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TRUDY RUBIN / Staff

Suraya Pakzad (left) with three staff members of the Afghan group she heads, the Voice of Women Organization.

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READER FEEDBACK

Worldview: Afghan women need help to sustain their fragile gains

By Trudy Rubin

Inquirer Opinion Columnist

HERAT, Afghanistan - I came to this city of clean, tree-lined streets, near the Iranian border, to write about Afghan women.

The subjugation of women under the Taliban, who forbade them to work, attend school, or leave home without a male relative, once galvanized Americans' emotions. The freeing of women was a big achievement of the Taliban's ouster. But that issue is receiving little attention as the debate heats up over what our Afghan strategy should be.

So I traveled to Suraya Pakzad's shelter for abused women in Herat as a reminder of the gains women have made, and the terrible price they will pay if the international community turns its back on Afghanistan.

Even today, cultural pressures compel most women in Herat to wear the tentlike blue burqua, with a mesh strip over the eyes, or an enveloping black-and-white-print chador that leaves the face free. Afghan women do work and attend school, although the Taliban are attacking girls' schools in the south and east of the country. The progress of Afghan women is real, but reversible.

So Pakzad, a dynamic, educated mother of six, has sought to solidify those gains - and to break new ground - as the executive director of the Voice of Women Organization (http://vwo.org.af/). The group assists women in prison and works through community groups and religious leaders to convince men in this conservative society that violence against women violates the precepts of the Quran.

Nothing better illustrates the gains women have made since the Taliban fell, however, than the shelter Pakzad runs for women abused by husbands or family members. The shelter is one of only a handful in the country; Pakzad is opening a second in a neighboring district with the help of U.S. aid.

Under the Taliban, abused women were trapped. Even after the Taliban's fall, they had nowhere to go in Herat before Pakzad's shelter opened in 2006. "These girls would have been on the street [as prostitutes] or been killed," says Pakzad. Other options were equally dreadful: "They could keep silent and suffer, or commit suicide, probably by self-immolation, or wind up in jail."

The shelter sits in a large, rented, two-story stone house within a walled compound with guards at the gate to deny access to angry relatives or those who consider it an abomination. The women and girls live three to a room and have access to doctors, lawyers, and social workers.

The residents gather in a central common room, seated on cushions around the walls, to greet Pakzad and a visitor. Some are blank-eyed; several are towing small children. Their stories reflect the recent tragic history of Afghanistan.

One typical story: 18-year-old Mariam, twisting a shiny blue head scarf, was an Afghan refugee in Iran (where millions of Afghans fled during the Taliban years). Her heroin-addicted father forced her to sell drugs until she and her sister were arrested, deported, and sent to an Afghan orphanage. They worked and lived alone - impossible in Taliban years, rare now - until her father found them and made false accusations to the police that led to the jailing of her sister. The shelter will keep Mariam until her sister leaves prison, then will help them start their lives again.

Another story: Sad-eyed, lovely 15-year-old Nasima is an orphan who was forced by officials to marry a fellow orphan and found the relationship intolerable. She ran away, then was jailed for six months. The shelter took her in and will provide legal aid for a divorce. Next, they will try to find a way for her to finish her education and remarry. The shelter has helped several young occupants find - and vet - acceptable marriage partners.

Pakzad and her staff pay a price for their work: There are telephone threats, along with slurs against them for their perceived violations of cultural norms. But I have seen how Pakzad's work is changing those norms. I watched her give a speech in a local mosque - unheard of for a woman - on her work to ensure delivery of clean water for poor women and children in the community. She was awarded the U.S. State Department's International Women of Courage Award in 2008.

When I ask what policy she hopes President Obama will follow, she is firm: Any increase in foreign troops must be accompanied by an increase in economic development. "Security gets worse because there is no change in the life of the people," she says.

She hopes women will be a central focus of U.S. economic policy in Afghanistan, with a fund for women's empowerment that directs money specifically to the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs, which is woefully underfunded by the government (this year's budget is $8 million).

Most of all, she hopes Americans won't forget the women of Afghanistan. "The United States came to rescue Afghan women from a terrible situation," says Pakzad, "but the situation hasn't been changed as much as we expected. If they left now, with no guarantee of women's rights, the situation would go back to that of the Taliban years."

So when you think of Afghanistan, remember the women, most still wearing the burqua but fighting for new roles in society. Do we want to see all those gains stripped away?

E-mail Trudy Rubin at trubin@phillynews.com. Read her blog from AfPak at go.philly.com/worldview.

Comments

Posted 10:11 AM, 11/08/2009

obviousman#1

Tell this to Nancy Pelosi not me

Posted 01:10 AM, 11/09/2009

AnnetteFun

With so many problems in our own country, it's difficult tor me to see this issue as a huge priority for us.

Posted 09:07 PM, 11/12/2009

danceinside269

Honestly the US does have a lot of it's own problems, and normally I would say taht we have to focus on our own problems before the problems of everyone else, but these women are fearing for their lives and have been granted very slight gains that they are sooo thankful for since the fall of the taliban. it would be such a shame if the US pulled out completely and everything that they've fought for and earned was just ignored and things went back to the way that they were before. it isn't fair at all how they were and in some places still are but it is some kind of change and i hope that with the help of the us they can continue to advance so that we dont' have the tragic stories of women like Miriam and Nasima. i do give Pakzad amazing respect for doing what she feels is right and i hope she knows what a difference she's making in the lives of these young women.

Posted 09:07 PM, 11/12/2009

tiedyeguuy

The thing I'm confused with is how you connect our gains in woman's rights in Afghanistan to deploying more troops. It seems like the examples you are citing are accomplishments that have come about from private companies, or internal initiatives made possible by foreign aide. The only reference I saw that would suggest deploying more troops was a good idea was the opinion of one of the women in the area. Now I would not want to disregard her opinion, but it just seems like this is more of an argument of why NOT to have troops in Afghanistan and try to fund these soft power types of ideas rather than a guilt trip for why they should still be there.

Posted 09:53 PM, 11/12/2009

cman92

I feel that this is an issue we should definitely not ignore, but one that we should not send more troops to. I feel that this is another situation in which is just another reason to send our military, and we have enough soldiers in the mid east as it is. Although i do not think we should send more troops, I do think that we should support these women. As the article said, we can and should give financial aid, which will help extremely with living quarters and local Afghani organizations. I also think that the troops that are already in Afghanistan should stay and support these women. I agree that the gains for these women will be lost if we pull out, an I feel that the Afghani women, with U.S. help can secure these gains and push for new gains as well.

Posted 11:30 PM, 11/12/2009

fishyjr92

This article gives a different look on the Afghanistan conflict. After many weeks of articles over the wars and tragedies that our nation has either caused or is helping to fix, this article really helps shine a light on the positivity that some people are trying to pursue. I can imagine that this woman is an angel to the enslaved women of Afghanistan, and I find her points completely valid. I think that the United States government should take it as a top priority to fund women's organizations in Afghanistan because without these problems being resolved, our help in Afghanistan will render worthless.

Posted 08:26 AM, 11/13/2009

TTF09

I'm glad Trudy decided to focus this weeks article on the needs of the Afghan women. The main reason we are even in Afghanistan is to try to better the life there and get rid of the Taliban. Well, aiding the women in need would definitely qualify as improving life and conditions in Afghanistan to me. It is imperative that conditions do not regress to times where Taliban members were throwing acid in girl's faces who were trying to go to school. All of these gains has been made by the will of Pakzad, and it's only fair the US aid her further.

Posted 09:09 AM, 11/13/2009

sunnyflower

I'm also confused on the logic of why sending more troops would save Afghan women. It's great that Pakzad sees the US as having "come to the rescue" of Afghan women, but I have a feeling most people, men and women alike, don't have the same feeling. Also, she herself is not advocating an increase in troops. She stresses the need for economic development and change within the country. I don't know what her feelings are on an increase in troops, but it seems to me that the foreign aid is what's really important here. Pakzad's organization is local women helping local women with the help of US aid. That's fantastic. We should absolutely be helping in this way. So, please, stop threatening me with guilt about women in Afghanistan. There are a lot of lives to consider in this whole thing.