Afghan Women Risk Death For Equal Rights or The cream also rises!
- From: "Hyerdahl" <Hyerdahl3@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 25 Jun 2006 07:57:05 -0700
[I found this article very interesting, and that women politicos in
every nation seem to treasure, and hold 'dear' education. Could it be
that with education, the cream rises to the top in every country, and
that this is what worries Afghan bitter boys the most? After all, that
is what is happening here in America....the cream is rising; the boy's
fathers are raging.]
AFGHAN WOMEN BRAVING DEATH TO ENTER POLITICS
Declan Walsh, Chronicle Foreign Service
Sunday, June 25, 2006
(06-25) 04:00 PDT Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan -- When Raazia Baloch, a
mother of four with a 1,000-watt smile, was elected to Helmand's
provincial assembly in October, local authorities congratulated her
with an unusual present -- a Kalashnikov rifle.
"They said it was for my protection," she said wryly. "But when I tried
to fire it, the bullet was stuck inside. Even that was broken."
Politics is a rough game in Afghanistan, where last year's landmark
elections produced a crop of budding democrats, retired warlords, drug
smugglers and former Taliban fighters. For women, though, it is
potentially fatal.
Last month, inside the new national assembly in Kabul, turbaned
lawmakers hurled water bottles and bloody threats at Malalai Joya, a
firebrand female deputy who criticized the country's mujahedeen
fighters. Now Joya says she stays in different safe houses every night
and travels with three armed bodyguards.
The dangers are equally potent in Helmand province, 350 miles to the
south. As 9,000 NATO troops deploy to the southern provinces amid the
worst Taliban violence in years, courageous women -- a small clutch of
them -- are leading their own campaign, armed with nothing but their
voices.
Salima Sharifi was an 18-year-old schoolgirl when she started
campaigning for the provincial elections last summer. Months later she
won 2,114 votes -- enough for the last of four reserved women's seats
and a place in history as Afghanistan's youngest female politician. "I
just wanted to make a difference," said the bookish young woman,
sipping tea in a carpeted room adorned with Persian poetry.
Her father, Muhammad Zahir, sat nearby. "I warned her it would be
risky, but she just smiled," he said.
That risk is very real in an explosive province where zealots torch
schools and assassinate girls' teachers. Sharifi has received several
death threats, the most recent of which caused her family to move. Yet
she remains undeterred. "Of course I am scared. But I am willing to
make any sacrifice, even to die," she said.
Like Sharifi, 33-year-old Baloch returned from exile in Iran after the
fall of the Taliban in 2001. She was married at 12 and has four
children. Her husband, a police officer, died in a bombing by Islamic
rebels against the then-communist government.
She prizes education above all else. "The prophet says women should be
educated. This is freedom," she said.
But her liberal notions are tempered by local culture and gritty
necessities -- she sought her four brothers' permission before standing
for election, and her eldest daughter got married at the age of 11. "I
was on my own, and I couldn't afford to support her anymore," she
explained matter-of-factly.
Despite progress in areas such as education since 2001, life remains
tough and sometimes bitterly short for Afghan women. According to the
United Nations, Afghanistan's maternal mortality rate is among the
world's highest. In remote provinces like Badakhshan in the north, 1
mother in 15 dies in childbirth.
The post-Taliban national constitution guarantees equal rights to men
and women, although Islamic law holds greater weight. Women account for
68 of the 249 lawmakers in the lower house of the National Assembly,
the Wolesi Jirga, elected in September through a quota guaranteeing 25
percent of seats to women. There are 17 women in the Meshrano Jirga,
the upper house. Just one woman holds a Cabinet seat -- in the Ministry
of Women's Affairs.
Sharifi and Baloch are battling to improve the lot of southern women.
Every morning the two friends don their burqas and pad through the
dusty streets of Lashkar Gah to take their seats at the provincial
council, or shura. But democracy has proved a bitter disappointment.
The four women on the shura say they have met with some resistance from
the 11 male councilors -- mostly bearded, conservative men who declare
certain subjects "not women's business." But they say the far greater
frustration is the shura's utter impotence.
"We haven't done much to help the people," Sharifi said gloomily. The
council has only fig-leaf authority that gets little respect from
underpaid and often corrupt officials, she said.
Giving a typical example, Baloch said the council once ordered that a
village near Goreshk be electrified. "But when we took a letter of
authorization to the power ministry, the desk clerk tore it in two,"
she said.
Extending the reach of the Kabul government was a central plank of the
American mission to Helmand that ended in May. It is also at the core
of a much larger 3,300-troop British mission that has since taken over.
But for the province's women, security is the most urgent priority.
Last month, an unknown gunman emptied his AK-47 into a van that was
leaving Helmand province's Women's Ministry, which is a stone's throw
from the British base. The van driver died instantly, but the two
female passengers survived. Fauzia Olome, the ministry head, believes
she was the real target.
"It wasn't necessarily the Taliban. It could be anyone opposed to the
government," she said. Her ministry, which runs Internet, embroidery
and beautician classes for 170 women, was closed after the shooting
incident. "Nobody dares come here anymore," she said, raising her voice
as a British Chinook helicopter lifted off next door.
Olome, who has one daughter, now married, is as stubborn as she is
fearless. Her husband left Afghanistan 21 years ago for school in
Russia, and never returned. She fled during the Taliban years after
receiving threats because she was teaching girls. An admiring Western
aid worker in Lashkar Gah describes her as "inspirational, presidential
material -- if only that were possible."
Now Olome continues her work thanks to foreign support. But without
proper security, such help rings hollow -- both the deserted Women's
Ministry building and the bullet-pocked vehicle were bought with
American money.
Olome's family is pressuring her to quit her high-profile job. As ever,
she refuses, but warns of a worsening situation. "I tell you, our
enemies are winning," she said.
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