"A History of Women in Afghanistan: Lessons Learnt for the Future"

[ConsAreLiars]

Following are a few excerpts from an study published in the Journal of International Women's Studies in 2003. For those who want to be come better informed about this issue, I strongly recommend reading this very carefully and then again and again as your understanding of Afghanistan and its people deepens.

A History of Women in Afghanistan: Lessons Learnt for the Future
Or
Yesterdays and Tomorrow: Women in Afghanistan

By Dr. Huma Ahmed-Ghosh1

Introduction

Afghanistan may be the only country in the world where during the last century kings and politicians have been made and undone by struggles relating to women's status. Recently, the situation of women under the Taliban rule has been center stage. The situation of women came to symbolize to Western military powers a justification of war in the name of freedom of women. But the situation of women in Afghanistan today is not only the result of the Taliban's policies. There is a history over the centuries of women's subjugation. Even in more recent times the Mujahideen's2 (1992-1996) record is worse than the Taliban's. Thus, one must approach the analysis of women’s situation in Afghanistan, not through the ideological formulation of 'before and after' the Taliban, but within the larger historical context of Afghanistan. Only such a perspective can ensure that women will be seen as integral to the rebuilding of the Afghan nation.

In this paper, through recounting the history of women in Afghanistan, I want to position women for the future through lessons learned from the past. The focus of this paper is on the importance of rural Afghanistan in the shaping of the nation and on women;s status. Rural Afghanistan is the root of tribal powers that have frequently doomed Kabul-based modernization efforts. Social traditionalism and economic underdevelopment of rural Afghanistan have repeatedly contested the center (Kabul), thus a better understanding of tribal controlled areas is essential to empower women in these regions. For women in rural Afghanistan, control over their lives and gender roles is determined by patriarchal kinship arrangements. These kinship relationships are derived from the Quran and tribal traditions where men exercise unmitigated power over women. While Islam is deeply entrenched in the country, a hybridized compromise of Islamic and secular ideals of gender relations, along with economic reconstruction of rural Afghanistan will be proposed as a process towards enhancing women;s status.

I argue that today, Afghanistan’s economic marginalization, social disorder, and political dislocation can be conceptualized as "deficiencies" that women can maneuver to their advantage. Under the current conditions women could redefine their roles in the family and community in ways that improve both their and the nation’s lives. Although economic reconstruction is primary, this reconstruction can be connected to wider social change and to building political democracy in ways that include women on new terms. In other words, Afghanistan's economic bankruptcy creates opportunities to renegotiate the division of labor along gender lines and to argue against the continued exclusion of women from the paid labor force. Afghanistan's social development can only be ensured through democracy and the reduction of poverty, the success of both being assured through full participation of women, especially in rural Afghanistan.

In this paper I trace the history of women in Afghanistan for three main reasons. One, to show that women in Afghanistan were not always oppressed by fundamentalism as occurred under the Mujahideen and the Taliban.3 Two, to show that women's issues were an integral part of national construction agendas even as early as the 1920s. Three, to highlight the power of tribal/community leaders in defining the role of women and in successfully resisting any modernization that would challenge their patriarchal authority. This paper chronicles Afghanistan's political history to highlight the sporadic efforts made to empower women in an attempt to create a sense of nationhood. This is essential to explore because the political and powerful nature of tribal dictates in the Afghan countryside, and the oppositional ruling parties and elite are instrumental in determining the scope of women's lives. Women in Afghanistan are not an isolated institution; their fate is entwined with and determined by historical, political, social, economic and religious forces. In addition to a range of internal tensions, outside or international political forces have impacted Afghanistan in significant ways.

Two critical epochs in Afghan history have shaped gender dynamics and affected women’s status in Afghanistan. The first period took place during the reign of Amanullah in 1923 and included rapid reforms to improve women's lives and women’s position in the family. The reforms met with widespread protest and contributed to the ultimate demise of Amanullah's reign. The second period occurred under the leadership of the communist-backed Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). This leadership forced an agenda of social change to empower women that led to the ten-year war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union, the birth of the Mujahideen, and the decline of women’s status. Despite the defeat of these reforms, the two eras provide evidence that Afghanistan has had a history of progressive efforts to provide women’s rights and develop the basis for a more egalitarian society. At the same time, this historical review brings to light the significance of the rural/urban divide in Afghanistan. While Kabul has historically been the cosmopolitan center and will continue to lead the push for modernization in the future, any economic development must also include changes in the structure of power in rural regions. Such structural transformations are essential to the improvement of women's status in Afghanistan and can only happen when the countryside becomes an integral part of Afghanistan's new plans for economic development.

-snip-

In 1989, when the Soviets left Afghanistan, the country was in disarray and became the site for civil war with the government transfer of power in 1992.That year the Mujahideen took over Kabul and declared Afghanistan an Islamic state. According to the US Department of State (1995), 'In 1992 women were increasingly precluded from public service. In conservative areas in 1994, many women appear in public only if dressed in a complete head-to-toe garment with a mesh covered opening for their eyes." This was only to be the start of the apartheid against women. As the author of Zoya's Story (2002:63) claimed, 'Far from rejoicing that the Russians had been defeated, Grandmother told me that a new worse Devil had come to my country. There was a popular saying around this time: 'Rid us of these seven donkeys and give us back our cow. The donkeys were the seven factions of the Mujahideen, and the cow was the puppet regime .' According to Zoya (2002), the Mujahideen entered Kabul and burnt down the university, library and schools. Women were forced to wear the burqa and fewer women were visible on television and in professional jobs. The period from 1992-1996 saw unprecedented barbarism by the Mujahideen where stories of killings, rapes, amputations and other forms of violence were told daily. To avoid rape and forced marriages, young women were resorting to suicide.

Later in 1996, the same consortium (U.S.A., Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia) supported the Taliban to counter the 'mismanaged' politics and 'unexpected' brutalities of the Mujahideen. Initially a sense of relief was palpable. But it was extremely short lived, and very soon the Taliban set up Amar Bil Maroof Wa Nahi An al-Munkar (Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) to monitor and control women’s behavior. The Taliban made sweeping changes in the social order and used the radio to broadcast its new laws (televisions were banned). Daily, Radio Sharia reminded the citizens of their duty to the country and Islam, and listed the changes men and women needed to make to conform to the new fundamentalist regime. For women, this meant no longer being able to go outside except to buy food. If women did leave home they had to be accompanied by a mahram (male relative). Women had to wear the burqa and no makeup or fancy shoes. White shoes were forbidden since that was the color of the Taliban flag. Women and girls could not go to school nor visit male doctors. Not unlike the Mujahideen, the Taliban too indulged in forced marriages and rapes. On the liberation of Kabul in November 2001, Zoya (2002:226) states, 'No one was sorry to see the Taliban defeated, but neither did they rejoice when the Northern Alliance took over. They too had blood on their hands.'

-snip more-

The first three footnotes were:
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Women's Studies, San Diego State University.
2 The Mujahideens, which translates to freedom fighters, supported by the USA, Iran, and Pakistan fought against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
3 Henceforth, the Mujahideens and the Taliban will be referred to as Afghan fundamentalists.

The full essay is at: http://www.iiav.nl/ezines/web/JournalofInternationalWomensStudies/2003/Vol4Nr3May/Afghanistan.pdf

(edit tiny formatting mistake)

[leftstreet]

1. K&R

[ConsAreLiars]

2. Thanks. I hope a few more read this and get one more bit of information to counter

BS propaganda that claims the US invasion and long-term intervention was a good thing (or even intended or reasonably imagined to be) for the women or others in Afghanistan.

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. kick and recommended!! Very interesting article!!

[tekisui]

4. knr!~