Five year anniversary of US lead coalition attack in Afghanistan is this October. While policy makers in Washington are busy going over the military and strategic gains from the action, the Afghan society still has not seen any difference in their lives. They are living in fear of the resurgent Taliban, economy is in shambles and the promised reconstruction has failed to produce concrete results. For ordinary Afghans, especially women and girls, life under the Karzai government is not much different than life under Taliban.
Under the Taliban, women were forced to wear the chador, not allowed to work and had to be escorted by a male relative if they had to come out of their home. Education, healthcare and human rights for them were non-existent. After the fall of Taliban, the women had hopes of better life, a chance to be human again. Sadly, the deep ingrained discrimination in Afghan society and resurgence in extremism made it impossible.
Afghan journalist, Daud Khan told me during an interview on September 27, 2006 that, “Girls schools are being burnt in the night in provinces and teachers are warned through night letter, not to attend schools. Only four days back, letters were distributed in Kapisa province, situated some 40 kilometers north of the central capital Kabul, warning women to stay at homes instead of attending offices. They were issued death threats. Provincial officials told this scribe, majority of women employees of NGOs and government did not attend their offices after the threats.”
International human rights organizations have expressed concerns over the rising number of honor killings, domestic violence and number of child brides in the country. According to a news report published in the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan’s website, The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has reported that in September alone a dozen cases of honor killings were reported. Many cases go unreported so the actual number is expected to be higher. (Esfandiari, Golnaz. 2006) Reports have also surfaced about a woman who was beaten to death accused of adultery in the Badakhshan province. Local religious leaders handed out the death sentence after the woman was found in a home of man who was not her husband. (Esfandiari, Golnaz. 2005)
Organizations like the AIHRC faced with rising influence of the hardliners in the country. This makes it difficult for them to work with women. In province of Heart, Ismail Khan, the warlord, and his men control the lives of women and girls. They have restricted possible employment, education and health care opportunities for women, often resorting to violence to enforce their edicts. Although the women do not need a male escort to travel outside home, they have to wear the chador which makes it difficult for them to walk. (Human Rights Watch, 2002)
The Karzai government has been unable to stop the vicious cycle of abuse of women. His government agreed to revive the dreaded “Vice and Virtue Department”, bowing under the increasingly vocal hardliners. This is the same “Vice and Virtue Department” which carried on the flogging of women who traveled without male escorts, public beating of women showing an inch of her during the Taliban rule. (Ghimire, Bhumika. 2006)
With rising poppy cultivation and resurgent Taliban occupying Afghan’s government’s attention, the nation’s women are forced to bear all the injustices and wait for times to change. The international community, which came together against the Taliban, is now resting on their laurels, ignoring the true reality in Afghanistan. Taliban may not be in power but religious bigotry and extremism is still forcing Afghan women to live in shadows.
Coming up mid term election has initiated a heated debate about validity of US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. While we debate military and strategic gains, I hope we take time to talk about women of Afghanistan. What have they gained?
