking her safety or her family’s safety. While this threat is real, helping her feel safe while at school should alleviate some stress and allow her to be more assertive. At the individual level, encouraging her to develop secure peer relationship can also help her become more comfortable at school. These positive peer relationships will also help normalize some of her fears and also provide an extra source of support. Ultimately, finding ways to support her family as well as her as an individual will diminish educational barriers.
Limited access to education, like we see in Afghanistan, keeps women from achieving equal status with men. Withholding educational opportunities for women becomes a tool for oppression as well. When women are able to become educated, whole communities and countries are impacted and changed. For example, increases in educational opportunities for women also encourage a raise in GDP, which lowers national and world poverty rates (Healy, 2008). Educated women also postpone marriage, birth fewer children and have more economic opportunities than uneducated women. Education provides a catalyst to move beyond oppressive patriarchal structures and gives women worldwide the knowledge that gender equality can exist.
First off all we as a social workers need to be very openly. It’s natural that we can’t know everything about other cultures so we need to be ready to except new information and observe new things. There are no place for stigmas and some stereotypes in our mined. We need understand that the culture plays a big role in every client’s life. For this reason step by step we need to try to find out what meanings for the education and learning gives our client, her family. What culture values they have. According to social science professor Grigas (1999) socialization started at home. It’s the first child rearing and learning institute. In my opinion also very importance and helpful feature for social workers can be patience and empathy.
ReplyDeleteWe need to look at situation very broadly because this girl is growing up in family but family belongs for communities and for us it’s interesting how and in what way it influents family. About the same are talking Garbarino and Kostenly in their article. Simply saying family is the one word but we need to read all sentence to understand meaning of this one word. Maybe it is possible communicate with girl’s family and get some support that learning process could be continuing at the school and in the family in the same way. Support from family to the child is very importance.
I was working in children foster home and there also were some very shy, not self-confident children. I noticed that you need time to get the respect and trust from the child. After that he begins little by little open to you. I also discovered that very effective way to encourage child talk can be throw the games. Because it’s interesting way for him to learn and it can show you that you are importance for the team, that you maybe can do something very good like no other and etc.
A lot of women’s organizations around the world are fitting for the equal women and men rights. And we as social workers need to contribute to the initiatives if there are possible. The right to education must be one of the native human freedoms and no person may not restrict other people's desire to learn and grow. And I truly believe that just we can know how much we can achieve in our lives. There can’t be any limits from outside. And of course education is directly connected with poverty.
a.) A global social worker, who would work with this girl should be open minded, with knowledge about country, it's context, regime, law, culture differences, religion in this area, society, traditions, values and behavior norms for women and men. It's important to know, that in Afghanistan's society is stratified along religious and ethnic lines, people are mostly muslims. (http://www.everyculture.com/A-Bo/Afghanistan.html#ixzz2OB5DsgWM) In the times of King Amanullah and Soviet union it was trying to promote female empowerment, but the Taliban it reversed. Now women can't even go out without a man's permission, have a lot of resistence from society, if they want to study, or to work. In a country, where is a war position for decades, people can't feel safe, they die from bombs, fight for their life, food. How Shabana (director of school SOLA for Afghan girls) tolds, in Afghanistan it's very dangerous to go to school for a girl, because the Taliban against women's education. Despite hard position of women in Afghanistan, how Sola's school students write in their essays (http://www.sola-afghanistan.org/essays.html), they want to study, to be equal, to have respect from society, to be active in social life, to be called not just by father's name, but by their self. So working with this 10 years old girl I shouldn't forget that. In such context
ReplyDeleteI think, it's necessary to be open minded, tolerant, sensitive, understanding, that client's mindset, values, expectations will be probably different from mine and to prepare for difficulties because of language, cultural, peronality's differences.
b.) How we already know, in this situation it's very important to give attention at girls problem using system approach, because in Afghanistan religion, regime plays big role in her life. Women rights are very limited, they can't take part in social life, their opinion very often is just not interesting, because in this land there are quite often normal to look at woman as a stupid, bad, worthless creature, that confirms and esseys from Sola's students, So it's quite normal, i think, that this girl not used to be heard, to feel smart enough to speak out loud. I think, that maybe this girl as millions others in country heared enough often, that women are not smart, they are not for learning, they must just housing, and these society's ideas made influence to her, maybe now she don't believe, that she can make it. Another reason it's important to remember working with this girl- is a big danger for her life, for her family all the time, because the conservative Taliban is against women education and there are examples, when girls are being killed or poisoned (there are lots of articles , videos in media about that, examples: http://now.msn.com/120-afghan-girls-poisoned-in-second-recent-school-attack, http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2008/04/afghanistan-girls-killed-for-going-to-school). I think there's a possibility because of war in country, that this girl has post traumatic stress disorder, so it must be sensitive and competent, too.
ReplyDeleteDespite that risk, how Shabana Basij-Rasikh said, behind every girl, wich goes to school, stand a father, who recognises a value of his daughter. So I would work not just with this girl, but and her family, because without her father's, her family support, she couldn't go to school. The good start working with this girl would be to build therapeutic relationship with this girl. I would start with individual conversations, games, group ice-breakers, common activities, art sessions. Using strenght- focused approach I would reach, that this girl would perceive her personality, her strenght, to rise her self confident, self consciousness, to help her to know herself, her strenghts, her abilities, her dreams and her goals better.
Another task could be to collect similar brave families, who want to give education, a better life for their girl and empower them, let them to talk, to support each other, help. A mission of social worker should be to empower community of parents, to educate them about human rights, freedoms, etc, because if we look at community, at family from system approach, then we know, that when we change one system's part, other parts changes too.
c.) It's sad, but there are a lot of similar and even much worst examples then an example of S. Basij-Rasikh's. In media we can read articles about girl, who was killed for going to school, girl whose nose and ears were cut off after fleding an abusive marriage (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2284616/Aesha-Mohammadzai-Brave-Time-cover-girl-tortured-Afghan-husband-appears-Daybreak.html), or about women, which tries to kill herself because her husband died and she better choose death than life without rights, in poverty, violence and contempt, marginalized from society (http://www.15min.lt/naujiena/aktualu/pasaulis/savaitgaliui-afganistano-nasles-geriau-mirtis-nei-beteisis-gyvenimas-skurde-smurtas-ir-panieka-57-302904). Such situations are often not just in Afghanistan, but in Middle East, Africa, East Europe etc., too. The big reason of such women's position is, I think, because of lack of education. In countries, where mostly men are active in political, social life, women are not educated, oft not working, or working the lowest paid jobs. We can see attempts to measure women rights, freedoms, but it's difficult to make systematic, structural, political changes. A great example of this is the debates for womens rights in Afghanistan's parliament in Kabul, where are 68 women, but majority of men still thinking, that to allow women freedom, for example to work, or to protect them from violence contradicts Sharia- the moral code and religious law of Islam (http://www.dw.de/kabul-debates-womens-law-violating-sharia/a-16658985). There are millions of muslim women, who often face with this attitude. Women's poverty is much bigger than men, because increasing number of housing, were leads a women. A statistic woman in poverty countries work low paid job, must earn money not just for her, but for her children too.
ReplyDeleteAmartya Sen (1999) discusses, that access to income gives no guarantee of well-being, but “education and access to income and finance (even if in modest amounts) can do a lot to promote well-being for women and their children". Women are marginalized, in low educated countries women can be sold by their fathers, brothers, for example in Afghanistan woman can marry from 16 years old, but the father have right to let it much earlier, there a big human trafficking. WRIGHT (2001) discusses, that constructive change for women in Afghanistan “requires the reduction of poverty, increased opportunities for education and work, and, above all, recognition of the value of the work that these women already do". I think, that in country, where poverty relates with women's lack of education the mainly goal is to establish NGO's, who would work for human rights, women freedoms, who would advocate women and give education for them. But it's a wrong decision to do it in coercive manner, because according MUTUA (2002) "human rights will not become operational on the ground if non-Western societies must implement them immediately and uncritically, especially if these rights are bound up with liberal
democracy and market fundamentalism".