Women in Afghanistan -- Past, Present, and Future
The conditions in which most Afghan women still live are the most extreme and the most visible examples of the enduring economic, social, intellectual, and legal discrimination women in the developing world face. Sadly, women are victims in the political games of men and nowhere is this more evident than in Afghanistan in the last century. However, this has not always been the case.
By the early 1970s, an increasing number of women had left their lives of seclusion to study, work, and advocate for their rights. However, the rapid pace of change, disorienting for some and reeking of foreign ideology for others, met a rising tide of resistance. The Saar Revolution, followed by the arrival of the Soviets led to a war to oust these interlopers. The chaos of a devastating civil war created a power vacuum filled by the ultra-conservative Pashtun Taliban. Though the Taliban are gone Afghanistan and its women have been left in a precarious state. Lack of education, lack of stability and security, and lack of financial independence are the most daunting issues facing the women of Afghanistan today in their quest to regain the rights they had earned before the country entered this dark period in its history.
In the early 1900s, King Amanullah Khan wanted to modernize his country and this entailed the gradual emancipation of women. Khan said, “Religion does not require women to veil their hands, feet, and faces […]. Tribal custom must not impose itself on the free will of individuals.” Ninety years later, the elected representative for parliament of Wardak province, Dr. Rashanak echoed these words. As we sat cross-legged around a feast of Afghan food in a tiny Afghan village northwest of Kabul, Dr. Rashanak told us of the hopes and dreams she had growing up. Much of it had not turned out as she thought it would. She fondly remembered studying medicine at Kabul University. When the communist revolution occurred in 1979, she fled overland to Pakistan. The journey took her days. She had hoped to continue on to America but the mujahideen asked her to stay and work in the hospital in the refugee camp. She remained for fourteen years in the service of her people. The news trickling across the border into Pakistan with each new wave of refugees told of the appalling conditions women remaining in Afghanistan were enduring. In one year alone, forty women from several small villages in Wardak had died during childbirth. Despite the takeover of the Taliban, Dr. Rashanak, unmarried, returned home. Local Taliban officials greeted her with the command to don the burqua. She demanded that they show her where in the Koran it stated that women needed to wear the all-concealing blue robe. She declared, “If you can show me where this is stated, I will wear seven!” The Taliban officials, unable to do so, left and Dr. Rashanak set up her medical practice. Today, she continues to practice medicine in the windswept villages of Wardak. She was elected as a member of parliament by predominantly male voters who respected all she had done for their families in the last decade. She continues to use the words of the Koran not to enslave women but to free them from oppressive traditional practices. Literacy for both boys and girls is an essential For example, she states that the Koran says that a woman should nurse a child for two years. If Afghan women followed this practice, they would produce six children in their lifetime instead of the dozen that most women do.
Dr. Rashanak is a product of the liberalization and modernization that continued apace in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Women, especially in the predominantly Tajik cities of Kabul and Heart, were encouraged to join the work force, take an active part in government, and attend university. Suraya Parleka happily remembered those days. “The mini-skirt was in style, democracy was emerging, and but for a struggle for world domination between the USSR and the USA, Afghanistan might happily have continued on its road to development.” As a student in the economic faculty, she helped found the Women’s Democratic Movement. The organization encouraged women to vote and succeeded in getting women elected to parliament in the mid-sixties. Even in the days of reform however, to push too far too fast had its consequences. Suraya and seven other women were imprisoned for a year and a half for their “radical” views. None of you probably thinks of the possibility of spending your early twenties in a prison where your captors burn you with cigarettes, force you to endure electric shocks, or stand in ice water cold water for hours. This is a story she has told often. The telling helps her deal with what she suffered and encourages others to fight for justice. Suraya’s health declined in prison. Other courageous Afghan women demonstrated demanding the release of their friends. The government moved the women to the infamous Puli Charki prison. Families gathered outside the prison each day hoping to hear the name of their loved one on the list of prisoners soon to be released. One morning Suraya’s name was read off but not on a different list – the death list. She was scheduled to be executed. Had it not been for a change of government, she would not have been here to tell this story. She was released and almost immediately returned to political activism. Her views continued to attract violent criticism. Soon after organizing a conference to raise awareness on women’s rights, she was brutally attacked and hospitalized for six months. Today, well into her sixties, Suraya continues to advocate for the rights of Afghan women.
Modernization was resulting in an economic divide and also an increasingly unbridgeable divide between a poor illiterate and deeply religious lower class and an emerging secular middle class. Because of the rapid change, the cities became politically and culturally divorced from the more traditional Pashtun dominated countryside. In the late 1970s, the communists stepped in to right these wrongs and bring modernization and equality to the underprivileged. They probably could not have foreseen the consequences of their actions. Their policies of forced literacy, mixed education and the introduction of a ban on second marriages only succeeded in exacerbating this situation. Even though the communist regime gave women even more opportunities for education and work, some women were suspicious of these foreign ideas. They became mujahed and fought alongside their Afghan brothers to kick the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Other women were fearful of losing their newly gained rights. They joined the Afghan Army. General Nazifia Zaki and General Khatool Muhammad Zie were two such examples. With the Soviet defeat, they fled the country. They have returned today to help rebuild their country. Zaki works in military justice and Zie is a master parachuter and Chief of Education
From 1979, and the onset of the war with Russia, Afghan women increasingly faced the opposition of Islamic fundamentalists and traditionalists. We often forget that with the overthrow of the Soviet backed communist government, the Western backed mujahideen came to power and established an Islamic State. All the gains of the preceding fifty years were lost. “Women’s rights were no longer part of the constitution.” Nevertheless, women were still allowed to work and be educated even if they could not travel abroad alone, could not drive, and had to cover their heads in the streets. Soon even this was too be lost.
In the early 1990s, Kabul and much of the country became a battle zone as seven different parties vied for control. Thousands of women were widowed during the war, many lost their lives in artillery attacks, still others were raped by opposing factions, forced into marriage with local commanders, sold into prostitution, stoned to death or simply disappeared. Professional women educated under the Soviet regime were targeted because of the belief that the Russians had poisoned their minds against Islam. Many fled the country to avoid persecution. For women in Kabul this was one of the most dangerous times. Artillery attacks were frequent; food was scare, safety non-existent.
In 1996, the Taliban brought an end to the fighting but a new kind of hell for women. The government ground to a halt as 25% of its workers, women, were sent home. Eight thousand female university students were expelled. Sixty thousand school age girls in Kabul were denied an education but so too were thousands of boys as over seventy percent of the teachers had been women. Women were banned from public places. As many women were the sole supporters of their families, these decrees amounted to a slow death sentence by starvation. Poor women could not afford to purchase a burqua and were thus became virtual prisoners in their homes. Prominent educated women quoting extensively from the Koran tried to convince the Taliban to let women go back to work and to school but to no avail. Furthermore, for over a decade their pleas went largely unheard by the international community. They had better success in convincing Afghan women to fight for their own rights. At great personal risk, hundreds of educated women set up secret schools in their homes. Their heroism was recognized in a ceremony we attended. Imagine, it being heroic to be a teacher. There women were heroes though for if caught they faced imprisonment or execution.
Taliban justice was swift, brutal, and often public. Kabul residents were strongly encouraged to attend Friday soccer matches. As we visited the stadium, Naquibela, one of our guides and translators, recalled a match he attended when he was twelve. He remembers little of the game itself, not even who played or who won. But he will never forget what occurred at half time. A young man dressed in a white shawar camise was walked onto the pitch. He was accompanied by turbaned members of the Taliban. In the blink of an eye, his right hand was cut off – the punishment of a thief. The Taliban were not yet done with dispensing justice that day. A woman clad in the required blue burqa who was accused of murdering her husband was walked out onto the field. Her brother-in-law according to the Taliban held the power of life and death over her. She slumped to her knees with her head bowed. Three shots were fired in quick succession into the back of her head. Her blue form slumped forward. The brother-in-law returned the gun to the Taliban official. The light blue lump was unceremoniously thrown into the back of a white pick up truck and the game resumed. Naquibela went home and was sick.
It has been almost five years since the overthrow of the Taliban regime. What is life like for women in Afghanistan today?
Although many Afghan women now no longer veil their faces with the blue burqua, they are masters at veiling the hardships they have endured and the courage they possess. If anything can dramatically improve the lives of Afghan women, it will be their own inner strength and a leader from among them who can harness their abilities and spirit. Neither men, nor laws, nor the international community can free the women of Afghanistan. The men lack the moral will; the government still does not have enough power; and the international community lacks a sufficiently nuanced understanding of Afghan cultural to bring change without bringing violent backlash. That is not to say they don’t have a role to play, merely that Afghan woman need to take the lead.
The constitution protects the rights of women but these laws are useless if they are not enforced. There are currently only three women judges in the entire country and none on the Supreme Court. On a more positive note, there is a Ministry of Women’s Affairs. There are high-ranking women in the government and military. But largely the rights gained by a small educated elite have not reached millions of rural women and high-ranking women in the government and public life face continued threats of violence and in some areas, widespread opposition. Two stories underscore the challenges still faced by Afghan women today. As we sat with some of the most powerful women in the country, a judge, three generals, the wife of the Minister of Mines, and a businesswoman among others, somewhere else in the country a twelve-year-old girl had recently escaped from an eight-year life of misery.
We met little twelve-year-old Bursuma at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. She was now a ward of the state and would spend the rest of her childhood in a government orphanage. At four, her widowed mother had been given to another man who did not accept Bursuma as his child. Bursuma was married off and went to live with her new husband's family (also a child). At five, she was responsible for a wide range of household chores. When she did not do her work well enough or fast enough she was beaten or deprived of food. She showed us the scars that covered her tiny back, the place on her head where hair no longer grew because boiling water had been poured on her, a twisted arm that had been broken when she was thrown off the roof. One day a watch went missing. She was told if she did not find it by nightfall, she would be killed. She ran away. She slept in a rickshaw that night. The next morning the driver found this bloody dirty heap and brought her to the military. They returned to her neighborhood where a neighbor confirmed her story. Bursuma was lucky; she was believed and taken first to a hospital and then an orphanage.
Elsewhere a mother and a child lost their lives. Their only crime …. being female. The current statistic is 600 children and 50 women die daily. Mary an Afghan woman who had long lived in Texas told a story of both sadness and hope. She had fled Afghanistan almost twenty years ago for America. She and her husband could have no children of their own but had always wanted a family. One afternoon, her sister-in-law who works as a gynecologist called frantic. Was Mary home? Could she come over immediately? Less than twenty minutes later, she arrived, breathless, carrying a tightly wrapped bundle. As she opened the package, a baby still smeared with the remains of its recent birth emerged. Her sister-in-law quickly recounted the story of a mother of eight girls who had traveled a long distance to Kabul to have the baby. Her husband had told her if she brought back another girl that he would kill both her and the child. This is how the tiny baby named Hope found its way into Mary’s life. Hope will soon leave for a better life in America but what of her mother and eight sisters? What of the millions of other Afghan women and girls for whom no such escape exists?
Change will eventually come to Afghanistan but until that day, how many Hope’s will die in the fading light of another dusty Afghan day?
“In the face of such discouraging news, it is tempting to” assume that
Afghanistan is too volatile and dangerous, and Afghans too beleaguered, for
any positive changes to take hold.”
“This assumption is incorrect. Despite its precariousness, Afghanistan is
progressing. Despite their insecurity, many Afghans are hopeful.”
Many organizations such as PARWAZ have effectively used micro-finance to put thousands of women back to work in jobs such as tailoring, baking, carpet weaving, jewelry making, and raising livestock. In addition to the small loan to start up their business, women are taught basic skills like counting money and budgeting. One of their success stories is Guncha. She is a 35-year-old widow with seven children. She runs her own bakery and though not rich by western standards makes enough to money to care for her family and save. Financial independence is an important step in improving the lives of women.
Only 14% of Afghan women are literate. However, school enrollment has grown from 900,000 in 2001 to nearly 5 million today, with girls comprising nearly 50 percent of the total. We visited a number of girls’ schools. Because the Taliban had denied education to girls for almost a decade, we met many students who were attending school year round to catch up with all the learning they had missed. Hundreds of girls in their teens and early twenties sat in elementary classrooms proudly learning to read and write. We arrived in one small village school, the only one for girls in the entire province, the day they were receiving their new schoolbooks. Some children had never held a book before in their lives. In Kabul, the walls of the tiny seventh grade classroom were covered with posters containing the western alphabet, the structure of the atom, the workings of a pump, and a diagram of the female reproductive system. Two students recited poetry for us. They spoke confidently and without hesitation. Will these skills, literacy and numeracy, this knowledge of their own reproductive systems, and the courage and confidence they displayed be enough to help the negotiate the difficult future that still lies ahead? Will they soon be able to help Afghanistan on its course towards stability, security, and prosperity? They certainly hope so and so too does the government and the international community. At the Women’s Day celebration, a United Nations representative proclaimed, “Progress for women is progress for all.”
It did not matter where we went teachers, human rights advocates, religious leaders, business women, government officials and Afghan refugees returning from the West repeated how important it was to make Afghan women literate. Without the ability to read and write, they cannot know their rights. Education opens the mind and according to one Afghan Canadian we met on the street what Afghanistan needs more than anything else is a shift in attitudes; a new and more positive attitude of women.
Change is not easy and does not happen overnight. It requires courage and commitment on the part of Afghan citizens. Women who in the past were political enemies are joining forces. They have recognized the fact that they face a common enemy – traditionalism. Worse yet, traditionalism cloaked in the rhetoric and righteousness of Islam. The majority of Afghans must confront a host of daily challenges. Despite these obstacles, Afghans are hopeful and determined to make their lives, communities, and homeland better. But they cannot do it alone. Decades of war, political instability, and poverty have left the country in desperate need of human and financial resources.
How can we help?
We can
Raise money to buy farm animals such as cows, ducks, and lambs for villagers who have spent years living in refugee camps in Iran or Pakistan.
Raise money to support schools for both girls and boys. Afghans4Tomorrow.
Sponsor literacy programs for adults.
Give to organizations like the International Red Cross/Red Crescent who run many programs from providing amputees with new limbs to protecting prisoner rights.
Support demining organizations like HALO Trust who are making it possible for thousands of families to return to their homes and livelihoods.
If you are Muslim, speak out against the crimes being done in the name of Islam and promote the fact that true Islam is a religion of equality and peace.
Whatever form your help takes, it must give Afghans the tools to help them build a better future for themselves.
I would like to leave you with two final thoughts.
The first was repeated by many Afghanis we met, “Please do not forget us this time.”
The second is a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. “Our lives begin to end, the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Some quotes taken from:
A focus on positives in Afghanistan
Boston Globe By Cornelia Janke March 21, 2006
