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Afghanistan
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KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
Despite their new freedom since the liberation of Kabul in November 2001, the 10% of women who are educated and live in urban areas still have some way to go before catching up with an earlier generation.
And for the other 90%—mainly rural women—the daily drudgery has changed little from the days of their mothers and grandmothers.
Later this year, when Afghanistan adopts a new constitution, women hope it will codify women’s equal rights along with those of men as it did 40 years ago. “But tradition, culture, and religion remain formidable obstacles to equality,” notes Shireen Lateef, ADB’s Principal Social Development Specialist. “The hopes of women to become equal partners with men in the new Afghanistan could easily remain unrealized.”
Four decades ago, women in the cities were among the most emancipated in Central Asia. There were female government ministers and key officials, deans, and judges. Women also enjoyed freedom in the way they dressed—Islamic or Western style.
Their future looked bright. At Balkh University in the north, for example, over half the students and 40% of the faculty were female.
Then came over 20 years of war and a fundamentalist regime that sent women back into seclusion. The Taliban prohibited women from working outside the home and excluded them from education. Women could not appear in public without a burkha (the traditional dress that covers the body from head to foot, leaving only a narrow slit for the eyes). The incidence of depression and other mental illnesses among females soared.
Today, there are a few women ministers in the new Government and an increasing number of females are entering the civil service, universities, and legislature, though they are still hugely outnumbered by males.
In public, most women still appear with burkhas, though some are venturing out in veils.
Women are part of the social changes taking place in cities like Kabul, Kandahar, and Jalalabad.
In Kabul, Najia, a clerk in the construction department of the Ministry of Education, is among a dozen women taking English lessons under a technical assistance project funded by ADB. Representing a new breed of working women, she says, “We are learning English so we can process the contracts of foreigners who are coming to help us reconstruct the country.”
Over at the Ministry of Public Works, Nazima, a graduate of the Polytechnic Institute, is working as an engineer. “I had the choice of being a doctor or an engineer, but my father encouraged me to be an engineer. I really want to help rebuild my country as a road designer.”
One problem confronting these new faces in the workplace is sexual harassment. “It’s a big problem as women have been secluded and men haven’t seen women other than at home, and the temptations are strong,” says Mina Sherzoy, President of WOMAN, a nongovernment organization (NGO) that promotes female literacy. Ms. Sherzoy says women cannot participate effectively in the workforce until sexual harassment legislation is passed.
"We have no water, no electricity, no windows. In winter it is so cold that schools close, but our students are so eager to learn that we cover the windows with blankets and plastic"
- Atiqullar, headmaster of a Kabul school
The next generation is eager to take advantage of opportunities denied to its predecessors. School enrollments, especially of girls, have risen sharply from 900,000 during the Taliban regime to 3 million in 2002 and are expected to rise to 4 million this year.
The Sawal-e-wate Sherpur School in Kabul, where girls study with boys in classrooms that lack walls as well as windows, reflects the new thirst for learning among youth.
Headmaster Atiqullar says, “We have no water, no electricity, no windows. In winter it is so cold that schools close, but our students are so eager to learn that we cover the windows with blankets and plastic.”
WOMAN teaches 2,000 females, ages 5 to 45, all around the country. Says Ms. Sherzoy, “I’ve never seen such a motivation to learn. They provide my motivation. In the beginning they could not write their names on the blackboard, but they are beginning to be literate after a 9-month course.”
The lot of women in rural areas is very different from that of educated, urban women. Ancient customs prevail, and women still lead lives of hardship and even fear. A prolonged drought and decades of conflict have pushed desperately poor people to new extremes. One alarming manifestation of this, say both Afghans and foreigners, is a new trend of selling girls.
Although the return of peace has meant that rural women need worry less over the safety of their male relatives, they continue to face enormous hardship in their daily lives. Eight years ago, Miraj was baking bread in her home in the northern province of Sarepul when a rocket came through the wall and removed her left leg below the knee.
Already poor, becoming a casualty of war worsened her ability to care for her family. “I couldn’t do heavy work, such as collecting water,” says Miraj.
"The hopes of women to become equal partners with men in the new Afghanistan could easily remain unrealized"
- Shireen Lateef Principal Social Development Specialist, ADB
With the help of a women’s support group, Miraj has taken up embroidery and now makes shawls, hats, and carpets—and is the family breadwinner.
“My husband is jobless, and we have three children to look after. From what I make, I can earn about 40 rupees every few days.”
In the remote mountain village of Qadam Joy, Haidmaq, a mother of five, says she never went to school. But she is happy because an NGO has built a new school so now her children can have a chance she never had.
Afghan women have poorer health than men. Half of all pregnant women are anemic and 70% of tuberculosis cases are women. Aside from being vulnerable, rural women have no voice. Neither they nor their husbands speak the language of rights.
Following the loss of hundreds of thousands of men to conflict, women make up 60% of the population. As the new Afghanistan struggles to rebuild itself with a desperate shortage of skilled people, it can ill afford to neglect a most valuable resource: its women.
Find out more about ADB's activities in Afghanistan
Learn how ADB promotes gender and development
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