BBC World Service Interview on Women's Rights in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, the week following International Women's Day was marked by a series of events celebrating the role of women in a country no longer toiling under the restrictions of the Taliban.
Naturally, many questions were asked of the government, the international community carrying out and supporting reconstruction efforts, and exactly how far the country had come in the years since 2001. Many are divided, but among women's groups there appears to be unanimity that while qualified strides have been made in healthcare and education for women and girls, equality in the spheres of justice and the economy lags far behind. And, that desperately-needed progress requires a bigger commitment from Afghanistan's foreign backers...as well as a lighter touch.
REPORTER: An international charity recently estimated that 80 per cent of women in Afghanistan are victims of violence -- a shocking statistic if verified, almost seven years after the Taleban were driven from power. Experts say poverty is one cause, girls exchanged for money another. They believe also that child marriages add significantly to violence, especially those of early teenage girls to men old enough to be their grandfathers. The psycho-social impact of 25 years of conflict also has its part to play -- on men and women. According to the United Nations, reported cases of violence have risen by 40 per cent in the past 12 months. And they’re the reported ones. Much, the UN says, goes unreported because of the loss of honour, traditionally carried by women, to families locked into conservative communities. Soraya Sobrangh is a commissioner specialising in women's rights at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.
CLIP SORAYA SOBRANGH, AFGHAN INDEPENDENT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION: "Despite the efforts of the international community over several years, there hasn't been very much change. True, there is more reporting that didn't exist before. Women are more empowered in parliament and have more voice that they didn't have before. But levels of domestic violence are still shocking. And that takes more work."
REPORTER: The international community is going big on justice in Afghanistan now. Reform of the police and the courts system has been intensified after several years of sluggish progress. It's paying judges decent salaries, giving them training and weaning them away from corruption and influence by powerful and conservative forces. Access to justice for the victims of domestic violence is a big part of the programme.
CLIP DR ANOU BORREY: "With the lack of a workable justice system, you have women who have been raped who linger for months and months in prison, with the consequence that they don't report rape any more. Because it's shameful.”
REPORTER: Dr Anou Borrey, from the UN's agency, UNIFEM. A recent, little remarked event in Parwan Province, in Northern Afghanistan, last Sunday however, demonstrated that things are changing. It was the opening of a women's referral centre. A small place of solace for abused, battered, raped or indeed adulterous women. It's one of two such centres in the country. The other was launched in the eastern city of Jalalabad last October. They offer legal representation, hospital services to treat and gather evidence in cases of rape and other assault, armed police protection and shelter. The centres are worth noting less for their size more for their impact.
CLIP Dr ANOU BORREY: “Having the referral system can help women come forward, and ensure the law can be followed and that they get proper representation in courts in accordance with the law."
REPORTER: Afghanistan’s women's ministry wants to open such centres across the country. So too the Interior Ministry, and that marks a sea change in attitude. Dr Borrey.
CLIP Dr ANOU BORREY: "It's phenonomal to see that you can have set-ups that can tackle some of the issues which prevent women from reporting violence. One of the outcomes which amazed us in Jalalabad was that since the inception of the referral centre no arbitrary detentions have happened. There used to be 3 or 4 every month by the police when women complained they'd been raped. Now we don't have them, which to me is magic."
ACTUALITY OF WOMAN CRYING AT SHELTER IN KABUL (5 secs, dari)
REPORTER: Those protecting assualted women in Kabul can only watch and wish. At a women’s and girls’ shelter, Jamila Ghairat, from Women for Afghan Women, says victims are turning up in ever increasing numbers.
CLIP JAMILA GHAIRAT: "Women come here because literally they have nowhere else to go. They can't get justice from the courts. They can't go to the police. There's always suspicion on the woman if she claims to have been raped. And the courts always say this is not our issue, go sort it out in your family."
REPORTER: Which, according to Dr Borrey, can be a death sentence.
CLIP Dr ANOU BORREY: "If they do have the strength and support of their family to find their way to reporting it, they are being further victimised because of the justice system. Another issue is that when women come out of prison, because of carrying the honour of the family, they often then have to deal with the threat of being killed."
REPORTER: Many agencies helping the Afghan government argue that change of the cultural practices which subjugate women comes through parliament. UNIFEM too sees a case there. It has a unit which scrutinises every single law to be passed on the basis of equality. Shukria Barakzai, a deputy who’s consistently fought for women's rights, believes it’s had an effect, pointing to big strides in the emancipation of women.
CLIP SHUKRIA BARAKZAI: "I'm very happy that women participate in parliament. It at least shows that Afghan women have the capacity and capability to be participants in political life. It's a good exercise to change the beliefs of society and show women in power. Never before have women had such a voice, never before has the government been so afraid of women."
REPORTER: Yet at the same time as it supports women’s involvement in the institutions of power, UNIFEM also calls for more subtle, nuanced thinking on the part of the west.
CLIP Dr ANOU BORREY: "We should be careful how we constantly perpetuate the image of afghan women as victims.”
REPORTER: Dr Borrey again.
CLIP Dr ANOU BORREY: “I believe afghan women are very strong. They’ve gone through conflict, they have taken care of children, helped them through literacy, even during the taleban. By persisting that they are victims you also undermine their capacity to develop as equal partners. In the west, we also tend to confuse gender roles in that what men do, women should also be able to do. We need to be able to nuance that a lot better. Because women are not supposed to be able to do certain things, that implies they are victims.”
REPORTER: And how better to contribute to Afghanistan’s development, says Mina Sherzoy, than through the economy. She runs AWWSOM -- Afghanistan WorldWide Shopping Online Mall. It's a fashion business, specialising in designs which reflect a varied cultural heritage.
CLIP MINA SHERZOY: "The opportunity is there, the talent is there, the motivation is there. Enterprise development for women makes a major impact, with small and medium-sized businesses. 100 or 200 dollars in micro-finance make a big difference. We're training uneducated women in enterprise and once they get going, they're gone."
REPORTER: But she says lack of security and government and local corruption is starting to drive women underground, forcing them to keep a low profile and squirrel away profits for their families so they don't attract attention. A diminishing lack of interest on the part of the international community is hurting too, she says.
CLIP MINA SHERZOY: "The donor world, everyone from the west, they were very hot on Afghan women and children until maybe a year or two ago. I accomplished a lot before that and we did a lot of work. Now everything has become all about terror, narcotics, parliament and the government. No one pays attention about women and children any more, and 60 per cent of our population are under 18.”
REPORTER: Allied to that are continuing cutural misunderstandings which Mina Sherzoy says affect the impact of foreign-backed programmes for women.
CLIP MINA SHERZOY: "The traditions of the Afghan people are being ignored. How does that impact women? It impacts them dearly. Because you know how possessive the tradition is of a woman. Women should stay home, raise children. If she gets out, where's she going to? Who she's talking to? That's the culture and we have to respect that. I remember with one donor, a couple of years ago, I said how come you're not funding this sewing project for widows anymore? She looked and said ‘you know we're not doing handicrafts anymore. We want you to bring us proposals that take women out of the house. They should work out of the house’. I looked at her and said you got to be kidding me. These people are not ready for those projects. You have to educate men as well."
REPORTER: There's precious little of that going on in the context of women's rights. But, says Mina Sherzoy, it's necessary to reduce violence against women.
CLIP MINA SHERZOY: "Men have also been brainwashed during the war. It's not just the women that are hurting. If we keep building women all the way, and you don't build the man, that increases violence, because the man is going to feel isolated, and of course he's going to get jealous the minute she starts to give an opinion. And the man starts abusing her. So you are creating this imbalance."
REPORTER: Mina Sherzoy has learned many things lost she says on an international community looking for fast, tangible results in Afghanistan. That nothing happens in isolation in this country, least of all the empowerment of women at the expense of men. And that change, when it comes, is small and finely calibrated, as the Parwan women's referral centre shows.
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UNIFEM