Gender-based violence in Afghanistan: a distraught state in denial

Gender-based violence implies physical, sexual and mental harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty whether occurring in public or private life. Moreover, when this is culturally embedded or rooted in societal structure (as Galtung argues), it is expansive and often invisible as 'tranquil waters'. In war-ravaged Afghanistan, which has paid the price of external interventions, dominance of regional military factions, brutal insurgent forces like the Taliban, and a state that has failed to give legal and medical protection to half of its citizens (read women); structural violence as found in gendered forms are quite common. This chapter identifies structural violence as the most widespread form of violence in Afghanistan and how it is deeply rooted in gender inequality. It focuses on case studies of violence where it is essentially gendered and how health of women is getting affected.