Marriage Customs in Afghanistan

Afghan's marriage traditions are family and community oriented affairs.  The marriage celebration are three
day long events.  It requires a lot of planning and very expensive.  Afghan's marriage customs are governed
by marriage laws that are strict and preciptive.  Afghan marriages allows young girls of
ten years of age of even younger to be engaged only.  The marriage can only take place when they
are sixteen years of age.  Muslim women are unable to marry a non-Muslim man, however Muslim men
are able to marry a non-Muslim woamn.  Matching is another marriage custom, the bride and groom

(child marriage)

are usually "first" cousins.  Once the proposal is accepted then thats when the celebration begins.
workcited: http://www.muslim-marriage-guide.com/

Globalization

Afghanistan's govenment is behind in political strength due to the wars, Narcotics and terrorism.  The
culture has not advanced much from old traditions of how women are treated and
their advancement in the work force.  Due to those "old traditions" women of Afghan still
must cover up, eventhough the women do have a choice to cover up or not, they still choose to
cover up.  Afghanistan maybe behind, they still have some technologies, such as phones

(cell phones), social network access.
workcited: http://www.faqs.org/

Politics and social systems/social issues

Afghanistan is divied into 34 provinces, each has a capital and a governor in office. Provinces are
further divided into 398 smaller provicial districts, which covers a city or number of
villages. Provincial governors and the district governors are voted in, every 5 years during
the nation's presidential election.  Social issuses, consist of over crowding in villages and cities, poor
health care, poor economy.  36% of Afghanistan citizens live below the poverty line.  42 percent
of the population live on a dollar a day, according to USAID.  Afghanistan is one of the least

developed contries in th world.
workcited: en.wikipedia.org

Culture Constructions

photo provided by: www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2009/08/14/
afghanistan-passes-and-8216-barbaricand-8217-
law-diminishing-womenand-8217-s-rights.html

Gender Roles-

In afghanistan men have always had more power than women. Recently that has changed on some level in 1959 the all male government supported the voluntarily removal of the veil and the end of the seclusion of women. in 1978 they did a report showing that about 8% of women were bringing an income in. Even though the government supports women having more rights and authority. A lot of people still don't believe that this is right in afghanistan and still practice older ways of women in veils, belief that women do not have contact with any man who is not there father, brother and husband. It is also believed that they should stay home and do the "motherly" duties.

Religion- 

Even though there hasn't been any type of census done in many years there are estimates that show that 80% of afghanistans are Sunni Muslim, 19% is Shi'a Muslim; and the other 1% is makes up the other religious groups. 

Art- 

The most recognized art in afghanistan is called Gandhara art which is based on Greco - Buddhist art. Which showed the first representations of the Buddha in human form.  

Picture provided by:ssubbanna.sulekha.com/blog/
post/200907/the-buddha-iconography-in-hindu-texts/comment/1597331.htm

works cited: 

http://countrystudies.us/afghanistan/58.htm
http://www.afghanistans.com/information/people/religion.htm

Language

There are two official languages in Afghanistan, Pashto and Dari. The national language of the country is Pashto even though only 35% of the country speaks Pashto and approximately 50% speaks Dari. By royal decree in 1936 Pashto was declared the national language for Afghanistan.
Bilinguilism is very common in afghanistan. Besides Pashto and Dari about 11% of Afghanistan speaks Turkic languages. Both Pashto and Dari are written with the Arabic alphabet but there are some modifications. Dari is primarily used for business and government.
"Pashto is a member of the southeastern Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages spoken in Afghan, Pakistan and Iran." Khushal Khan Khattak who is known as Afghanistan's national poet is a main influence on Pashto language from the 17th century.




works cited: www.omniglot.com/writing/pashto.htm