While Afghan women can now legally vote, attend school and walk in public without a burqa, little has changed for women living in the Pashtun regions of Afghanistan since the Taliban's fall.

The Pashtuns — also called Pushtuns, Pakhtuns and Pathans — live along the "border zone" of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nearly 50 percent of Afghanistan's, and 15 percent of Pakistan's, population is Pashtun, meaning they speak Pashtu and follow Pushtunwali, a tribal code with an Islamic influence, particularly in times of war.

Relatively unchanged for centuries and hardly touched by even the British during their colonial rule, the Pashtun society follows a system emphasizing honor, respect and revenge, primarily to uphold one's honor.

Pashtun women lack almost all rights. They can be beaten for talking back to their husbands, killed by their fathers or uncles for eloping with a man or traded to end a blood feud between clans.

According to Pashtuns interviewed by The Economist, the best way to resolve inter-clan disputes is through jirgas, or tribal courts. Often the court orders a clan to trade a 15-year-old, 10-year-old and 5-year-old girl with the enemy clan, which is called lund pur, or "wet debt."

Pashtuns believe this exchange creates peace between clans because three generations will be connected through marriage. As one Pashtun proverb states, "Blood cannot wash away blood, but blood can be turned into love."

Although many reviled the system under the Taliban, many Pashtuns opposed the Taliban's Shariah — Islamic law — as being too soft. Within Shariah, women are allowed to own land, widows are not required to marry their deceased husband's brothers or cousins and the trade of girls to settle disputes is not allowed, unlike the Pashtun system. In this society, women are property, forever tied to their fathers, uncles or husbands.

As a woman who believes in equal rights across the genders, I am internally conflicted when I learn about societies like the Pashtun's, or other societies that have practices such as clitoral circumcision, which prevents a female from achieving orgasm.

Do I have a right, however, to impose my Western standards on another culture? I think not. Although I am strongly opposed to these practices, I don't believe any Western influence would change the situation.

The Pashtuns have waged bloody wars against governments and groups that attempt to oversee or control their lives. Their cultural emphasis on honor and upholding honor at all costs supports their battles against foreign powers — even the United States.

To change their practices would require oppressing their entire culture.

Taking a step back and looking at our own society, one can find structured patterns of behavior, albeit at a completely different level. The average American child goes to school, then to college, gets married, buys a house and has kids. Until our parents' generation, most women stayed at home, cleaned and cared for children.

Although we have the freedom to follow a different path, many follow this systematic process without question. In cultures as strict and stringent as the Pashtun's, no one questions his or her role in life, and actions and decisions follow a scripted tribal code.

Undoubtedly, our culture is diametrically opposed to the Pashtun's, but there exists a structure in every culture, and to force it to change is to threaten the society itself.

For example, clitoral circumcision is common throughout Northern Africa, and many human rights groups have tried to spread awareness to women about their bodily rights. The great majority of women believe these Western groups are crazy. To them, clitoral circumcision transforms a young girl into a woman, and they choose to partake in the ceremony.

Culture structures our daily lives, and by acknowledging this, we can begin to understand why people participate in activities that we consider inhumane or unethical.

Although my cultural preconditions register certain activities as wrong, others from another culture may see our daily activities as obscene.

I don't believe I have any right to judge.

Reach columnist Brooke McKean at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.