WUNRN
Al Jazeera - http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2014/07/growing-up-behind-bars-20147301372184692.html
WEBSITE LINK INCLUDES LIVE FOOTAGE OF MOTHERS & THEIR YOUNG CHILDREN IN PRISON IN AFGHANISTAN.
Afghanistan – Growing Up Behind Bars – Young Afghan Children in
Prison with Their Mothers
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Photo: www.couriermail.com.au
By Mike
Healy
31 July 2014 - The frequently appalling treatment of women in
Afghanistan is a subject that has been well covered by the international media,
and quite rightly so: Earlier this year for example, my British-Afghan
colleague Najibullah Quraishi and I interviewed women who had been badly beaten
and abused by their husbands and their families (including other women), and
had no other option but to live secretly in a women's shelter in Kabul.
One young woman had been stabbed in the head by her husband and
had had her fingernails pulled out. When she tried to escape, she was imprisoned
for four years by the authorities for the "moral crime" of simply
being a woman unaccompanied by a male.
We wanted to know what happened to the young children of such women (even the guilty ones), and Najibullah, using his extensive range of contacts in Afghanistan, secured us access to Jowzjan prison - sometimes referred to as Sheberghan prison, after the town where it's situated.
The prison authorities took some persuading, and were conscious of
how they would come across to an international audience, but the fact that this
prison is widely seen as the best in northern Afghanistan meant that,
relatively speaking, they had less to hide.
Here the staff genuinely seemed to have personal connections
with the female inmates, and living conditions – though clearly very basic –
were relatively bearable. But we also heard reports of prisons in other areas
where staff abuse and even rape the women under their guard.
Once we got there, perhaps the biggest surprise was just how
young the majority of the children were. But actually it made sense that the
very youngest children including newborns in need of the greatest care remained
with their mothers - in prison.
When the fathers have to travel hundreds of miles to find work,
it is left to relatives to care for the children who remain outside prison. One
father described how he is forced to lock his children in the house for their
own safety while he is out working. Even when they are at home, they are
imprisoned.
However, in a country where reputation is everything, the
children of prisoners are often disowned and left to live off the streets.
Needless to say, these children are more vulnerable to dangers such as drug
addiction, and inevitably, crime.
On the inside, the children growing up in prison are
desensitised to their environment and likely under the influence of genuine
criminals. Inside or out, the system encourages criminality and despair.
The numbers of figures involved are difficult to estimate,
especially as the children may have spells in prison followed by time with
relatives outside, but its thought to be in the hundreds at least. There are
also orphanages and children's centres throughout Afghanistan, some of them
excellent, like the USAID-funded centre in Mazar-e-Sharif, but others of a poor
standard where abuse is rife. It is understandable if incarcerated mothers are
reluctant to trust their babies to the care of strangers miles away.
We interviewed a local psychologist on the subject. He described
how vulnerable children will struggle to understand their predicament. For
example, if their mothers insist that they are innocent and yet they are living
in jail, this will give them a skewed understanding of morality and justice,
and a lack of motivation therefore to be good citizens.
In addition, they may come to resent their own mothers for the
lives they have given them. And even if the mothers were innocent to begin
with, they may become damaged and cynical parents as the years pass. Both
mothers and children may eventually become institutionalised and feel safer
behind the prison walls, especially when life outside is so harsh.
It is the very youngest who have most to lose, never seeing
hills, rivers or streets, or meeting new people. As the psychologist says: "A person in this 21st
century needs to learn, experience and feel a lot of things in their first
years of life so they are equipped to make the right choices and have a
positive impact on society. In a prison environment, with every day that
passes, they miss out on those experiences."