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March 8 for Afghan women 9/3/10 |
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Breve storia del movimento femminile in Afghanistan
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9 Marzo 2010 | op/ed | |||
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March 8 for Afghan women The News International - Opinion Sahar Saba Monday, March 08, 2010 Dr Anahita Ratebzad was leading women on March 8, back in 1965, when International Women s Day was celebrated for the first time in Kabul under the auspices of the Democratic Organisation of Afghan Women (DOAW). The arrival of feminists on the Afghan stage coincided with the emergence of left factions like Parchamis, Khalqis and Sholais. Campaigning against child marriage, bride price and women s illiteracy, the DOAW was launched by Parcham sympathisers. In 1977, Meena Kishwar Kemal, a Sholai, founded Jamiat-e-Inqelabi-e-Zanan-e-Afghanistan (Revolutionary Organisation of the Women of Afghanistan), or RAWA. Given Afghanistan s present image, it is hard to imagine that, had the reform programme of King Amanullah (1892-1960) been implemented, the country would have been one of the first to grant women the right to vote. Inspired by Kemal Ataturk, King Amanullah, who ruled from 1919 to 1929, encouraged women to receive education, abandon the veil and organise themselves. His sister Kobra founded Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Niswan (Women Protection Organisation), while Queen Soraya started a women s magazine Irshad-e-Niswan (Women s Voice). When Britain incited a rebellion against Amanullah, the liberties the king had granted to women were used to incite conservative tribal chiefs against the government. The leader of the rebellion was Habibullah, commonly known as Bacha-e-Saqao. A Tajik bandit, he was an extremist Muslim. His short-lived regime that replaced Amanullah s enlightened rule, was a forerunner to the puritan tyranny of the Mujahideen and the Taliban (1992-2001). He rolled back all the reforms. Women s education was banned. Burqa became mandatory, and women were confined to the home once again. Bacha-e-Saqao s early departure did not revive Afghan women s fortunes. Zahir Shah s long reign (1933-1973) was not inimical to women. After years of struggle, women were able to carve out a place for themselves in public life, at least in large towns. For the first time, in 1959, women were allowed to unveil. As in Saudi society, the dress code has been an important battle for the women s rights movement in Afghanistan. In 1964 the constitution acknowledged women s right to vote and participate in politics. By the early 1970s, women were visible on the Afghan scene in the urban centres. When the People s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) captured power in a coup in 1978, a few radical reforms were introduced. Bride price was abolished. Child marriages were outlawed And compulsory education for girls announced. However, although the PDPA regime continued to pay a lip service to women s liberation in order to maintain a socialist facade, women opposing it were jailed and tortured. Student leader Nahid, who helped organise a demonstration against Soviet occupation, was killed. In 1987, RAWA s founding leader, Meena, was murdered. Meantime, life for millions of women at refugee camps in Pakistan was becoming particularly harsh. Run by seven Mujahideen groups, these camps served as laboratories for the future Talibanisation of Afghanistan. It was in these camps that women set a fine tradition of resistance, particularly during the 1990s. Despite a regime of terror, underground schools for girls, vocational centres for women and study circles for women activists were run at these camps. Brave activists were able to mobilise hundreds of women for demonstrations at Islamabad s Constitutional Avenue, Peshawar s Press Club or outside the Chief Minister s House in Quetta. These actions in exile during the Mujahideen-Taliban period were the only expressions of women s resistance. Kabul s new masters from 1992 onwards excluded women from public view. While the Taliban s anti-women agenda is well documented and has been widely publicised, amnesia takes hold of the global media when it comes to the Mujahideen era. It was these Mujahideen warlords who declared girls education as a gateway to hell. Under the pressure of Abdul Rasool Sayyaf (who is now a vital ally of Hamid Karzai), women were banned on television, a medium the Mujahideen denounced as aina-e-Shaitan (Satan s mirror). During this period, the Mujahideen arrested men who were clean-shaved or wore moustaches as communist sympathisers. These very Mujahideen, now themselves clean-shaved, were accommodated in the US-formed cabinet to rule post-Taliban Afghanistan. Some of these warlords have been designated as war criminals by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The same war criminals responsible for women s kidnappings and rapes now preside over March 8 functions in Kabul organised by Western-funded NGOs. No doubt, even symbolic changes introduced in the post-Taliban period are a welcome step in Afghan society. However, the sustainability of these cosmetic changes, like women s seats in parliament, limited unveiling, professional and educational opportunities available in big towns, is questionable. Afghan women shudder at the thought of the Taliban s return. Secondly, US dependence on the warlords for sustaining its occupation only helps perpetuate women s oppression, even if the Taliban do not descend on Kabul. The warlords know they can preach women liberation on March 8 in Kabul while they implement Sharia in their provincial fiefdoms, of which a recent flogging episode in Ghor province last month is evidence. According to reports in Afghan media, two Afghan women were publicly flogged on charge of elopement under the orders of a local warlord called Fazal Ahad. In the light of a decree issued by local clerics, the two women were subjected to 45 lashes each in public. The footage of the flogging was aired by some local Afghan TV channels. It is, therefore, understandable that, depressed by the deteriorating situation of Afghan women, Ms Ratebzad (b. 1930), the pioneer of March 8 events in Kabul, went insane a couple of years ago. The writer is an Afghan activist. |
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