If this were happening to any other class of people around the world, there would be an international concerted government response. We must make sure human rights standards are applied when it is women and girls who are brutally treated. Moreover, U.S. women's groups are urging American oil and gas companies not to proceed with plans to build a multi-million dollar pipeline from the oil fields of Turmenkistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan until this outrageous gender apartheid is ended in Afghanistan. The price of a pipeline cannot be the enslavement women. But women's groups, which have been credited with stalling the pipeline, must remain vigilant because rumors persist that the pipeline is going forward.
Women can now no longer work outside of the home.
Afghan women have been prohibited from working and attending school. Women can only leave their homes if they are accompanied by a close male relative. And windows in homes have been painted over so that women cannot be seen from the outside. Women are effectively under house arrest. Additionally, women are often denied medical care, since they cannot be treated by male doctors.