Fear the worse

On 19 October 2017, widows of Afghan Army officers and soldiers killed in war against Taliban and the ISIS (2017) were forced to perform sexual favours for officials of the Defence Ministry before they could obtain pension benefits, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) disclosed in his report. In July 2018, a man in Badghis allegedly tortured and strangled his nine-year-old wife to death. Sexual harassment of women in Afghanistan has always been a hidden challenge, but due to the traditional and patriarchal (man-led) structures of the Afghan community and the institutionalization of harassment, the women seal their mouths and silently tolerate the harassment. Revealing such cases and filing a formal petition is considered a disgrace (shame) and causes society to question the dignity and honor of women in Afghanistan. Harassment of women is tolerated in society and the relevant authorities do not take such cases seriously which has created many challenges for women in Afghanistan including dispossession of individual liberties, violations of women's fundamental rights, abuse and rape of women.