Observations on Afghanistan
By SALIL TRIPATHI.
The plight of Afghan women under the Taliban has been well documented.
Women
were denied education and employment, and were treated harshly if they
transgressed the "rules" dreamt up by madrasa-trained, semi-literate,
bearded bullies
stalking the streets carrying Kalashnikovs.
International opinion was incensed, but little was done. A National
Geographic cover made an Afghan girl with mesmerising eyes the mascot
of
her sisters'
misery, generating a well-intentioned e-mail petition that clogged up
inboxes
around the world in 1999.
Things changed after 9/11. America decided to remove the Taliban from
power
and Barbara Bush went on national television seeking emancipation for
Afghan
women. But after the Taliban fell, the focus shifted. Establishing the
rule
of
law and rebuilding infrastructure became priorities. The US now spends
$1bn
a
month on military operations in Afghanistan, and $25m on aid. Women's
rights
have receded in importance. Some who cast away veils are again
shrouding
themselves in towns where local militia, opposed to the Taliban but
sharing
their
misogyny, patrol the streets.
"We look like upturned shuttlecocks," an Afghan woman told a group of
New
York activists visiting Afghanistan recently. The four
women, Masuda
Sultan,
Manizha Nadiri, Esther Hyneman and Sunita Mehta, were from an NGO
called
Women for
Afghan Women, which supports Afghan women in the New York area and now
also
backs nascent women's organisations in Afghanistan. Sunita Mehta, the
group's
co-founder, says: "Our aim is to create platforms for Afghan women to
chart
their own future and speak in their own voices. We see ourselves as a
bridge
between the grass roots and the international arena."
Last month, Mehta and her colleagues brought 45 women from all parts
of
Afghanistan to Kandahar, in the heart of Taliban territory, for a
conference to
draw up the first Afghan Women's Bill of Rights. It was an audacious
effort,
bringing together academics, activists, under-educated and illiterate
women. Mehta
says: "We are willing to take a risk. And we trust the grass roots to
have
the knowledge, wisdom and expertise required to build the nation."
They
presented the document to President Hamid Karzai and it will form part
of
the
deliberations on a new constitution. He has promised that half his 50
appointees to
the commission drafting the constitution will be women.
The first guarantee the bill seeks is the right to
education, followed
by
healthcare, personal security and support for widows. Freedom of
speech
comes
fifth, followed by the right to vote. Mehta explains: "The security
question will
be paramount when elections take place next year. How can women be
expected
to vote, whether or not they have the right, if they are scared to
leave
their
homes?"
That danger remains. When Mehta was in Kandahar, a girls' school was
burned
down and there were attacks on the Kabul-Kandahar road. But it did not
prevent
them from going on a picnic, singing songs from Bollywood films and
sharing
home-made ice cream.
Mehta says they earned trust because they respected local traditions.
She
adds: "To work for Afghan women's rights, and not sincerely accept,
acknowledge
and respect the fact that most Afghans are practising Muslims, is
simply
ineffective."
Women for Afghan Women: shattering myths and claiming the future is
edited
by
Sunita Mehta (Palgrave Macmillan)