Afghanistan's
Women
After 'Liberation'
By Meena Nanji
Znet
December 29, 2003
Last
week in Afghanistan, at the Loya Jirga's (Grand Assembly) convention
to debate Afghanistan's new constitution, an extraordinary thing happened.
Malalai Joya, a 25-year old female social worker from the rural province
of Farah, said what no-one up to now has dared say: that many of the
Jirga's chairmen were criminals who had destroyed the country and instead
of being given influential positions in the Jirga, they should be tried
for their crimes in courts.
A furor ensued with
many in the mujahideen-(holy warrior)-dominated Jirga shouting "death
to Communists". Joya's microphone was cut-off and she was temporarily
removed from the room 'for her own safety'.
It was an extraordinarily
brave stand by Joya. Many Afghans share her sentiments yet most are
too afraid to voice them in public. With death threats received, Joya
herself is under UN protection for the duration of the Jirga.
The 'actions' she
was referring to took place largley during the reign of the Jehadis
(most religiously conservative mujahideen) from 1992-6. The Jehadis,
notorious for throwing acid in the faces of women, slicing off their
breasts and other atrocious acts, gained power during the 1980's when
the U.S saw fit to fund, arm and train them in the fight against Soviet
occupation. During their rule, they terrorized the civilian population
with blanket rocket shellings, rape, torture and killing, to such a
degree that when the Taliban emerged in 1996, they were initially welcomed.
After the fall of
the Taliban these same Jehadi leaders, including Buhruddin Rabbani,
Abdul Sayyaf, and members of the Northern Alliance, have re-emerged,
with disastrous consequences for Afghans, especially women.
Earlier this year,
I visited Kabul to finish shooting a documentary about Afghan women.
Two of the three women I had been 'following' had refused to return
to an Afghanistan dominated by the mujahideen, who, they said, would
only bring more violence to the country. They remain in Pakistan. The
one woman who has returned now lives a life of almost total sequestration.
For most women,
life has not changed much since the ousting of the Taliban. While ostensibly
there are increased opportunities: women can go to school, receive health
care and gain employment, in reality few women can take advantage of
these possibilities and they are largely restricted to Kabul. According
to the many aid workers and Afghan women that I spoke to, women continue
to be very fearful of the armed US-backed mujahideen who exert control
over much of the country. Most women, even in Kabul, still wear the
burqa (the head to toe garment that covers the whole body) as a protective
measure against public humiliation and physical attack. The U.N and
international human rights groups recently released reports detailing
increased incidents of beatings, kidnappings and rape by U.S-funded
regional warlords and their militia, stating: "local militia commanders
violate
women's rights and commit sexual abuse with impunity".
In addition, women
are still subject to the demands of their husbands or male relatives,
many of whom do not want to grant them any degree of independence. Women
face a lack of choice in their personal lives and vocation; forced and
under-age marriages are common, and education for girls is still contested.
The Ministry of
Women's Affairs, ushered in with much fanfare by the U.S and the U.N.,
is of little help in advancing women's rights. Many believe it exists
largely in name to keep international donors happy. With an ill-defined
mandate, it has no legal jurisdiction and no implementation power. Additionally,
many women working in the Ministry are from the elite and deeply conservative
themselves, with little interest in changing the status quo.
Faitana Gailani,
the wealthy founder of the Afghan Women's Council, an NGO purportedly
working for 'women's rights', exemplifies this perspective. The New
York Times reported that after Malalai Joya's impassioned plea in the
Loya Jirga, Gailani explained to her that for the country to move forward
with unity, women had to proceed carefully.
"Till when
should we keep quiet?" Ms. Joya asked
Gailani's response:
"Till we are strong, till the country is strong, till our democracy
is strong, till women's situation in this country is strong. Then we
can open our mouths."
Meanwhile, the few
rights women do possess are being curtailed. This is largely due to
the role of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Fazl Hadi Shinwari,
an ally of the pro-Wahabbi Saudi-backed fundamentalist leader Abdul
Sayyaf. In violation of the existing constitution, Shinwari is over
80 and has training only in religious, not secular, law.
For women, President
Karzai's appointment of Shinwari is a nail in their coffin. He has packed
the 9-member Supreme Court with 137 sympathetic mullahs and called for
Taliban-style punishments to implement Shari'a law. He has also brought
back the Taliban's dreaded Department of Vice and Virtue, re-named the
Ministry of Religious Affairs, which now deploys women to stop public
displays of "un-Islamic" behavior among Afghan women.
If a woman reports
being beaten or raped, and by some miracle her complaint reaches court,
the overwhelming attitude is: "what did she do to provoke this
action?" She is held responsible while the perpetrator is considered
merely reactive. Shari'a law is invoked to support this belief. Women
who do report abuses are often put in prison, and held indefinitely
against their will, purportedly as a protection for themselves. The
real reason they are held, speculate some, is to serve as examples for
other women: "if you report a man for his abusive behavior, you
will go to jail".
The litany of laws
passed this year governing women's conduct reads like a page out of
the Taliban handbook. They include the banning of co-education classes,
restrictions on women's ability to travel, the banning of women singing
in public. The biggest blow yet to women's rights was dealt in November,
when a 1970's law prohibiting married women from attending high school
classes was upheld. This is a major step backwards for women and girls,
as many under-age girls are forced into marriage and now have no hope
of improving their lives. The Ministry of Women's Affairs has done nothing
to protest the law.
In areas outside
Kabul, conditions are much worse. Girls' schools have been set on fire.
In Herat, under Governor Ishmael Khan, women cannot travel with men
who are not related to them, and if women are seen with 'un-related'
men, police may send them to hospital for "chastity tests".
In addition, male teachers are banned from teaching women, a move endorsed
by Chief Justice Shinwari.
What is particularly
ominous about Afghanistan's situation is that the oppression of women
is once again being given legal and religious sanction: State apparatus
is being actively used to de-recognize their human rights. It is vital
that Americans speak up now against this. Malalai Joya's courageous
stand must be supported and her charges investigated. The U.S should
stop its current support of fundamentalists and demand that women's
rights be explicitly protected in Afghanistan's new constitution.
Meena Nanji is a
filmmaker based in Los Angeles and New Delhi. She is currently working
on a documentary about the lives of three Afghan women, entitled View
from A Grain of Sand.