Women in Afghanistan
Posted by Admin on May 15, 2015 in Uncategorized | 0 comments
I am not; maybe I have been here too long. But I’m not been hopeful about the future here. A sobering assessment ten years on, when Canada joined the mission in Afghanistan women’s rights were a significant part of the justification. Under the oppressive Taliban regime, women had few freedoms they could not leave their homes along; girls did not go to school. Now Canada’s mission is beginning to draw down and in tonight’s installment over Afghanistan what is next. Susan Ormiston looks at life today, through the eyes have to women, who have seen some change but wonder is it enough.
Women here tell a different kind a war story. A war against abuse and abandonment, this is the story at to women both named Perrine, each fighting their own war and winning modest gains that will be your last. This is the land right here, can you show me inside? He doesn’t look like much have a house on a hill outside Kabul. Did you build this? But Perrine and her kids built this by hand. This is her lawn but she had to fight for it, when the village commander and his tags tried to take it for themselves.
“It was just me my son and my daughter. I saw those boys have knifes and they had some other weapons with them. What I did? “I put-up the shovel and I start fighting.” What did the men do when you started to fight back? “They were beating my son, they were beating my daughter, and they beating me too.” After the beach you why didn’t you give up? I became angry too and then I caught one of them and I beat him and I tore his clothes from the top to the bottom. He had weapons but I was not scared, no I wasn’t scared.” Fighting that would have been unthinkable a few years ago Perrine’s poor. Her husband deserted her and her seven children. She lives in a relative’s house but once a week, women in this village have been going to assure a women’s gathering to learn about their rights. A program sponsored by Jennifer Roles team at care Canada.
It told because of Shura, we learned some stuff some knowledge. Are you and the women around you, do you feel powerful? “Yes, we feel strong and now do not have any fear any commander; even I do not have any fear Karzai. We can fight against him for my rights.” Perrine’s neighbor freedom in our fee goes to the sure a too. She was married at 13 then abused by her husband’s family. You have scars on your arm where did you get that? “To fill a lamp, she says her brother-in-law gave her petrol deliberately instead of diesel, it is exploded. Everything started to burn and then my hand was on fire and behind me I saw my son he was on fire too. My hand was okay but my son died in the fire.”
Violence against women is still common. This video taken a few months ago shows a woman being stoned to death, for alleged adultery. Fundamental is still exert their influence, but pushing back our group like these women, wearing blue marching bravely for peace on International Women’s Day. For the first time protected by Afghan police.
There are modest gains but if these women walk for peace they worry about what that would mean, as the Karzai government tries to negotiate a peace process with it enemies. The fear is that women’s rights will be traded away, a bargaining chip less important than an overall political deal. Jennifer Roles believes that still women are two indispensable.
“I am worried about the fast retreat the international community here. I fear that the gains that have been made over the last 10 years will be lost, if the retreat is too fast. It women’s rights get played away at the negotiating table with the insurgents, which is very possible. And a lot of the women around us would agree that that is a fear that they have, we could be seeing a return to some pretty troubling times simply some pretty terrifying times.”
In conservative can the heart women have further to go, nearly all of them, where a Burqa as I do for my own safety. This is the home of another Perrine a woman I first met back in 2009. She is not educated, but she works outside the home and her six kids go to school even the girls. “Right now I am constantly an argument with my husband, my brother’s, my family and friends, who constantly encourage me to go out of school and sometimes even the girls get afraid. But, I tell them to put big heavy stone on their hearts and continue going.”
Small steps and tiny stitches Perrine works at a co-op for women. Called can the heart treasured. They embroidered textiles and embrace the counseling they get in sewing circle. “I can say that yes my husband has changed. I am able to come out and we put men or girl in trouble and he is okay with that, so that is change that I have seen in my life. And hopefully other men will change too but men have to change they cannot be stuck in their backward thinking on their life.”
Perrine’s mentor is Rangina Hamidi, she’s an Afghan American return to Kandahar to create opportunities for women that was eight years ago. The ongoing war and violence has tempered her optimism. “Have not seen improvement and I am NOT, maybe I’ve been here too long, but I am not very hopeful about the future here.” Rangina is a mother now with less tolerance for the risks living in Kandahar. “I want to leave a half to leave my mind says to leave because that seems to be the right thing to do. But my heart is still here, I am still afghan.” Progress can not come without peace, and women here are praying for vote. Perrine’s daughter wrote this peace poem in school. “Peace is good, peace is development, and peace is education we want to live in peace.”
“There is just hope, that this face will be past and the future will be brighter for them and would education they’ll have a better and much more successful life.” Susan Ormiston CBC News, Kandahar.
The hope is real. But so too is the fear and the harsh reality of a woman’s life, in vast areas of the country under the influence of the Taliban. Now there have been improvements over the past decade Afghanistan’s minister for Women’s Affairs says 57 percent of girls now go to school 24 percent of health workers are women and ten percent of the judiciary is female. But activist’s points out those numbers are skewed to the city’s and health care and social freedoms remain unavailable to women in poverty-stricken rural areas exactly, where the Taliban is still strong.