Uphill Struggle for Afghan Women

Written by Jan Jaben-Eilon Thursday, August 26 2010

More than nine years ago, the horrible oppression of women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was shockingly described in a documentary, Behind the Veil, reported by British-Afghan filmmaker Saira Shah. Then as the U.S. war in Afghanistan was overshadowed by the war in Iraq the past few years, the spotlight on Afghanistan women was dimmed. Tellingly, the lights are beginning to flicker again, but only because, after a few years of improvement, the plight of women in Afghanistan is sharply deteriorating.

“I used to go to Afghanistan two times a year, but I haven’t been there since April 2009,” says Patricia Lalonde, founder of Paris, France-based Mobilization for Elected Women in Afghanistan (MEWA). “I’m more scared now. The situation is worsening because the Taliban is coming back.”

The first time many Americans heard of the Taliban was when that Sunni Islamist political movement dynamited the huge, historical stone statues of Buddhas in Afghanistan. Then the United States attacked Afghanistan in its effort to destroy Al-Qaeda, considered responsible for the traumatic terrorism on Sept. 11, 2001. At that point, the Taliban, which took control of Afghanistan in 1996, was overthrown.

For a few years, until about 2006, Afghanistan women were able to rebound from the unimaginable oppression they suffered under the Taliban. “From 2001 until 2006, women in cities stopped wearing veils,” says Lalonde, who sponsors programs for Afghanistan women outside the country. Girls were allowed to attend schools again, women were able to work, and women became actively involved in politics, she says. In fact, in the parliamentary elections in 2005, approximately 25 percent of the seats were filled by women. (That’s a higher percentage than in her own country of France, she points out.)

Today, as Afghanistan gears up for parliamentary elections on Sept.18, women are again trying to campaign for positions in the legislature. But now the Taliban is gaining strength again and it is much more precarious for women in Afghanistan.

Four hundred women are running for 68 seats, says Nasrine Gross, an Afghan-born woman who founded Kabultec, a nonprofit organization created in 1991 to improve conditions for Afghan women.

“People love democracy here. Most Afghans want Western-style democracy. They don’t see any conflict between the Western culture and their religion,” she told Womenetics, speaking from an Afghan village about 40 kilometers (about 24 miles) from the capital of Kabul where there was no electricity.

“Democracy is the answer to anything that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda do. Democracy must take a good hold in Afghanistan,” says Gross, who grew up with well-educated parents in Afghanistan. In fact, she says, her mother was a radio announcer, “the Diane Sawyer of radio.”

But much is stacked against the country and its women. Gross says 90 percent of women and 85 percent of men are illiterate. Yet, girls’ schools are already being closed. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was elected a year ago in what many say was a fraudulent election, is now negotiating with the Taliban in an effort to consolidate power as the U.S.-led coalition forces seek an exit strategy, says Afghan-born Mariam A. Nawabi, an attorney who volunteers for Noorstan Foundation, a nonprofit organization created in 1999 to provide support for charitable and educational projects in rural areas of Afghanistan. Afghan women are terrified.

German-based medica mondiale e.V., an organization committed to working for women and girls in Afghanistan since 2001, points out that in February 2009, President Karzai signed the “Shiite Personal Status Law,” which created an uproar throughout the world. The law, among other things, essentially defined women as slaves who don’t have any rights over their own bodies. Apparently, he was seeking votes from Shiites prior to the presidential elections in August of 2009. The law was overturned after international protests, although other rules on the law of succession and divorce remain in place.

“The Kabul government is weak and corrupt,” says Lalonde. “And women are scared about the negotiation with fundamentalists. Many are starting to wear veils again.”

Nawabi says not as many women are running in the upcoming parliamentary elections compared to the last elections. “They fear reprisals,” says Nawabi, who just returned from Afghanistan where she was trying to mobilize the vote for the parliamentary election.

Nawabi finds optimism in the fact that 64 percent of the population is 15 years or younger. “There’s an opportunity to help people change their dynamics quickly with education and economic development. But the future also depends on what happens with the reconciliation talks,” she says.

She adds, though, that the future for Afghan women also depends on the international community. She has given written testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives about the situation, but “I am just one person with limited resources.”

“The timing is critical. The United States cannot abandon Afghanistan now,” she says. And she notes her view that Afghanistan doesn’t need the military troops as much as it needs “more resources for economic and social development, as well as rule of law.” The military “will benefit the overall stability of the country, but we need job creation and education.”

The bottom line, Nawabi says, is that international donors, such as the United States, must attach strings to the money it donates. “The system needs to be monitored and the central government needs to be strengthened. We need benchmarks.” The World Bank created a trust fund, she says, that has worked, but the U.S. is “putting its money into trying to help American companies” doing business in Afghanistan.

“We need to look at how we (the United States) are providing our assistance. The money is not getting to economic development on the ground. As Americans, we need to place more conditions on how the money is used,” says Nawabi. She recalls the Marshall Plan after World War II when the U.S. provided assistance to rebuild war-torn European countries.

“This is a test for us as Americans to see if we’re up to the challenge,” of helping Afghanistan and its women. Nawabi urges Americans to contact their congressional representatives and the U.S. State Department. “Each call or email can make a difference.”

 

---

Jan Jaben-Eilon was a founding staff writer of the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Since then, she has been the international editor of Advertising Age magazine and has written for such publications as The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Washington Journalism Review, and Consumer Reports. She is the author of soon-to-be-published (There is) Life After Cancer. Jan and her husband have homes in Atlanta and Jerusalem.