# Afghan women's invisible struggle for rights



## Yrys (3 Jun 2010)

Afghan women's invisible struggle for rights






Wearing the burka was compulsory 
under the Taliban

Afghan women will be represented as tribal elders, religious leaders 
and members of parliament meet in Kabul for a three-day grand 
conference known as a loya jirga. But there are fears, as Martin 
Patience explains, that small gains in women's rights since the 
days of the Taliban may be lost.

With her blue burka rolled up above her face, soft tears rolled down 
the young woman's cheeks.

It was an extraordinary scene, a quiet, tender, and troubling moment.
Because sitting opposite the young women was her father, listening 
intently as she explained why she had run away to Iran to marry her 
boyfriend. They had fallen in love over telephone conversations, she 
explained, and both decided to elope after three days, having never 
met.

The father appeared calm. But he also explained to her his predicament. 
He had agreed that his daughter would marry another man and had 
paid the dowry. Now he was strapped for money. Would she mind 
asking her new husband to stump up the cash?

*Hidden world*

This scene unfolded as I visited a women's refuge in the northern city 
of Mazar-e-Sharif. It was a glimpse into a hidden world that reporters 
here - particularly men - almost never see, laying bare the tensions, 
the heartache, the trauma that afflicts some Afghan women.

I met Hakima, who was forced as a girl into a marriage to pay off a 
debt. Gita, who ran off with her true love. And Zeba, made to marry 
her mentally disturbed cousin. They have been shunned by society, 
condemned by their families for running away from their abusive 
marriages.

But the refuge in itself, opened four years ago, is a symbol of progress 
in Afghanistan, a place where women can gather, a place where they 
will be protected.

*Boxing for rights*

Before it was established, many of the women now sheltering behind its 
walls would probably have been killed for bringing shame on their families.
But slowly Afghanistan is producing a generation determined to fight for 
their freedoms. You see young girls going to school, women working in 
offices and believe it or not, there is even a female Afghan boxing club.

I went to see the women train in a small, dusty gym. Sweat poured from 
their brows as they pounded punching bags. They were definitely tough.
But while progress has been made, this country remains one of the most 
conservative on earth.

Afghanistan is very much a man's world. Many of the supposed gains women 
have made are superficial. Take women MPs, who make up a quarter of the 
parliament, as stipulated by the constitution. That means the Afghan parlia-
ment is more socially progressive than most European countries. But 
representation, one female MP told me, does not equate to power. They may 
sit in parliament, but their voices are rarely heard.

And when women here talk about women's rights it is more akin to what would 
be called plain human rights in the West. They are not arguing for equal pay, 
for example, or the right to live on their own, to go to a bar, or wear a mini-skirt. 
It is far more basic than that. The mantra is - education, access to healthcare, 
the right to work and (if you are going out on a limb) the right to choose your 
husband.

*Concerns for freedom*

Apart from a few high-profile examples, women continue to be left on the margins 
here. President Karzai's wife, Zienat, has never been seen in public. He is a 
Pashtun leader and to do so would bring shame on him and his family. In the 
rural areas of the country, where you rarely if ever see women, they are simply 
shut off from the outside world, socialising only with their husbands, fathers 
and brothers.

I did meet one woman in the village attending a pottery class. She was wearing 
the all-enveloping burka but said that she was lucky that her husband let her 
come to the class. By Afghan rural standards he was liberal. There is now 
concern among some Afghan women, human rights activists and the West 
that women's rights could be traded away if the Afghan government makes 
any deal with the Taliban to end the conflict here.

But there is one aspect, one change, that could not be undone, that cannot be 
taken back. And which will ensure that women continue to make progress. It is 
the image many of us have seen on our TVs - young girls, many wearing white 
hijabs, eagerly reading their textbooks in schools across the country.

Education for girls was effectively banned under the Taliban. This would be an 
inspiring sight anywhere in the developing world, but in Afghanistan where 
schooling has been a right so long denied to half the population, it takes on 
an added resonance. It will take time, a generation, perhaps generations, 
but there is one thing that both men and women agree upon that education 
for girls will change this society.

It is just that not everyone in Afghanistan thinks that those changes will 
necessarily be for the better.


----------



## Yrys (5 Jun 2010)

Afghan Jirga: Debates Over Leadership and the Role of Women

KABUL, Afghanistan — The appointment of a former Afghan president, 
Burhanuddin Rabbani, as chairman of the National Consultative Peace 
Jirga has once again raised questions about the government’s relation-
ship with its most vocal political opposition, the United National Front.

Recently, Abdullah Abdullah, the face of the opposition and the United 
National Front’s candidate in last year’s presidential elections, announced
 that neither he nor members of his opposition movement would attend 
the jirga, despite being invited. In the days leading up to the jirga 
Mr. Abdullah modified that, saying that some members of the group 
would attend and some would not, but that he had declined an 
invitation to take part.

The attendance of Mr. Rabbani at the jirga and his appointment as its 
chairman show that the United National Front is, in fact, anything but 
united. Mr. Rabbani is a leader of the party and a longtime mentor and 
ally of Mr. Abdullah, as well as a former president of the country. He 
backed Mr. Abdullah against Hamid Karzai in last year’s elections. His 
acceptance of the jirga’s chairmanship, however, points to another 
divide in the opposition, in addition to the one that was evident when 
another high-profile Northern Alliance commander and party member, 
Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, left the United National Front to join 
President Karzai as his pick for vice president in last year’s elections.

Mr. Rabbani’s appointment sparked protest from some attendants of 
the jirga. Among other reasons, they were outraged by the fact that 
Mr. Rabbani was appointed rather than elected, as previously promised 
in the procedures of the jirga. The Independent captures the protest:
“When he was nominated… there was uproar on the floor, tension, and 
the meeting was adjourned for one hour,” Mir Ahmad Joyenda, an 
M.P. present at the jirga, told The Independent. “Many [delegates think]
he is part of the problem, not the solution. The people were not happy. 
There was a great noise.”





Afghanpaper’s Web site quotes a former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, 
saying that opposition to women’s rights was “impractical and unrealistic.”

Afghanpaper, a news outlet, elaborates on why Mr. Rabbani might be seen
as part of the problem: “It was surprising to see the chairmanship passed 
on to someone who, for years now, has strongly opposed peace with the 
Taliban. This contradiction, between the aim of the jirga and the views of its 
appointed chairman, points to the ceremonial nature of the event.”





The Daily Afghanistan voices the frustration of a group of women at the Jirga.

The Daily Afghanistan quotes Afifa Shams, a female representative from Kabul:
“For the leadership of the jirga someone with a neutral record should have been 
elected — someone that the insurgency and opposition don’t have a grudge 
against. The appointed chairperson is certainly not neutral in that regard.”

In his speech to the jirga, however, Mr. Rabbani presented a softer front, 
advising the attendants to persuade the Taliban and other insurgents with 
feasible conditions. “If we lay down a list of difficult and impractical conditions 
to the opposition groups and insurgents,” he declared, “this peace process 
will face defeat … I have repeatedly mentioned to Western officials as well 
that their strict approach towards the insurgents has caused the war to go 
on. The return of the Taliban to politics could be one way of getting them to 
stop their violence and extremism.”

Mr. Rabbani went on to try to persuade the Taliban that he understood their 
point of view by giving examples of the transformation that he and other past 
leaders have gone through. “We, too, once opposed the education of girls and 
equal rights to women,” he said, according to Afghanpaper. “But we soon 
realized that such policies were impractical and unrealistic.”

The Afghan government has repeatedly stressed that the progress made in 
women’s rights is off limits in the discussions at the jirga. They will not 
compromise on such an issue in the process of reconciling with the Taliban 
and other insurgents.

Women’s groups, however, are skeptical of the role of women in the jirga.
Participating in “Guftuman,” a popular political debate show broadcast on 
Tolo TV, two prominent women expressed their pessimism. Najla Ayubi, a 
lawyer and human rights activist, claimed that the women selected for the 
jirga were very few and hand-picked by supporters of the government and 
relatives of prominent officials. “They cannot present a strong voice for half 
of the Afghan population since the majority of them are not political activists 
or aware of the law and their rights — a merely symbolic presence,” 
she declared.

At least for the time being, Ms. Ayubi’s doubts appear to have been well-
founded. There was not a single woman among the five prominent speakers 
who addressed the jirga on its inaugural day. Furthermore, all four members 
of the appointed leadership are men. The Daily Afghanistan voices the 
frustration of a group of women at the jirga on this matter. Adila Haqmal, 
a representative from Herat, claimed that “the lack of women presence at 
the top is intentional. The appointment of all men to the leadership conveys 
how women are perceived as weaker.”


----------

