Afghanistan: Action Urged on Rural Women's Rights

The gap between women's rights in urban areas and more remote districts must be urgently addressed, according to a recent debate organised by IWPR in Balkh province.

Participants noted some major advances in the field of gender equality since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, but stressed that progress was uneven around the country.

Shahla Hadid, head of the provincial department of women's affairs, said it was important that the achievements of the last 14 years should be recognised.

"Although there have been problems, positive changes have been made to women's lives," she said.

Balkh civil society activist Zahra Mohammadi also highlighted improvements in gender equality.

"The situation for women is much better now than in the past," she told the debate. "Projects to support women are working and can help reduce women's problems. In Balkh, because of better security, women have been able to progress in various sectors. They have free access to education, can find jobs and participate in political and cultural discussions."

"We see a clear difference in access to education and healthcare," Wahidi added. "Women's social and political awareness has improved and freedom of speech has given them the courage to ask for their rights."

However, Wahidi warned that these achievements were threatened by ongoing insurgent violence and the enormous disparity between the lives of women in urban areas and those living in more remote parts of Afghanistan.

One of the debate's youngest participants, 13-year-old Mursal, agreed.

"We shouldn't just look at the situation in the cities," she said. "In most districts of Afghanistan, there are women who were never given the chance to study and are now illiterate. They want to learn how to read and write. I think half of the women in this country have benefited [since 2001] but the rest are still in a bad way."

Nafisa Rohin, a student and civil society activist, told the debate that women had seemed poised to take on a greater role in public and economic life following the fall of the Taleban.

"However, ongoing instability means that women's rights are going backwards rather than forwards," she continued. "For instance, when a group of travellers are taken hostage or a woman has her throat cut, the security situation creates fear and horror in women's hearts."

Campaigning work by advocacy groups and human rights organisations in Afghanistan have led to improved monitoring of abuses as well as legal aid and the creation of a number of women's shelters.

These services are not spread equally around the country, however, and the level of public awareness remained low.

"Women have not yet gained their rights because men do not know what these are," Rohin continued. "Men need to be educated so as to be able to provide these rights, for instance, so as to give them their rights of inheritance and their mahr [Islamic dowry paid in money or possessions]. We even have religious scholars who themselves have not paid the mahr of their wives."

Zeba Samadi, deputy head of the women's council of Dehdadi district, said the problem went far beyond a lack of awareness.

"Men do not want women to develop," she said. "There is violence against women on a massive scale."

She said that she had personally experienced such obstructive behaviour.

"Powerful men seized the plot of government land on which I had planned to build a school for girls, and also they seized land that I owned privately and where I wanted to build a madrassa [religious school] for women."

Rohin said that the fight for gender equality must continue regardless of the difficulties that lay ahead.

"If women join together and refuse to be afraid, we will advance," she continued. "Even if Afghanistan is a male-dominated society, women should not go backwards."