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Awakenings
May 2004
In this issue:
Copyright © 2001-2002
Jagriti International.
All rights reserved.
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May 2004
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UNKEPT PROMISES FOR THE WOMEN OF AFGHANISTAN
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by Sima Wali
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Afghan Women: Reconstruction, Civil
Society and U.S. Policy
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following is an excerpt from a speech by Jagriti Board
member Sima Wali to the Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars on April 20, 2004. Sima is President and
CEO of Refugee Women in Development (RefWID), Inc. an
international non-profit institution focusing on women
in conflict, post-conflict reintegration and human rights.
A native of Afghanistan, Ms. Wali served as one of three
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delegates to the U.N. Peace Talks on Afghanistan held in Bonn
during November-December 2001. Ms. Wali is the recipient of
several awards including the prestigious Amnesty International
Ginetta Sagan Fund Award.
To justify the war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda bases in
Afghanistan in 2001, the U.S. government intricately linked
their bombing campaign to saving Afghan women victimized by
the cruel and egregious acts of the Taliban. By promising freedom,
democracy and restoration of human rights, the U.S. renewed
the hope of the Afghan people. As an American-Afghan woman I'm
here to say that Afghanistan and its female population rightfully
expect these promises to be kept by the U.S.
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Bonn Accords
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Immediately after the Taliban were toppled
in Afghanistan, peace talks to establish a post-Taliban government
were held in 2002 in Bonn, bringing various political parties
together to negotiate the creation of a new government and putting
President Karzai in power. The Bonn accords, although historic
and encouraging in nature, neglected to address security, narco-terrorism,
demobilization and other impediments to peace. As such there
were major flaws in the "Bonn Agreements", chief among them
the bestowing of legitimate power to a group of warlords who
were and remain the source of illicit trade, drug trafficking
and human rights violation
From the outset, it was evident that the bargaining power of
the warlords was greatly influenced by America's war on terrorism.
In fact, the US aided and abetted the warlords, providing them
with funds and weapons all the while looking the other way when
the warlords abuse power. In fact, Afghans rightfully lament
that the American war was not meant to liberate the Afghan people
from tyrannical forces, but rather to save American lives from
terrorist forces who had found safe haven in their land. By
day, the warlords fight alongside U.S. troops, and by night
they rape, loot, and terrorize the Afghan people.
Although the reviled Taliban are no longer in Afghanistan, improvements
in the lives of women remain a hollow promise…Despite the trumpeting
of women's issues, a paltry sum has been committed to fund women's
programs in the political and civil society arenas…Women's hard
fought battles won them provisions in the 2004 constitution,
including 25% of the seats in the upper house of parliament
and the creation of a Ministry of Women's Affairs. However,
visible strides in the post-Taliban society continue to beg
for long-term strategies that will be required for removing
restrictions against women, which deny them equal access to
education, health care, employment and security. By keeping
women disenfranchised in the economic and political spheres,
they remain at the bottom rung of the human development index.
Afghan women have just begun their long battle for equity and
will not settle for symbolic advances.
Today, I can attest that roads have been built, schools reconstructed,
allowing girls and boys to enroll, but little has altered daily
Afghan life from the days of the Taliban. Upon closer investigation
we see that the quality of education is dismal, teachers are
not trained, children attend school for only 2-3 hours per day,
and textbooks and school supplies are totally insufficient.
Despite relative advances for a gendered balanced post-Taliban
government, gross inequities toward women remain. Capable institutions
are absent, narcotic trafficking is rampant, the flow of arms
are not curbed, security is grossly inefficient, and warlordism
and violence against women continue. Yet, this time around it
is not committed by the Taliban but by renegade militias and
warlords supplied with arms and dollars by the U.S. In essence,
lawlessness and gender apartheid continue to occur with international
impunity. Afghans remain baffled by America's continued support
for warlords who undercut the transfer of power to the Afghan
people - a transfer needed to shift from a lawless country supported
by foreign intervention to finally establishing the rule of
law and democracy.
So what is America to do? Should the U.S. continue to legitimize
a warlord class that has already lost the support of the Afghan
people? Or should we help the Afghans, to build a tolerant and
open society? Now that the Afghan people finally have an opportunity,
after more than two decades of foreign intervention that spawned
ethnic divisions and gender apartheid practices, it is time
to do the right thing - transfer power back to the Afghan people.
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The Politics of Aid
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…Over two years into the new government
we are losing momentum to build on the initial goodwill of the
Afghan people toward the United States. In my discussions with
scores of Afghan women, it is evident that there is a heightened
frustration that too little is trickling down of the resources
necessary to create peace and democracy for the common Afghan.
What I experience during my work in Afghanistan and what is
touted in the US tell two very different stories. For example,
what women in Afghanistan experience are communication systems
in disarray, sporadic electricity, scarce clean water, high
unemployment, and on-going atrocities against women.
The status of women in Afghanistan today still ranks among the
worst in the world. Maternal and infant mortality ratios are
the highest in the world. Every 30 minutes a woman dies in childbirth
or due to pregnancy-related complications. An Afghan child is
25 times more likely to die before the age of five. In fact,
300,000 children die each year from preventable diseases. 85%
of women are illiterate, further limiting women's advancement.
Female suicide and self-immolation continue to plague the society.
Women are rapidly losing hope. They occupy the most economically
disenfranchised segment of the Afghan society, yet they constitute
an estimated 60% of the Afghan society. Unless immediate and
comprehensive measures are taken to address the gender inequity
today, the Afghan society's thrust toward reconstruction will
be undermined and the U.S. pledge toward nation building will
be greatly challenged both domestically and internationally.
Critics note that a nation requires both the human resources
embodied in its men as well as its women to advance. Simple
economics demand and fortify the logic that building Afghanistan
with only 40% of its citizenry is not sound economic or gender
politics.
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Policy Recommendations
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Rebuilding Afghanistan requires a comprehensive
plan that focuses on long-term stability. Nation building cannot
be done in a haphazard or piecemeal fashion - one road or a
few schools at a time. What is needed is a long-term comprehensive
plan to secure the peace, disarm the militias, displace the
warlords, and to confront the highly lucrative narco-terrorism
that plagues the Afghan nation and its people. Most of all it
requires rebuilding of the shattered institutions destroyed
by years of warfare. So far, the institution and capacity building
needed to establish the rule of law - to hand over Afghanistan
to its rightful owners - is completely missing from the larger
plan. In the absence of viable institution building resting
on a sustainable peace and democracy, the US will lose Afghanistan
again to the growing threat of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
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Conclusion
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| The stark reality of today's Afghanistan
is that were it not devastated by decades of conflict, the country's
annual per capita GDP would be about $500. Invoking Afghanistan
as a success story will be achieved when there is a balance
between military and human development assistance. Only when
Afghan men and women are lifted from poverty, when their civil
society institutions serve the local people then, and only then,
will the U.S. campaign to win the hearts and minds of Afghans
be on the right path to deliver true justice and democracy.
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