Afghan women's invisible struggle for rights

[Yrys]

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]

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.”