Kabul

I was watching a documentary today on HBO Go called "Love Crimes in Kabul." The makers of the doc interviewed a lot of women in this women's prison in Kabul, Afghanistan. Over half of the women were locked up for "love crimes" meaning that they either had sex before marriage, committed adultery, or ran away with a man. I noticed that almost all of the women interviewed in the doc were young (in the 18-23 range). The woman who is head over the prison stated that the prison is very full at this time with women who have committed "love crimes", but that it used to not be that way. She said that she feels that women nowadays think that they have too much freedom. That they can do whatever they want, and that they can have sex before marriage (obviously this woman was older and believed that "love crimes" were actual crimes and that these young women should be locked up for what they did).

I was very saddened to see these women get put into prison for regular things that American women do on the weekends (example: premarital sex). It got me thinking about the differences in our society, and actually, they are not so different. Aren't women in American judged for having a lot of premarital sex? I feel that our society is okay with women having sex with 1 or 2 partners before marriage, but that it is looked down upon to be a woman who sleeps around. Also, our society looks down upon cheating and adultery--so we have the same views about this as Afghanistan (we just don't put people in prison for it!). And, just like in Afghanistan, we are not keen on women running away with a man. I think that our society finds it understandable in some cases, but that generally it is seen as something that teenagers who are young and immature do.

What I am getting at is that even though in America we do not put women in prison for things like premarital sex, we still look down upon women having the same sexual freedom that men do. We let men do whatever they want (like in Afghanistan), but we do NOT want to let women have that same right (also like in Afghanistan). Even though women here have more freedoms than in Kabul, we are still "punished" for similar "love crimes."