The UDHR, which was adopted by the United Nations in December 1948, is the result of the international community’s concerted effort to respond to ‘barbarous acts which … outraged the conscience of mankind’ during World War Ⅱ. Representatives from various countries such as the United States, Lebanon, and China gathered to form the Basic Committee, and since then, representatives from Australia, Chile, France, the USSR, and the United Kingdom have been included, allowing countries from all regions to participate in the preparation of the UDHR. Therefore, the UDHR was able to reflect various religious, political, and cultural contexts. Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, evaluates the UDHR as ‘a global recognition of human rights at the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace.’Although an international agreement on the UDHR was reached 74 years ago, the issue of women's rights still requires many improvements. In particular, discrimination against women has changed and still exists in an implicit and subtle form. CBT reporters go beyond discrimination and aims to highlight Afghanistan and Albania, which are representative countries where women are oppressed.

#. Afghanistan

  Although it is at a gradual speed, the rights of women are developing all over the world. While there is Afghanistan one of the representative countries where women’s rights are currently being exceptionally reversed. However, unlike today, in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, women who had been obscured by patriarchy and religious practices began to appear in the community half a century ago. Laurence Brun Lacombe, a French photographer who lived in Afghanistan from 1971 to 1972, explains the following about Afghan society in an e-mail interview with CBT reporters.
  “At that time, the occidental influence was in process. Girls were going to school and university, there were female nurses and doctors at the hospital; there was a special institution for women, dealing with their health, and education. Six women were on the Parliament and it played a role as a special democratic women’s organization. Since the 1964 constitution, women could vote and were not compelled to wear the burka. This emancipation, nevertheless, was happening only in Kabul and reached only a minority of women who were called elite. Muslim clergy did not like these changes at all. The girls who were wearing miniskirts could suffer acid being thrown on their legs. In the country, women were living according to Muslim traditions. They had no idea about emancipation. As everyone knows, the Soviet invasion was a disaster. Since then, there was only violence in Afghanistan, although women tried hard to work and emancipate. Muslim traditions are very strong in Afghanistan and Afghan women never stopped fighting for their freedom over the years. Especially today, with the return of the Taliban. I tried with my pictures, at that time, to give dignity to Afghan women.”
  However, in 1996, the Taliban exerted influence in Afghanistan and began to erase women who began to appear in society. Under the Taliban, women were prohibited from going to school or working, so women had no place in Afghan society. Immediately after September 11, 2001, U.S. troops were stationed in Afghanistan, causing women to suffer from the war in addition to the Taliban’s oppression. After the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan (2020-2021), the Taliban took full control of the Afghan government and ruled women throughout the country.
  In Afghanistan, women cannot avoid oppressive Taliban rule. However, girls who are Bacha Posh can avoid the oppressive rules. Bacha Posh, which means ‘dressed as a boy,’ refers to girls who dress like boys and act like men in society. Therefore, the Bacha Posh gain freedom of education and economic activity, and they are able to move around freely. According to a study by the Gender and Health Research Unit and the South African Medical Research Council, ‘Bacha Posh in Afghanistan: Factors Associated with Raising a Girl as a Boy’, ‘Factors associated with bacha posh include women having fewer sons and more daughters, working in the past three months and having less patriarchal gender attitudes.’ Bacha Posh engages in income-generating activities and plays the role of a male that accompanies female members of the family when they go out.
  However, as the Taliban’s ruling level rises after the withdrawal of the U.S. military, there are growing concerns that ‘Bacha Posh’ will also be subject to oppression. Professor Tomas Barfield of the Department of Anthropology at Boston University, an Afghan expert, said in an interview with Voice of America News, “As the practice is temporary, with the children eventually reverting to female roles, the Taliban might not deal with the issue at all. Because it’s inside the family and because it’s not a permanent status, the Taliban may stay out of it. It’s almost so invisible that it's one of the few gender issues that doesn’t show up as a political or social question.”
  According to the WHO’s The Global Health Observatory, there are more male suicides than female suicides worldwide, but more than 80% of all suicides in Afghanistan are committed by women, and Afghanistan is an exceptional country with a higher female suicide rate. According to Amnesty International, 87% of Afghan women are illiterate, while 70-80% face forced marriage, many before the age of 16. Also, according to the Global Rights survey, nearly 90% of Afghan women have experienced domestic abuse. UNICEF explains about Afghanistan, social norms and harmful practices rooted in gender inequity are pervasive, with children and women being exposed to various extreme forms of violence and abusive behaviors, such as honor killings, child marriage, domestic abuse, and sexual violence.
  Temporary masculinity like Bacha Posh, can’t give eternal freedom to women. Protests by women resisting the Taliban’s oppressive rule are taking place in several cities in Afghanistan. They want freedom and resist Pakistan’s intelligence agency which supports the Taliban. The Taliban is using live ammunition and tear gas to suppress unarmed female protesters.

#. Albania

  According to ‘Child marriage: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perceptions among affected communities in Albania,’ when UNICEF Albania and UNFPA Albania reported in 2017, 16.9% of marriages took place involving a female under the age of 19 and only 0.5% involved a male under the same age. Albanian criminal code stipulates the age of sexual consent as 14. Sexual conduct with a minor under the age of 14 is legally classified as rape. According to the report of Observatory for Children and Youth Rights, the Albanian court approves marriage at an earlier age in case of pregnancy and living together. A study by the Observatory for Children and Youth Rights found that courts were supposed to make decisions based on a thorough investigation of cases in the best interests of children, but the courts did not. Researchers mentioned poverty is a major factor behind child marriage. Poverty makes it difficult to support many dependents, so they resort to child marriage to lighten the burden. Following Albania’s criminal code, ‘Sexual intercourse with a minor below the age of 14 is a criminal offense, with a punishment of 7 to 15 years in prison, while forced sexual intercourse with a minor aged 14-18 years is punished by 5 to 15 years of imprisonment. Full legal capacity as an adult is reached at the age of 18, but if you marry before the age of 18, you are considered an adult.’ This shows that the governmetn connivance the child marriage, so girls who are the matin target of it are not protected by the law.
  Albanian women choose to be Sworn Virgin (Burrnesha) to avoid child marriage. Burrnesha refers to a woman who swears to remain single like Bacha Posh, they dress like males, have a job, and operate in society like males. The difference is that Bacha Posh is temporary while Burrnesha is permanent. The origin of the Burrnesha is unclear. First, there is the supposition that women in Albania have become Burrnesha as one of the ways to prevent child marriage, and being forced into poverty without any individual freedoms. By declaring themselves to be Burrnesha, they can avoid being forced into marriage in their teens through socially established masculinity. Also, they can enjoy the man’s privileges reserved for males and guaranteed in Albania’s patriarchy, such as smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and going out alone.
  Magazine GQ describes the origin of Burrnesha saying that historically, Burrnesha has been allowed in cases where male inheritors in the home died or were killed and could no longer transfer property in a paternal line. It is about protecting the family’s wealth and honor by establishing a new male inheritor in the house. It is a strategy and altruistic behavior of a social context to protect family members. GQ also explains the customs of extreme Albanian tribal society, as the origin of the Burrnesha. Kanun, the Albanian tribal society’s common law states, ‘A woman is known as a sack made to endure as long as she lives in her husband’s house.’ According to this, women should slave away from the outset of the wedding and be absolutely submissive throughout. In addition, if the husband determines that his wife is not a virgin, he can execute or sell her into slavery according to the wishes of his family. Even in childbirth, the opinions of women individuals are not accepted.
  Bacha Posh, and Burrnesha are the extreme means women choose to survive in a society of the oppression. Because the reason for oppression is their gender, they choose masculinity as a way to avoid oppression of women. However, in a society that oppresses women, can it be said that temporary masculinity and permanent masculinity solve the essential problem of oppression of women? This only covers the apparent problem situation and does not solve the actual problem. Even Bacha Posh, and Burrnesha involve issues such as abuse of masculinity and sexual identity of children. In the end, for women, masculinity is nothing more than another form of violence and oppression they choose to avoid oppression. The situation in which women must give up their femininity and be given masculinity, but can gain freedom as an individual in society is contradictory. Unfortunately, where masculinity cannot be chosen, women are defenselessly exposed to various extreme forms of violence and abusive behaviors, such as honor killings, child marriage, domestic abuse, and sexual violence. Through this article, CBT reporters hope that readers will pay attention and think about the issue of oppression of women that is still deeply rooted in the global society.

By Park Su-min | psm0129@cbnu.ac.kr
By Kim Jeong-min | jmkim0522@cbnu.ac.kr
By Kim Ji-min | jimin41@cbnu.ac.kr