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JALAL FOUNDATION

An Afghan Women-led, Women-focused Organization and Network of

Women NGOs and Councils

 

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GAINS, CHALLENGES AND WAYS FORWARD FOR AFGHAN WOMEN

AFTER “OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM”

 

By: Dr. Massouda Jalal[1]

 

Founding Chairperson of Jalal Foundation and Former Minister of Women, Afghanistan

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Women of Afghanistan have been feeling forlorn since the outward exodus of our international partners in 2013.  We call for your commitment to never leave the Afghan women alone.

                           

When I was a child, I was told that in Barrow, Alaska, the sun does not rise for 67 days during the winter solstice.  Back then, I believed that life disintegrates in over two months of total darkness. However, as I began to live the life of an adolescent and an adult; when I started to experience the harsh reality of being oppressed as a woman in my country; when I went through the horrors of war and experienced how it felt to be tortured by the Taliban; I learned that darkness has its own way of nurturing life. Afghanistan has been in the dark for over two decades before the international community arrived in 2001.  Those years of darkness taught me and my Afghan sisters how to see beyond darkness; how to look up to the heavens even when there are no stars; and how to ignite our inner torch to illuminate our dark pathways.

 

GAINS, CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 

The challenges that Afghan women face today could not be divorced from the complex historical events that brought us to our current situation. The international community came to Afghanistan in 2001 under the banner of Operation Enduring Freedom, a multi-state operation that claimed thousands of lives and bled the international community of billions of dollars. On the part of the United States alone, taxpayers lost over 686 billion dollars as of 2013[2], a cost that it can hardly sustain, given an economy that has swerved to a down spiral.

 

Then on May 2, 2011, we woke up to news that Osama Bin Laden had been neutralized and that Operation Enduring Freedom had reached a victorious end. Afghans had to face the inevitability of finishing a war that even the combined military forces of the international community was not able to win.  It felt like asking a toddler to run an Olympic race before its wobbly legs could even step out of the crib.  To make the matters worse, our government was conveniently convinced to make peace with the Taliban, resulting in at least 1,716[3] combatants returning to our communities without the benefit of de-radicalization.  This is like asking the international community to invite ISIS to live in their own backyards. It feels awful, pitiful and painful. Women objected, but no one thought that their voices matter.

 

§  General achievements

 

Operation Enduring Freedom was not only a peace and security mission.  It was wrapped in an enticing promise of national reconstruction, democratization, economic rehabilitation, and most of all, the restoration of rights and empowerment of women.  It was so well-received by the Afghan nation – so much so, that women actually thought that the operation was also about giving them “enduring freedom” from oppression, fear, injustice, violence, and discrimination.  From the vantage point of ordinary Afghans, the international community brought remarkable positive changes to their lives. It liberated them from the tyrannical rule of the Taliban and rekindled hope for a life with dignity, progress and peace. Many Afghans who lived as refugees returned to help in national reconstruction - bringing back their hard earned money to open small business, reuniting with their family, and producing goods and services that could sustain our fragile economy.  Many young women and men worked with the international community and served as breadwinners of their family. 

 

The gains for the women population were tremendous. For the first time, girls and young women returned to school; women were allowed to move in the public space and work, pursue a career, vote during elections, run for public office, join civil society organizations, and step inside the mosques to participate in religious worships. It was far from perfect, but it was like savoring a morning sunshine after 25 years of total darkness.

 

§  Human Rights and Political participation 

 

In terms of human rights and political participation, the Afghan Government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) without reservations, binding itself to an obligation to protect, respect and fulfill the rights of girls and women.  Equality between women and men was also enshrined in the Constitution[4] which paved the way for a number of policy and legal instruments, including the National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA), 2008-2018[5], the decree on the elimination of violence against women which declared 22 forms of violence against women as unlawful, and the affirmative action policy in Articles 83 and 84 of the Constitution which reserve seats for women in the Parliament; resulting in at least 27.7 percent representation of women in the Parliament as of 2014[6]. Mechanisms for women’s advancement and human rights were also established including the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the Women’s Department of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, and the gender focal points in all ministries that are tasked to facilitate the implementation of NAPWA and international treaties and commitments for the advancement of women’s status.

 

These gains, however, are constantly being undermined by fundamentalist beliefs of many people, including those who are most influential. Sadly, the anti-women ideology of the Taliban has been imbibed by many Afghans, women and men alike. They are the ones who make it impossible for women to fully enjoy substantive equality. Our Constitution is strong when it comes to women’s rights but it is scheduled to be amended soon under the new administration. Given that many fundamentalist leaders are now in government, and considering that there will be a Parliamentary election that could bring more law makers with fundamentalist orientation, the pro-women provisions in the Constitution faces a threat of possible deletion. The present Parliament had already removed the women’s quota in the local elections – proof that the women’s agenda remains vulnerable to obliteration.

 

Also, President Ashraf Ghani committed to appoint female members in the Supreme Court and ensure more significant representation of women in the national leadership.  But these are not happening and may never happen unless we hold him accountable to deliver on his promises to the women population. I therefore wish to call upon our international supporters to communicate their expectation to our new government about stronger presence and roles of women in national leadership and decision making.  I also recommend that the international community join us in calling for a ten-year moratorium on the repeal or amendment of all laws and policies on women. The government should build upon the gains of the past 13 years rather than decimate them.

 

While equality is guaranteed to women before the law, the enabling environment that is necessary for women to enjoy substantive equality remains non-existent. First, those laws are not known or understood by the general population.  Second, those who are mandated to implement the laws do not have the capacity, commitment and resources to do so. Third, there are no measures to help society abandon their traditional views and support the essence of the law. And fourth, women themselves could not use the law due to lack of knowledge of their rights and the restrictive controls of their family members.  The laws are published in the national Gazette but 64 percent of our population cannot read.  Paradoxically, while terroristic activities get free, real-time coverage of their heinous crimes in television and radios, the education of the people on human rights laws could not be done in the same way without costing so much dollars in airtime fees. We need help in reaching out to communities through radio broadcasts.   We also need to train community leaders as communicators of laws that protect women’s rights. And all individuals who are found guilty of violating women’s rights should undergo mandatory gender training and counseling, in addition to other punishment imposed under the law.

 

There are also challenges to the security of human rights activists, journalists, and women in leadership and political positions, such as assassination, intimidation, verbal abuse from colleagues and exclusion from negotiations and strategic discussions. Securing human rights defenders and eliminating gender discriminatory practices in public life and decision making are areas in which the international community should continue providing support.  The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission should be mandated to give more attention to the prevention of human rights violation rather than simply reacting with remedial and punitive measures.

 

Meanwhile, reported cases of violence against women increased by 20 percent with battery and laceration as the most prevalent forms. Increase in the number of underage marriage and murder was noted and mediation remained as a common method of settling cases, where victims are advised to forgive and reunite with their offenders.  There are many measures being taken by both government and civil society organizations but they are all remedial and punitive in nature. Corrective and preventive measures, such as counseling of offenders to unlearn violence as a way of managing conflict, are missing and this is what the international community might want to push with our new government. In principle, no victim should be allowed to reunite with her offender unless the prospect of repeated violence has been eliminated through gender sensitization and psychological counseling. The international community should also ask the President to outlaw the prosecution of women who leave their homes under the charges of moral crimes, including accusation of adultery, because there is no law in the country about moral crimes and running away from home is never defined in the law as a criminal offense.    There are so many flaws in the implementation of the law on violence against women and it will be of great help if the international community could facilitate an ‘’effectiveness-audit’’ of its implementation, including its mechanisms and processes.

 

§  Women and Education  

 

With regard to education, the results have been satisfactory.  The 2004 Human Development Report for Afghanistan cited that the national female literacy rate was 12.6 percent back then.[7]  This figure increased to 18 percent in 2007 and to 20 percent six years later[8].  There have also been increases in the numbers of girls’ schools, female teachers, and the enrollment of girls in all levels of education.  Before 2001, there were less than a million boys going to school and no girl at all, but by 2014, there are already over 8.7 million students across the country, 40 percent of whom are females[9].

 

Yet, child marriages are still rampant and the moment girls are married off, their chance to finish education is curtailed. Poverty, remoteness of schools, low regard for female education, insecurity are only among the many factors that threaten progress for women and girls in the field of education.  Fortunately, this is an area which continues to receive steady support from the international community.  And the responses to these issues need to be incorporated into the related interventions of the international community for infrastructures, security and economy

 

Canadian policy scholar John Richards pointed out that it will be nearly impossible for a nation to reverse the cycle of poverty without attaining a national literacy rate of at least 80 percent. I agree; and it is still a long way to go before the sector of education could help fuel economic growth. There is a need, therefore, for the international community to continue investing in the education of Afghans, especially for women and girls and to continue campaigning against underage marriage, violence against school girls and female teachers, and society’s “talibanist’’ attitudes toward female education.

 

§  Women, Health and Population

Access to health services has improved significantly since 2001 even if there are still deficiencies in the quality and adequacy of outreach and delivery. It is heartening that the alarming rate of Maternal Mortality which was the lowest in the world in 2007 has been reduced dramatically to 327 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births, a drop from the 1,600 per 100,000 in 2008. This is being attributed to aggressive campaigns for delayed marriage, promotion of fertility management and improved access to maternal care. 

Nevertheless, it is also concerning that Afghanistan’s population growth has a doubling rate of only 20 years[10]. Considering the 2014 population estimate of 31 million, and a growth rate of 3.5%, Afghanistan’s population is expected to become 62 million in the year 2034. This poses a great challenge to the economy and to the capacity of government to provide for basic social services, which, even at the moment, is already inadequate. The burdens of overpopulation and inadequate social services fall squarely on the shoulders of women.  They have to care for more people, eat less and work longer.

 

In the past decade, the subject of population control and management has not been a major area of concern by the international community, except for the UN Women (then UNIFEM) and UNFPA. During my stint as Minister for Women, I began discussions around population awareness especially among the youth, but it met a lukewarm reception from the international community, probably because its exigency was not as compelling as other issues such as maternal deaths and attacks against school girls. 

 

Twenty five years may still be a long time. However, I continue to believe that the rapid population growth of my country is like a ticking bomb that will soon explode in the form of food shortage, higher rates of under-five and infant mortality, shortage of housing, school, transportation and jobs, and the overall escalation of hardships in the lives of the people. My organization will work with the present government to reiterate this concern and recommend the formation of an inter-agency committee on population education and management.  Should you have a chance to speak with our new President, the only thing I request is for you to ask about his vision in managing the rapid population growth of our country. It may be high time to convince him about the need for a national population policy and if your country could extend technical assistance in this matter, it would certainly matter a lot.

 

§  Women and the Economy

 

In Afghanistan, when economy is good, the situation of women is bad. And when the economy is bad, the situation of women is even worse. World Bank reported that from a 9.4 percent economic growth rate in 2003 to 2012, the economy had only grown by 1.5 percent in 2014; a dramatic reduction of 7.9 percent.  Agriculture and services which showed positive growth in the past few years have taken a downside direction while illicit economic activities such as illegal narcotics production and trafficking is now in the upswing. Newspapers report that Afghanistan is supplying at least 90 percent of the global demand for narcotics.

 

Our current economy subsists on international assistance.  The pull-out of the international community has resulted in the loss of income and jobs in services that support the international community such as transportation, supplies and logistics, foods, translation and communication, security, and others.  Some 83 billion dollars have been pledged by the international community to the government since 12 years ago, but we have one of the most corrupt governments in the world. Afghanistan is in fact heralded as the most dangerous corrupt country in the world.  Apart from this, there are enormous challenges such as low revenue collection, poor public infrastructure, absence of rule of law, poor infrastructures, and inability to generate jobs.

 

Negative attitudes of families about women’s economic engagement appear to be wearing out, according to a recent study funded by U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan.  The report which surveyed 1,400 Afghan business women across 34 provinces reported that nearly all of the women enjoyed the support of their families. Education and employment are also gradually evolving as valuable attributes of a wife, which may help reduce the traditional preference of men for underage brides. The challenges of women in this field include lack of access to capital and inadequate business education, financial management skills, technical support and mentoring.  The main challenges of women entrepreneurs continue to be lack of safety and security, along with the difficulty of transacting with government due to corruption, weak institutional infrastructures and society’s attitudes toward women in public spaces.

 

The international community should target female entrepreneurs for assistance for both practical and strategic reasons. In a conservative society like Afghanistan, the most plausible route to women’s economic empowerment is by helping women entrepreneurs. The capacity to bring home income changes the status of women within the family, and possibly in society.  They begin to establish their own personal identity and cease to be simple appendages to their male relatives.  They begin to get a career, a vision, and freedom to raise their voice in matters that affect the well-being of themselves, their family and community. More importantly, they become catalysts for the empowerment of other women.   Their success becomes an inspiration to other women, and a motivation for parents to invest in the education of their daughters.  Most of all, successful women enterprises breed jobs that could employ and enhance the employable skills of women. Afghan women and their relatives find women employers less threatening and more empathetic to the multiple concerns of women workers.

 

So, please provide opportunities for them to be coached by successful women entrepreneurs from your countries, even through on-line communications only, such as skype or blue jeans.   Send a researcher to study the products that Afghan women entrepreneurs produce, advise them on how to improve the quality of their products and services, and link them to international markets.  Support their membership in business and trade networks, and identify how information technology and other tools could help bring up their enterprise at a more profitable scale. It would be excellent if dialogues among your successful business women could be facilitated so that they could share insights to our women entrepreneurs.

 

In addition, a gender sensitive assessment of the economic and social impacts of the withdrawal of the international community from Afghanistan would be very useful as an information and advocacy piece for women’s organization and planning bodies of our new government.  I am not sure if this has been done, and if so, I would gladly help facilitate its dissemination to strategic users.

 

§  Women, Peace and Security

 

The peace and security situation is volatile. A month after the departure of NATO, terroristic attacks by Taliban and other militant groups have increased and have turned exceedingly audacious.   In 2014, the number of attacks exceeded the 2013 figure by 10 percent, and was the second highest since 2001. There are indications that ISIS has recruitment activities in Afghanistan and a simmering alliance between the Taliban and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is believed to be taking place. A Daesh group based in Afghanistan had declared allegiance to ISIS. Meanwhile, the Haqqani Network, armed faction of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan affiliates and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan remain as the primary challenge to national security, in addition to the Afghan Talibans.

 

The number of deaths from both the government and insurgents continue to increase and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported that for the first three months of 2015, civilian casualties from ground engagement rose by eight percent compared to the same period last year.  The 2014 figures of civilian casualties also marked a 22 percent increase from that of 2013.  It is a bleak picture, and the President plans to restructure the High Peace Council which has been unable to make progress in holding peace talks with the Taliban.

 

But to me, it is not the performance of the High Peace Council that has a problem. What is problematic is the decision of the government to make peace with an enemy who is not interested in peace. Women believe that the government should deal with the issue from a position of strength.  It should demand proof of good faith by asking Taliban for cessation of armed hostilities while the peace process is taking place. Women can never support a process that will bring back the enemies of human rights to society.  If the peace process would be pursued, all Taliban returnees should go through a mandatory radicalization process before they are allowed to participate in the life of their community. Our issue with the government of Karzai was that women’s views and recommendations have been ignored and marginalized.  I hope that the new government will be more inclusive and sensitive in drawing up his policies on the peace process.  The new government should re-think its peace process and should also have a clear strategy for eliminating the enemies of peace. 

 

CLOSING MESSAGE

 

Before I close, there are two important points that I wish to highlight.

 

First, I am sure that you have heard about Farkhunda, a 27-year-old religious scholar who was killed by a group of men, when a peddler with whom she had an argument, shouted that she burned a Quran.  Farkhunda was punched, kicked, hit with planks of wood, thrown from a roof, run over by a car and crushed with a block of concrete. Her body was then dragged along a main road, thrown onto the banks of the Kabul River and set alight. All these happened in front of policemen who did not only do nothing to protect her, but also participated in the killing spree. 

 

I wish to talk about it because to many women, this is only a manifestation of a very serious need that the society would not want to confront.  This has something to do with healing and cultural transformation. It is a sensitive topic and it is almost a blasphemy for Afghans, especially for a woman like me, to challenge aggression and talk about national healing and cultural transformation.  This is probably the reason why even if the international community spent billions of dollars in my country, nothing much was done in regard to national healing and cultural transformation of our society.

 

It was not regarded as a priority. But from my viewpoint, it is a very pressing priority.  You will recall that Afghanistan has been rolling in the bed of violence and aggression for two and a half decades even before the Operation Enduring Freedom came in 2001. Every Afghan has lost a father, mother, friend, neighbor, son, brother, sister or daughter in a violent way. The heart of every Afghan, especially those of men, is boiling with energies of hatred, revenge, aversion, pain, frustration, desperation, emotional fatigue, etc. -a powder keg of negative emotions waiting to explode and find a means of expression.

 

This is one of the hidden reasons behind the brutal murdering of Farkhunda by a motley group of men who were seen in the video as more jubilant than angry in their participation in what looked like a horrifying killing orgy.  This situation makes our men more vulnerable to recruitment by terrorists; more predisposed to perpetrating violence against women and the powerless; and less receptive to the ideas of democracy, rule of law, progress and peace. We need a process to heal our people and unleash the negative energies in ways that will not be damaging to society and themselves.

 

We are also in dire need of cultural transformation.  If Farkhunda was not a woman, someone in the crowd would have intervened to stop the murder. Every international partner recognizes that the root of women’s disadvantage is the patriarchal culture that consigns women to subservience, subordination and inferiority. Yet, with all the brilliant sociologists in the world, no one taught us how to reverse this cultural enclave.   Mothers are in the position to teach their sons. Sisters are in the position to influence the thinking of their younger brothers.  Teachers are mandated to teach what is appropriate.  Religious leaders are supposed to champion everything that is good for the souls of all people.  Mullahs should be the one to stop people from using religion to promote violence and aggression.  They need to police and discipline their own ranks to ensure that no one among them goes beyond the bounds of Quran in their interpretation.   And those who are uneducated must go through mandatory training or dispossessed of their religious rank.

 

I reiterate that we need national healing and massive cultural transformation. And if the international community wishes to help, this is a frontier that will have enduring impacts to women’s lives and the life of our nation.  Maybe arts, sports, social media, and music could help, but maybe all development assistance that will henceforth be extended to Afghanistan should also include a component that will promote national healing and cultural transformation. These,  to me is what a new Operation Enduring Freedom should be all about. 

 

The second point that I wish to make is in regard to women’s education for strategic leadership. We are happy about the continuing advancements in the area of girls and women’s education since 2001. But these days, we need education of women and girls for strategic leadership.

 

When I was still a Minister for Women, my vision was to identify 500 of the brightest women from all over the country, send them overseas for high quality training and education in the fields of agriculture, trade, commerce, diplomacy, religion, science and technology, information and communication, public administration, arts and media and put them in decision making positions as ministers, local executives, legislators as architects of transformative change. I believe that the training that we have been providing to our girls gives them the foundation of what great leaders ought to be.  They are people-oriented, peace-loving, and faithful to their commitments, dedicated, conciliatory, and positive in their approaches to the problems of life. All that they need are technical, managerial, political and leadership skills.

 

The magnitude of challenges confronted by Afghan women requires an earthshaking solution that will come from our successor generation. Women are not the problems. They are a solution to the problems.  If we can only find 50 countries, each of which could sponsor the education and capacity building for strategic leadership of 10 of the brightest Afghan women, this dream would not be a remote possibility.   

 

As I close, I wish to Para-phrase a piece of wisdom from Nobel Peace Prize Winner Albert Schweitzer who said that:  Those who less experience personal pains should help diminish the pain of others. We must all take our share in reducing the misery which lies upon the world. Thank you very much!

 



[1] Dr. Massouda Jalal is a political activist who is a champion of women’s rights, democracy and peace.  A Minister for Women from 2004-2006, she is also the founder of a network composed of small grassroots organizations of women.  She was the first woman to run for Presidency and had received multiple  recognition for her works on women’s empowerment. 

[2] Belasco, Amy, “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11”, U.S. Congressional Service, 8 December 2014,  accessed at http://time.com/3651697/afghanistan-war-cost/ on 17/4/2015.

[3] United Nations, Report of the UN Secretary General on the Situation in Afghanistan, 27 February 2015.

[4] The 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan provides that women and men are equal in rights and duties.  It outlaws discrimination on account of sex and guarantees that the entire Constitution and all its provisions apply to both women and men on equal terms. Source: National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan by Ministry of Women’s Affairs, 2008, page 18.

[5] In 2008, President Hamid Karzai adopted and launched the National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA), 2008-2018, a ten-year strategy for the promotion of women’s empowerment and gender equality in the country. For details, see http://www.svri.org/Afghanistanpolicy.pdf.

[6] UN Data, a World of Information, accessed on 18 April 2015 at https://data.un.org/CountryProfile.aspx.

[7] United Nations Human Development Report for Afghanistan, 2004.

[8] Ministry of Education, 2014, accessed on 18 April 2015 at http://afghanistantimes.af/illiteracy-rate-in-afghanistan-stands-at-64pc/

[9] by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, Afghan Women and the Post 2014 Economy, 2014, accessed on 18 April 2015 at http://blogs.cfr.org/development-channel/2014/01/17/afghan-women-and-the-post-2014-economy/

[10]Rossenberg, Matt, Population Growth Rates and Doubling Time, accessed on 18 April 2015 at http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/populationgrow.htm