The severe oppression of women in Afghanistan suddenly became a issue when Washington decided to invade the country in 2001. But how much has improved? According to human rights activist Dr Nazir Gul, a former UN officer in Kabul, Afghan women are still fighting for basic rights.
The rights and status of women in Afghanistan became an issue of global concern before the military intervention by a US-led coalition that led to the end of the Taliban regime in November 2001.
The international community, including members of the coalition, made repeated undertakings that their intervention would support women in realising their rights. Colin Powell, US secretary of state, declared: "The recovery of Afghanistan must entail the restoration of the rights of Afghan women. And the rights of the women of Afghanistan will not be negotiable."
During the rule of the Taliban, the United Nations, Amnesty International and other human rights organisations repeatedly highlighted serious concerns regarding the situation of women in Afghanistan. The rigid social, moral and behavioural codes imposed by the Taliban included severe restrictions on women's freedom of movement, expression and association. During this period, widespread human rights abuses committed by regional commanders of the Northern Alliance were not very publicised outside Afghanistan. Many of those commanders today hold powerful positions in the regions and in central government.
Now, nearly three years after the end of the Taliban regime, the international community and the Afghan Transitional Administration (ATA), led by President Hamid Karzai, have proven unable to protect women. International human rights organisations and Afghan intellectuals are gravely concerned by the extent of violence faced by women and girls in Afghanistan now.
The risk of rape and sexual violence by members of armed factions and former combatants is still high. Forced marriage, particularly of under-aged girls, and violence against women in the family are widespread in many areas of the country.
These crimes of violence continue with the active support or passive complicity of state agents, armed groups, families and communities. This continuing violence against women in Afghanistan causes untold suffering and denies women their fundamental human rights.
Appalling
The situation of women in Afghanistan remains appalling. Though girls and women in Kabul, and some other cities, are free to go to school and have jobs, this is not the case in most parts of the country. In the western province of Herat, the warlord Ismail Khan imposes Taliban-like decrees.
Many women have no access to education and are banned from working in foreign NGOs or UN offices, and there are hardly any women in government offices. Women cannot take a taxi or walk in public unless accompanied by a close male relative. If seen with men who are not close relatives, women can be arrested by the "special police" and forced to undergo a hospital examination to see if they have recently had sexual intercourse. Because of this continued oppression, every month a large number of girls commit suicide — many more than under Taliban rule.
Women's rights fare no better in northern and southern Afghanistan, which are under the control of the Northern Alliance. According to an international NGO worker: "During the Taliban era, if a woman went to market and showed an inch of flesh she would have been beaten; but now she's getting raped."
According to Human Rights Watch, even in Kabul, where thousands of foreign troops are present, Afghan women do not feel safe and many continue to wear the burqa for protection. In some areas where girls' education does exist, parents are afraid to allow their daughters to take advantage of it, following the burning down of several girls' schools. Girls have been abducted on the way to school and sexual assaults on children of both sexes are now very common.
Rhetoric is not reality
In spite of its rhetoric, the Karzai government actively pursues policies that are anti-women.
Women cannot find jobs, and girls' schools often lack basic materials, such as books and chairs. There is no legal protection for women, and the legal systems prohibit them from getting help when they need it. Female singers are not allowed on Kabul television and women's songs are not played.
Karzai's government has established a women's ministry just to throw dust in the eyes of the international community. This ministry has done nothing for women and there are complaints that money given to the ministry by foreign NGOs has been taken by powerful warlords in the Karzai cabinet.
In addition, thousands of young Afghan women have been expelled from school simply because they are married. It's a big blow for female students, who were denied the right to education under the Taliban regime and hoped for more opportunities under the transitional administration.
A law passed in the mid-1970s that prohibited married women from attending high school was upheld by the government in September, resulting in the expulsion of more than 3000 women students. Supporters of the legislation argue that the law protects unmarried girls from hearing explicit details about sex from married classmates.
The "war on terror" toppled the Taliban regime, but it has not removed religious radicalism and fanaticism, which is the main cause of misery for Afghan women. In fact, by bringing the warlords back to power, the US has replaced one anti-women, fundamentalist regime with another.
The US now supports the Northern Alliance, which was responsible for killing more than 50,000 civilians during its bloody rule in the 1990s. Those in power today are those who imposed anti-women restrictions as soon as they took control in 1992, after the resignation of President Najibullah. As soon as these armed militias came to power, they started a reign of terror throughout Afghanistan. Thousands of women and girls were systematically raped by militias and many committed suicide to avoid being sexually assaulted.
The criminal justice system does not offer effective protection for women. Prosecution for violence against women and protection for women at acute risk of violence is virtually absent. Those women who overcome the powerful barriers and seek redress are unlikely to have their complaints considered, or their rights defended.
Key donors supporting reform of the police and judiciary have failed to ensure that their intervention will support protection of women's rights. Protection and shelters for women at risk have not been created, and legal aid provision remains entirely inadequate.
It is vital that measures to protect the rights of women are built into legal and constitutional reform. We call on the Afghan Transitional Administration and the international community to act with urgency to protect women from violence and to build a criminal justice system that is able to defend women's right to live free from violence.
The prevailing insecurity has directly impacted on attempts by women to engage in political activities and ensure integration of women's rights in the process of reconstruction. Women delegates at the constitutional Loya Jirga (grand assembly meeting) were subject to intimidation. Human rights activists have a deep concern that women's participation in the coming election will be similarly threatened. The fake nature of the constitutional Loya Jirga and freedom of speech were clear to all the people of Afghanistan and the world in the attacks on the women delegates, Malalai Joya and Anar Kali.
As a result of this Jirga, we have a so-called constitution that gives legitimacy to the tyrannical rule of warlords and is not able to protect women from violence and guarantee the protection of fundamental human rights and freedom. Therefore, I propose the creation and implementation of the following Bill of Rights for Afghan Women:
1. Mandatory education for women through secondary school and opportunities for all women for higher education.
2. Provision of up-to-date health services for women with special attention to reproductive rights.
3. Protection and security for women: the prevention and criminalization of sexual abuse and harassment against women and children publicly and at home, domestic violence, and the use of women as compensation for crimes by one family against another so-called "bad blood-price" .
4. Freedom of speech.
5. Freedom to vote and run for election to office.
6. Rights to marry and divorce, according to Islam.
7. Equal pay for equal work.
8. Right to financial independence and ownership of property.
9. Right to participate fully and to the highest levels in the economic and commercial life of the country.
10. Mandatory provision of economic opportunities for women.
11. Full representation of women in the Parliament.
12. Full inclusion of women in the judiciary system.
13. Minimum marriageable age set at 18 years.
14. Guarantee of all constitutional rights to widows, disabled women and orphans.
[Abridged from a talk presented to the International Women's Day celebration organised by the Afghan New Cultural Association in Auburn, NSW, on March 20.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 5, 2004.
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