'Imported values' fail Afghan women

Fatima Gailani was 27 years old when she was thrust into the limelight as a spokesperson for the Afghan mujahideen during their 'jihad' against the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation.

Beautiful and articulate, the Afghan aristocrat played a vital role in drawing the world's attention to the events taking place in her country.

This was, of course, long before the Taliban usurped the rights of women and relegated them to life in obscurity.

Gailani's father, Pir Sayed Ahmed Gailani, was the founder of the Mahaz-i-Milli Islami (National Islamic Front) party, and one of the leaders of the 'holy war' against the Soviets.

She says that it was her father who urged her to get involved: "He told me that the door for women would soon close and it would need a strong foot to keep it ajar."

As the only Afghan woman at the time to assume a very visible political role, Gailani was vilified by some conservative elements in society, but nothing would dissuade her from supporting Afghan liberation and serving as an example to fellow Afghan women.

Clock 'turned backward'

Following the defeat of the Soviets, civil war broke out among the mujahideen, paving the way for a takeover by the Taliban movement.

During 20 years of exile in London, Gailani watched from afar as decades of homespun social progress unraveled in her home country.

"During the reign of Zahir Shah [the former king], it didn't occur to me that I should be aware of my gender at all," recalls Gailani, sitting in the garden of her home in a well-guarded residential area of Kabul.

"I knew that in the villages and other provinces it wasn't the same, but in Kabul, whether you were a man or a woman, if you achieved well in your education, there was a place for you in government. It was during the war that I became aware of gender disparities."

Helena Malikyar, an Afghan historian and an expert on Afghan state-building, points out that the downturn in the fate of Afghan women did not begin with the advent of the Taliban and claims that it was certain extremist groups among the mujahideen who "systematically turned the clock backward on the women of Afghanistan".

"In Bonn [where the post US-led invasion government was formed in 2001] and through subsequent political formulations sponsored by the UN and the US, the same groups and leaders became part of the power structure. So, how could one hope for the pro-women rhetoric to become visible in practice?" she asks.

While post-Taliban Afghanistan did bring some improvements to the lot of women, these changes may not have taken root in Afghan society.

Gailani concedes that there are "lots of women in parliament and the ministries", but wonders whether this is a genuine mark of progress or simply a condition of the government that was formed in Bonn.

'Imported' values

"As much as it was the will of the women within Afghanistan, these changes also came from our donors. It was a condition," explains Gailani, who holds a masters degree in Islamic Jurisprudence from London's Muslim College.

"That's why we must now reconcile these two eras and help the women bring these changes in an Afghan way rather than an imported way."

Hossan Banu Ghazanfar, Afghanistan's fourth minister for women's affairs since the fall of the Taliban, agrees that change must begin "at the cultural level".

According to the ministry's own statistics, the average Afghan woman has a lifespan of 44 years, which is 20 years short of the global average.

Their low life expectancy is attributed to the high rate of underage marriages and frequent births, which contribute to an extremely high incidence of maternal mortality.

There is also widespread violence against women, notably so-called 'honor killings', an issue that is not properly addressed mainly because it is viewed by some as an aspect of Afghan 'tradition'.

Ghazanfar, who holds a PhD in linguistics and served as dean of the literature faculty at Kabul University, cites two main reasons for violence against women in Afghanistan.

"First, the [poor] economic condition of the family. Second, some cultural and traditional [customs] that are neither legal nor religious but people practice it," she says.

Source: Al Jazeera, 'Imported values' fail Afghan women
By Tanya Goudsouzian and Fatima Rabbani in Kabul