Feminist Perspective: September 11th and Afghan Women
Lemar-Aftaab, Dr. Huma Ahmed Ghosh, Posted: Jan 02, 2002
"A growing number of women, particularly in urban areas, worked outside the home in nontraditional roles" (US Dept of State, 1995).
While the PDPA served women well, it became a puppet regime of the Soviet Union and elected leaders who flayed all democratic norms and imprisoned and assassinated opposition leaders. The April 1978 Revolution saw Nur Mohammad Taraki at the helm. "Taraki instituted drastic social and economic measures, including land reforms, women's rights and education, thus continuing to offend those with vested interests" (Sadat, 1979:6).
The United States recognized the regime and started sending in foreign aid.
However, Prime-Minister Amin created terror in Afghanistan by arresting and killing opponents. In 1979 Amin, while Taraki was in negotiation with the Soviets in Moscow, seized power, and on Taraki's return had him executed. Amin's term was short-lived and Afghanistan saw a new leader in Babrak Karmal. In December 1979, what is popularly known as the Christmas Gift, Soviet troops occupied Afghanistan.
Interestingly, or more ironically, it was during this turbulent 'democratic' Soviet supported regime that women's issues were center stage and implementation up to a point was enforced. White (2001) points out that about 50 percent of college students, teachers and government workers were women. Only 40 percent of doctors were women, but the glass ceiling was beginning to break in professional fields as well.
But for the nation as a whole, it was a period of anarchy and destruction. With the Soviet occupation, Afghanistan was to witness a decade long war fueled by forces, funding and political interest on the part of the Unite States, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and China.
In 1989, when the Soviets left Afghanistan, the country went into disarray and became the site for civil war with the government transfer of power in 1992. "In 1992, and in 1994 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" (US Dept of State, 1995). This was only to be the start of the apartheid against women.
As a result of the power vacuum, a bloody in fighting resulted in the emergence of a totalitarian government as the victors. UNOCAL, a United States based energy company, planned to build an oil pipeline through Afghanistan, but backed off in 1998 partly because of feminist protests.
Feminist and human rights organizations achieved some minor victories with the prevention of UNOCAL's pipeline. Women in and from Afghanistan are not mere victims of tribal-Islamist traditions but also of poverty, illiteracy and international political wrangling.
Conclusion
Afghanistan today is war-ravaged and drought ridden and the United States is now at war with it, dropping bombs and food packets! There is also heightened talk of rescuing the women, their honor and their lives. I see a major contradiction in all of this.
There is no contest to the fact that the situation of women has become abysmal. It cannot be condoned, permitted or excused. "According to research conducted by Amnesty International, a human rights organization, literacy rates for women have dropped to as low as 4 percent in some areas. Afghanistan is ranked at the bottom of the United Nations gender development index" (White, 2001). This is a result of the ban on female education. "The ban on female employment is sure to affect the education of men as well, as women made up almost 70 percent of school teachers before the [1992] takeover" (White, 2001).
However, the consolidation and perplexity of 'women's issues' with the West's animosity with Afghanistan bodes danger for Afghan women. Feminist organizations in the United States and worldwide have to hold their governments and their foreign policies accountable for the conditions of women worldwide.
The 'woman question' in and outside of Afghanistan today is not an issue separate from the politics played out by the "super-powers" of yesteryears; it is the outcome of their politics. Unless feminists and women's organizations start playing an active role in their nations' foreign policies and question their nations' enmities and power plays, women's lives will not change.
Another issue worthy of attention by Western feminists is to what extent is women's status in Afghanistan or for that matter the status of any Muslim woman, rooted exclusively in tribal and religious traditions? There has been a tendency in the West to blame Islam for defining the status of women in its entirety. This interpretation is fraught with problems because it is based on the assumption that in non- Islamic nations women enjoy equality, that women from Islamic nations do not have an agency, that their identity is not determined by their class, ethnicity, kin group, education or indigenous culture.
Feminists in the West should not become slaves to national rhetoric. When we talk of freedom, equality, and human rights, we have to stop and think: freedom for whom and from whom; equality with what and who is defining it; and human rights as defined by whom and when? Why are we letting the very men/patriarchy appropriate the feminist agenda and the "woman question" to further their agenda of disruption, distrust and genocide? Is this Western rhetoric merely a ploy on the part of the United States government to appropriate the feminist agenda to give themselves a leg to stand on, to legitimize their war-mongering agenda, or is such appropriation done to divert our attention away from the inequalities and flagrance of human rights in our own country?
During conflict, women experience not only disruption of their daily lives, but also become victims of rape, violence and fundamentalist strictures. However, one has to look into the State structures and global forces that create the conflict that victimize women. Women's experiences during times of conflict must be understood primarily in terms of the patriarchal structures of control and related processes of identity formation. While documents exist on refugee women from Afghanistan, (The Human Rights Commission Reports, United States Reports, etc.) the kind of analysis they present is not based on a conceptual understanding of the complex issues involved nor does it demonstrate any critical thinking on the political forces underlying the humanitarian crisis.
Feminists in the United States have to be watchful. Once again they have to understand what the United States is doing in the sub-continent, which factions are they supporting and where will such politics lead for women?
In the April 1999 issue of Off Our Backs, Hillary Clinton rightly said, "We must speak out against the unspeakable ã We must use our voices to speak up for women around the world who are still suffering in silence [Women] are begging on the streets to feed their children because they are forbidden to work to earn income to buy the food their children need ã Think of the woman whose health care has all but vanished, victims of a terrible dilemma in which women cannot be treated by male doctors and the government has banned all female doctors" So, Afghan women continue to be grudging participants in this war and are continuing to pay the price.
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