K

ABUL In the south of

Afghanistan, where the ultracon-
servative Pashtun tribes dominate,
womens lives are evaluated by the
amount they suffer. They gain sta-
tus with the tears they shed. After almost a
decade of international engagement and bil-
lions of dollars spent on gender mainstream-
ing, the situation for Afghan women remains
on aggregate as desperate as it was.
Over the past nine years that womens
rights have been enshrined in the constitu-
tion, international and Afghan legal wizards
have worked to reform the system to bring in
gender equality and write laws that protect
girls and women. The laws are rarely imple-
mented, and there is little political desire to
do so. Afghanistan fights many chronic prob-
lems including great poverty it is the poor-
est country outside of sub-Saharan Africa
extremely high illiteracy rates, lack of infra-
structure, massive corruption, inadequate
health care, chronic food insecurity (as well
as a decade-long drought), poor governance
and a poorly functioning justice system. Lev-
els of domestic violence are of epidemic pro-
portion. A UN Development Fund for
Women report found that 87 percent of
Afghan women reported being beaten on a
regular basis. Girls have acid thrown in their
20 MAGAZINE January 28, 2011
FEATURE
HEIDI KINGSTONE
Photos: Lorenzo Tugnoli
According to a foreign aid workers observations, the stifling situation
for women in Afghanistan essentially remains unchanged
Suffering
in silence
Suffering
in silence
faces for going to school.
Maternal mortality rates may have
improved, but Afghanistan still makes the
worlds top three, and female life expectancy
is 46. The tradition of child marriage contin-
ues; girls are given away to resolve disputes,
and forced isolation in the home marginal-
izes millions of Afghan women and girls.
President Hamid Karzais wife is an interest-
ing example. She was a practicing gynecolo-
gist before getting married. Now, as a good
Pashtun woman, she is never seen in public.
Some religious leaders reinforce these
harmful customs by invoking their interpre-
tation of Islam. In most cases, however, these
practices are inconsistent with Sharia law. as
well as Afghan and international law, and
violate the human rights of women, accord-
ing to a recent report by the Swedish Com-
mittee. Another recent survey of the region
showed that the overall trend favored harsh-
er Sharia law.
Powerful men, warlords and former
mujahuddin, who have violated womens
rights and massacred fellow Afghans, hold
the reins of political power. There are two
types of Taliban, said a successful UK- and
Soviet-educated Afghan woman in Kabul,
and those in government are the worst.
They dont believe in womens rights, but
they tell donors and the international com-
munity that they do. Gender issues attract
donor money.
In any case, many women lack any skills
that could make them independent, further
compounding the problem. Men cant make
decisions, says an Afghan woman who spent
several decades in California and returned
nine years ago, because since they were chil-
dren, their mothers and sisters have done
everything for them, and then their father
makes all the other decisions what school
to go to, what clothes to wear, whom to
marry. Finally, by the time a man is 30 and in
a good job, probably at the ministry, he has
never made a decision and now cant. Why
should he want to change?
The gap between what we have tried to do
and what has been done is huge. This, too, has
been compounded in some measure by West-
ern arrogance manifested by sending in a series
of men and women on short-term contracts
usually six months who become instant
experts and believe they can resolve the long-
entrenched problems and complex cultural
issues that have defeated legions of others.
WHILE THE situation is not black or white, it
remains difficult to understand why women
do not embrace the freedoms we consider as
simple universal human rights, especially
when women, even in the villages, soak up
any information they can get their hands on.
This often frustrates the expat community,
who have come here for a variety of reasons,
not least to bring change to the women of
Afghanistan. As with anything, the picture is
complex and nuanced. Afghan women, like
women anywhere, can be strong, assertive,
smart and successful. They are resourceful,
they are survivors, and they are fighters.
In this society, we foreigners expect women
to play the victim, and it is easy for them to
do so because we dont expect more. We like
this paradigm and understand it; but, of
course, not all women are victims.
One aid worker explains what she has
found over the two years she has worked in
Afghanistan. I realized during a manage-
ment meeting that a very common way for
foreigners, especially men, to give Afghan
women their voice or to empower them or
involve them in the decision-making process
was to actually first define them as victims.
The only way the management could relate
to female Afghan employees or see the
importance of empowering them was to first
have them admit that they were suffering
from some kind of subordination. That gives
women their voice, but it lets them off the
hook when it comes to accountability.
Men indirectly create the big solidarity
gap, fueling the competition among Afghan
women, so there is no sense of sisterhood.
Today for a fairly good English-speaking
Afghan woman, there are no limits in the
NGO world when it comes to position and
salary. But its also important to see the sym-
bolic act in recruiting more Afghan women
in leading NGO positions. We get them on
board, which means that we can tick off
involving women in the decision-making
process, and show that we value equality.
But then to create an environment where
they can actually function within the NGO
sphere on their terms is not something many
NGOs are interested in. However, the respon-
sibilities, expectations and social control will
increase for these women, but they will not
get the authority or mandate to actually
make any decisions or change in their profes-
sions, and it is still foreign men who fight
their cause.
But when women earn money, especially
when they become the breadwinners, it helps
change mind-sets that are enormously diffi-
cult to change in any environment.
But in Afghanistan, perhaps in a way that is
different from its neighbors, Islam is a way of
life and its tenets are deeply ingrained in
society. Instead of confronting issues, women
have learned to maneuver around the patri-
archal system in a very intelligent way and in
a manner that does not disturb the status quo
because without family, life here is almost
unbearable.
In one community, women have gained
self-confidence and are demanding their
rights. Hazaras, long the underdog in this
Pashtun-dominated country, fled to Iran
they share the same Shiite faith during var-
ious upheavals and conflicts. While the Sunni
Pashtuns largely keep their women uneducat-
ed and at home, the more liberal Hazaras are
shifting the balance in this game-changing
development. They have returned from years
of exile educated and more liberal.
Women are up against huge obstacles, but
one Afghan woman says, My father raised
me to be like a spring. The harder I am
pushed down, the higher I spring back.
Another woman in Kunduz, a province in
the north, explains how sensitive the situa-
tion is: If men who are not relatives are in
the house and they even hear womens laugh-
ter or talking, they say it is a bad family.
The woman came back from exile five years
ago to help, but she has seen the situation
deteriorate. She had never worn a burka
before but does now. Women hate wearing
them, she says. With the younger genera-
tion in Kunduz, a father or a brother might
MAGAZINE www.jpost.com 21
FOR AN overwhelming majority of women, being inside the home is where society and
their husbands expect them to be. One Pashto saying makes the point: A woman should be
at home or in the grave.
22 MAGAZINE January 28, 2011
FEATURE
G
ul Jan looks like a 1,000-year old
egg. She has a long gray braid
tucked under her faded hijab, two
bottom teeth are all that are left in
her mouth, and her face is a complex web of
folds and wrinkles. Even though I cant
understand the words she is speaking, I can
understand her happiness.
Gul Jan is the beneficiary of one of the
many hundreds, probably thousands, of for-
eign aid projects popular throughout
Afghanistan in an attempt to win hearts and
minds and, in theory, contribute to eco-
nomic empowerment and political stability.
Many of these projects consist of a gender
mainstreaming to enable women who
remain the most vulnerable sector of society
to have some security. I met Gul Jan when I
traveled to the north to write about projects
funded by the German government through
GTZ, a private international enterprise. It
was a fascinating opportunity to see another
part of the country the four provinces of
Kunduz, Balkh, Badakhshan and Takhar.
Which is how I met Gul Jan. Nothing pro-
vides a sense of impact like the women
themselves. As the wife of a farmer, she dried
vegetables grown in her garden on the roof
of her house or under a tree, where they
would collect dust and be eaten by insects.
There was no market; and when there was,
the price was low.
This German program provided her with a
solar dryer low-level technology that is not
more complicated than a table, a net and a
solar-powered heating tube. She produces a
nutritious commodity and sells her produce
for a fair price at the market. That was the
intended consequence, to make women
more economically independent and help
increase family living standards. Even small
amounts of money can make significant dif-
ferences in one of the worlds poorest and
most food-insecure countries in the world.
The common quoted statistic is that the
average Afghan family earns less than $600
a year.
The unintended consequence was even
more powerful. After I went to WEA
[Womens Entrepreneurship Association,
funded by GTZ], I saw other women, said
Gul Jan, eager to talk. Now I know if you sit
at home and are jobless, this is not good. I
come here and am encouraged. I can tell
other women in the village.
For most of us who read that last state-
ment, it would seem obvious. Of course,
women should go out if they want to. The
context is important.
Like many, many women in Afghanistan,
going out is an issue; maybe not for all of
them, as many do work, but for an over-
whelming majority, being inside the home
is where society and their husbands expect
them to be. One Pashto saying makes the
point: A woman should be at home or in
the grave.
So for Gul Jan to see another small slice of
life is even more precious than the skills she
was taught. And she is absolutely correct.
She can tell other women in the village.
That gives women the power of knowledge.
Like Gul Jans originally dusty and insect-
eaten vegetables, her new nutritious vegeta-
bles that she can take to market have sowed
a seed in her brain that women can work,
that they can get out of the house, that they
have a useful purpose, that they can think,
that there is another way.
Women remain at the bottom of a big
Inadvertent consequences
say, Dont wear it; but once they are mar-
ried, their husbands insist they do.
Women live terrible lives. Its very difficult
to be a woman here. All ways are blocked. If
a woman wants to study or work or marry,
she cannot make her own decisions. She has
to follow her family and society. In Uruzgan
[a volatile province in the east and the birth-
place of Mullah Omar], for example, after the
age of eight, girls and women are no longer
seen in public; and if they are, it is never
without a burka.
We need to shed light on what really is also
happening on the ground, says one Kabul-
based expert. Parliament has x percent of
women, but sending women in numbers to
the political arena can be disempowering.
They may not represent womens strategic
interests for many reasons, not least that they
lack relevant or any experience. A quota sys-
tem should be carefully thought through.
The top-down approach, which has been
the chosen route so far, is not the key to the
problems. It is time to reflect upon what has
been done and what needs to be done in
future. Instead of being obsessed with num-
bers, we need to focus on the grassroots.
There are plenty of females who are natural
leaders in each village. By bringing women
together in a purposeful manner outside the
political space, there is a better chance of suc-
cess.
Kabul itself might be seen as a sign of
change. During the civil war, the city was
destroyed. Under the Taliban, the capital was
a ghost town. Now women are seen on the
streets, they work in offices, some are bold
enough to let their hijab called bad hijab
slip further back over their hair rather than
have it wrapped tightly around their heads.
Kabul is booming, fueled by drug money
and aid money; large poppy palaces have
sprung up all over town; glossy storefronts
stock imported goods; there are supermar-
kets, a proliferation of restaurants, shopping
malls, a few more paved streets and other vis-
ible signs of progress. Whether this is sustain-
able is a matter of debate.
Inevitably the situation has changed for
some women. Perhaps the Wests timetable
has been unrealistic, as well as its agenda. The
question remains whether the change has
been enough for Afghan women.
As one Afghan-American woman says, We
are the victims of our own perception. We
have come to Afghanistan and it has been an
amazing experiment, like coming out of the
Dark Ages. But it is an experiment that has
faltered.
A UN Development Fund for Women
report found that 87 percent of Afghan
women reported being beaten on a
regular basis. Girls have acid thrown in
their faces for going to school
EVEN SMALL amounts of money can make significant differences in one of the worlds
poorest and most food-insecure countries. The average Afghan family earns less than
$600 a year.
high heap in Afghanistan. Disabled women
come even further down. Women who are
poor or who have lost a leg fight against all
sorts of prejudice in a country that has a harsh,
intolerant landscape, internal and external, as
well as a harsh climate.
In Kunduz there is a leather factory where
disabled men and disabled women work pro-
ducing bags and other accessories. They work
in separate rooms to conform to the cultural
norms.
The province of Kunduz has become much
more unstable in the past few years. The Tal-
iban runs shadow governments cutting off
access to certain areas. The Taliban frontline is
only three kilometers from the provincial cen-
ter, Kunduz City. Should the Taliban return in
force, it will enforce its strict codes of behavior,
and women will once again be pushed behind
locked doors.
Every day, eight women come to work at the
leather factory. They are picked up and trans-
ported to the studio. The womens work is
quite impressive considering they have only
trained for three months. Afghan leather is
tough, closer to cardboard than the finely
processed finished products that we are used
to. This workshop teaches them skills that they
will be able to translate into economic viabili-
ty.
The eight women stand or sit around a large
table in a small room and work and chat and
gossip. They are quite young. Some have
brought their children, one has brought a sib-
ling. Some wear nail polish, all wear head
scarves and all are united by being at the bot-
tom of this terrible heap of humanity. Each has
lost a leg through either stepping on a land
mine or from a rocket attack.
Pari wears purple nail polish. She is short,
and it looks as if a hump is forming on her
back. At first she is very quiet as she plays with
the tools used to cut the leather and glue and
stitch the bags and just avoids answering the
questions I ask the group.
As the discussion rolls on, her personality
starts to emerge. She has lots of ideas and is
quite talkative, smart and insightful. She dis-
cusses how close the women have become and
how much the friendships mean to each of
them and how it unites them all of them, she
says. No one is left out. That isnt the typical
measure used to evaluate projects, but it seals
the deal for me. If I were a disgruntled German
taxpayer, after hearing these women I would
change my mind. It breaks my heart.
Then Lalimeh, another of the women, says
that she prefers to be with women like herself.
She has had eight prostheses over the many
years since her leg was blown off in a rocket
attack that destroyed her house when she was
six. Since then, none has been comfortable.
Children called me names when I was
young, she says. I prefer to be around people
like myself.
Pari, who is unmarried, says that being at
home with nothing to do is boring. Getting
out of the house with somewhere to go and
having something to do while earning some
vital income has changed her life. She hopes it
will continue.
No matter how much is written about the
deplorable condition of womens lives in
Afghanistan, it is not enough. To hear these
women talk about the importance of being
together, how much it meant to them to have
this group of friends, how they hoped to find
the money they needed for transportation, all
the other ideals of sustainable development
faded away. That is not the point of any of the
programs or projects, but it is the human side
and probably even more important, as it offers
hope, and sometimes there is nothing else.
Pashtuns situation is different. She came
three months ago to another project and has
learned to spin wool. The day I met her, she
had brought her five-year-old daughter with
her to work on the morning shift. At the end
of the project, she will be able to take the spin-
ning wheel home and work there, like many
other women do. I will buy wool from the
bazaar and spin it and sell it back to them and
make a good income, she says. Pashtun is 29
and has five children. Her husband is 78.
Changing a culture, in the naive way that
was perhaps envisioned in the early days
when the NATO forces went into Afghanistan
at the invitation of the government, is a far
cry from what will actually be done in the
end. Daily life in Afghanistan continues to be
a struggle. People are very very poor, the secu-
rity situation is constantly deteriorating, there
are few job opportunities. But Afghan men
and women who work for foreign NGOs or
other organizations also learn English; some
even go to anger management classes all
unexpected consequences of what we are sup-
posed to be doing.
The debate about aid, whether it works or
not, or what the West is doing here, throws up
big questions that include the serious one
about transforming womens lives by teaching
them skills so they can be economically inde-
pendent. The jury may still be out, but on a
micro level, moments of joy in otherwise hard
lives, moments of freedom, make the attempt
worthwhile. The worry is what next, and that
scenario is not looking good.
H.K.
24 MAGAZINE January 28, 2011
FEATURE
Instead of confronting issues, women have learned
to maneuver around the patriarchal system in a
very intelligent way and in a manner that does not
disturb the status quo, because without family,
life here is almost unbearable
THERE ARE many foreign aid projects in Afghanistan that try to enable women to have some security.