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Afghanistan -- please don't forget
Posted to: <Ned> Front Porch by Jayne Cravens (9), Sun, 02 Sep 2007 05:05:32 PDT
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Tags: afghanistan gender girls women
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Last week, I returned from Afghanistan after a six-month stint on a UNDP contract supporting an initiative of the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development. I was a "Communications Advisor", and spent my time helping with various communications activities, such as supporting the ministry's press office with various issues (editing press releases, suggesting stories to pitch to the press, stream-lining media monitoring with RSS), or creating a photo archive of the hundreds and hundreds of photos that had been taking by initiative staff members in the last several years, creating and distributing CDs of the best ones, and creating a Flickr account of these photos, which I think present a very different visual story than what you see on the news.
Per my commitment to human equality, I took every opportunity to publicize women-focused activities and women's involvement in the ministry's activities, and to participate in any workshops or meetings I could on the subject. What women face in Afghanistan is a deeply woven mosaic of prejudice that finds its roots not in Islam but in traditions, male reactions to a changing world, illiteracy, misunderstandings about the Koran, fear, insecurity, and on and on and on. The cost to the counry is staggering -- 50% of the country's talent, experience and energy is largely ignored... or worse. Sadly, these practices are reinforced by international aid workers terrified of addressing the issue and bent on avoiding it, who will quickly say "we can't try to change the culture!" as soon as you bring up an activity that might address the profound challenges women face there. I always wonder: if it were an ethnic group being treated thusly, rather than women, would the same arguments be used, or would Bono be holding a concert?
I worked primarily with Afghans, and was based on the government compound rather than the UN compound. I didn't have as much access and freedom as, say, NGO workers, but I had a lot more than US Embassy staff. I also got to work with Afghan women, including training a female Afghan national to work in the communications office. Working with Afghans was, without a doubt, the best part of the assignment - they are ambitious, they are hard-working, and they are primed to do great things, given the opportunity.
The security situation has definitely gotten worse in Afghanistan in the last two months, but I can't emphasize enough that it's still a country worth supporting. The Afghan people need guidance and they need JOBS. I hope I can continue to support the country no matter where I am in the world.
By Jayne Cravens (9), Mon, 03 Sep 2007 01:38:56 PDT
Tags: afghanistan gender girls women
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By law, women ARE allowed to run their own businesses in Afghanistan, but by tradition, most are NOT. Even in Kabul, many women aren't even allowed to go into a shop without their husband or a "mahram" (male relative).
There was a story on the IPS on Aug. 15 about how five women in Mazar-E-Sharif, in the north, have opened a shop for women, and how many people are furious about it. I hope no one burns it down...
Some shops in Kabul that cater to Westerners allow their female family members to wait on female customers, realizing that many women prefer this.
Internet connectivity is more than decent for international workers, but most Afghans must go to Internet cafes, which are plentiful in Kabul -- not sure about elsewhere. Electricity is a BIG problem, as is literacy.
UNESCO did a story recently about an ICT project north of Kabul for women -- interesting reading:
Increasing information literacy of Afghan women 06-August-2007 "A training programme in Kapisa province, 75 km north of Kabul, provides women and girls with opportunities to gain access to the wider world through ICT."
topBy Jayne Cravens (9), Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:08:43 PDT
Tags: afghanistan education gender girls women
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"It is better for my children to be alive even if it means they must be illiterate." Education in Afghanistan: A harrowing choice By Barry Bearak in the International Herald Tribune Published: July 9, 2007
(ME: this article does a GREAT job of showing how difficult it is in Afghanistan, in terms of dealing with all of the various sources of hostilities. In most parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban is the least of anyone's problems)
QALAI SAYEDAN, Afghanistan: "With their teacher absent, 10 students were allowed to leave school early. These were the girls the gunmen saw first, 10 easy targets walking hand-in-hand through the blue metal gate and on to the winding dirt road. A 13-year-old named Shukria was shot in the arm and the back and teetered into the soft brown of an adjacent wheat field. Zarmina, her 12-year-old sister, ran to her side, listening to the wounded girl's precious breath and trying to help her stand. But Shukria was too heavy to lift and the two gunmen, sitting astride a single motorbike, suddenly sped closer."
By Jayne Cravens (9), Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:53:47 PDT
Tags: afghanistan education extremism girls women
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Statement by the Afghan Women’s Network Women’s Political Participation Committee October 07, 2007
Afghan Women are concerned on deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and loss of innocent citizen in suicide bombing.
We women express our deepest sorrow and concern over the continuation of deteriorating security situation and offer our prayer to the soul of the women, children and men martyrs who have lost their life in scared month of Ramadan in face of ignorance and we the women of Afghanistan condemn the terrorists acts which is killing civilians and creating atmosphere of fear in our country.
We Muslim women want peace, peace that Islam prevails. We would like to clarify that no political agenda can justify killing of Muslims anytime, in particular in this holy month.
The holy Quran says killing of one Muslim is equal to killing a society and the holy Quran also states that every little thing that human being is doing will be accounted. This means, there is no in any possible way justification in the name of Islam related to the suicide attacks and killings of Muslims and innocent civilians. Hence these are all political acts that victimizes the people especially women and children of our war-stricken country.
We want all Afghans to work for peace, unity and respect of human values and let this country to build the starches of war together where and Afghan child, women and man live a dignified life as a Muslim.
We urge The Afghan Government that in any kind of peace negotiation with any party of concern should not undermine Afghan Women’s status and Human rights principles inscribed in the Afghan Constitution. And based on the Afghan constitution, principles of Universal Deceleration of Human rights and other conventions that Afghanistan is a member to, no accord in past and future should exempt anyone from human rights crimes.
By Jon Alexander (42), Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:55:44 PST
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By Mark Grimes (187), Sun, 02 Sep 2007 08:25:03 PDT
Tags: afghanistan gender women
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