News from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
RAWA News
News from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
RAWA News


 

 

 





 


 


Help RAWA: Order from our wish list on Amazon.com

RAWA Channel on Youtube

Follow RAWA on Twitter

Join RAWA on Facebook



RFI, August 6, 2010

Don’t exploit women to justify war, says Afghan activist

The lives of some women did improve during the three years following the 2001 invasion, Aziz concedes, but only in urban centres

The war in Afghanistan is not going well for the US and its allies, as the recent WikiLeaks revelations have shown. So should US President Barack Obama keep his commitment to start withdrawal next year? Some American media are asking if that means leaving Afghan women to the mercies of the Taliban. One Afghan woman activist tells RFI that she is suspicious of such claims.

nahid_aziz.jpg
Aziz is vice-president of Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow and has worked with several other groups helping Afghan women abused by men or traumatised by war. Although she bitterly opposes proposals to talk to the Taliban, she fears that the condition of Afghan women is being exploited to justify the war.

The shocking cover of this week’s Time magazine features 18-year-old Aisha, whose nose and ears were cut off by a Taliban commander because she fled abusive in-laws.

“What happens if we leave Afghanistan,” reads the headline.

That arouses mixed feelings in Nahid Aziz, an Afghan-born clinical psychologist now living in the US.

“Obviously, this is a political issue,” she comments. “With the WikiLeaks documents we know there is a lot of push by the US government, saying that we need to promote the women’s issues so that we can gain support in the West, particularly in the US.”

Aziz is vice-president of Afghan Education for a Better Tomorrow and has worked with several other groups helping Afghan women abused by men or traumatised by war.

Although she bitterly opposes proposals to talk to the Taliban, she fears that the condition of Afghan women is being exploited to justify the war.

“Women’s issues always have been taken advantage [of],” she says. “… whether there was in the Soviet invasion, now the US invasion and even during the civil war, women have been used drastically, unfortunately.”

The lives of some women did improve during the three years following the 2001 invasion, Aziz concedes, but only in urban centres.

“The women were allowed to go back and go attend to their jobs and go back to school and especially women in larger cities. But not so much the rest of women in Afghanistan … we’re talking about 40 per cent of the women, in general.”

The failure to establish peace and security in rural areas means that the changes never reached much of the country, Aziz says, and, even at the highest level, many rights only exist on paper.

“Even though the constitution mandates that 25 per cent of the parliamentarians need to be comprised of women … they don’t have any voice in the parliament. They are basically sitting behind the warlords.”

The failure to bring warlords, many of them former anti-Soviet mujahedeen, to task has left them wielding enormous power under President Hamid Karzai, says Aziz. That means no rule of law and no peace.

And peace is what is first on most women’s minds.

“What they want right now is security, safety for their children to go to school, something to eat, for them to be able even to have a quiet night where they can sleep.”

But Aziz, who has worked with many victims of domestic violence and other abuse, is vehemently opposed to the Taliban and angered by reports that both Karzai and the US want to negotiate with them.

“When we think about negotiating with the Taliban, it’s almost deadly for Afghanistan, especially Afghan women, in this context,” she says.

But she fears it may be part of the foreign powers’ exit strategy.

“A very short and brief reconciliation, even if it lasts for a month, would mean something to the US government, saying ‘Well at least we’ve established peace there’.”

After 30 years of “violence, atrocities and devastation”, activists like Aziz argue, Afghans themselves have to confront the past and find the solutions for their country’s numerous problems.

Category: Taliban/ISIS/Terrorism, Women, HR Violations, Protest - Views: 13060



Related

31.07.2010: 2300 Women and Girls Commit Suicide in Afghanistan Each Year
28.07.2010: Taliban publicly flog couple for having illicit relations
22.07.2010: Women in northern Afghanistan face Taliban revival
14.07.2010: The Taliban War on Women Continues
12.07.2010: Afghan Women Set Themselves On Fire To Escape Abusive Marriages
07.07.2010: Women barred from venturing out of homes
10.06.2010: Abuse drives some Afghan women to suicide
05.06.2010: Afghan girls brave Taliban threats
27.05.2010: Amnesty International Report 2010 Draws Bleak Picture of Human Rights in Afghanistan
27.05.2010: Afghan Clerics impose Taliban-style restrictions on women’s travel
15.05.2010: Hillary lies again to Afghan women
05.05.2010: Afghanistan ‘Worst Country’ for Mothers
27.04.2010: 37 children die every hour in Afghanistan
18.04.2010: “In My Father’s House They Gathered All the Women into One Room”
14.04.2010: 18-year-old Afghan woman slain in campaign of fear
08.04.2010: Family violence leads woman to commit suicide in Herat
31.03.2010: Sold, raped and jailed, a girl faces Afghan justice
27.03.2010: NATO Tries to Silence a Truth-Teller in Afghanistan After Killing Pregnant Women
27.03.2010: Recruit Afghan women to sell war to Europeans: CIA report
08.03.2010: Violence against women persists in Herat
08.03.2010: AFGHANISTAN: Women’s rights trampled despite new law
05.03.2010: ‘Afghan women lawmakers hamstrung by warlords’
28.02.2010: The Plight of Afghan Women in Prison
18.02.2010: Two Afghan women are publicly flogged by local warlord in Ghor
03.02.2010: Women For Sale in Afghanistan
20.01.2010: Afghanistan: Women Dying and Torture Run Amuck
10.01.2010: A Newly-Married Bride Dies of Self-Immolation in Afghanistan
08.01.2010: Afghan women turning to suicide in greater numbers: report
08.12.2009: Afghan women among worst off in world: HRW
07.12.2009: Plight of Afghan women may worsen as war effort is stepped up, warns report
02.12.2009: Public space “shrinking” for Afghan women - UN official
25.11.2009: Violence against Afghan, Pakistani women escalates in 2009
22.11.2009: Afghan Women burn themselves to flee abuse
24.10.2009: According to NGOs, 90 Percent of Afghan Women Are Abused

Latest

Most Viewed