Traditional place of women in Afghan society. "She is first called by a nickname until she can walk; then called ‘girl’ until puberty; before marriage she is called ‘eligible’; after marriage ‘wife’. Only when she has a son, she is called ‘women’ for then she has performed the highest duty – perpetuated the male line [later as an old woman but never by her given name." (Dupree, 1976, p. 1)

The observations put forth by renowned Afghanologist, Louis Dupree, lucidly capture the identity of women as a lived social reality in the quintessential Afghan societal set up. Women’s identities as individuals are eclipsed and are firmly supplanted by identities stemming from their association, primarily with male members of the family. An understanding of and engagement with this social context is seminal in any attempt to situate the experiences of women refugees from Afghanistan.

Through much of Afghanistan’s history, women have been carriers of certain traditional practices rooted in strong notions of patriarchy that regard women as an embodiment of the family and community’s sense of namous (honour). Arguably these practices have been relatively more pronounced in rural settings, in contrast to the urban landscape where women have enjoyed varying degrees of freedom under different political regimes that have ruled the country. Until the late 1980s, it was a common sight to see women, often donning miniskirts, going to work, school, and universities, and using public transport, particularly in the capital city of Kabul (Dupree, 1978, p. 10). But, admittedly, these were scenes confined to Kabul and a handful of other major cities, such as Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif. This was an embodiment of the urban–rural divide, typically characteristic of the Afghan setting. However, these divides were not always neatly juxtaposed. The urban setting too reflected a mixed sociocultural milieu, with women from conservative backgrounds donning the ‘chadari’, a garment worn traditionally in urban areas by women from orthodox Muslim families … and by rural women who do not wear chadari in the villages but adopted it when they come to the city as a mark of sophistication.