Security
25 June 2009:
Juma Nazari:
Since the defeat of Taliban regime in 2001 there have been major
changes in Afghanistan. Before the entrance of foreign troops most of
the districts and villages were controlled by different tiny and dangerous
Islamist parties. Some were demolished by Taliban and some lost their power after the entrance of foreign forces. For example,
the provinces and districts in the centre of Afghanistan, where Hazara
and Shia communities live, were controlled by nine different Islamist
groups mostly funded by Iran. They used to fight with each other to gain
control of larger areas.
My native district Jaghori with it's three neighbouring districts were
controlled by six various Islamist groups. I was persecuted by one called
"Nahzat Islami" meaning "Islamic Movement". Therefore
I used to leave Afghanistan temporarily. Whenever it lost control of Jaghori,
I returned. At the time of Taliban attack on Jaghori it was controlled
by "Wahdad Party". When Taliban captured Jaghori, few members
of "Nahzat Islami" joined Taliban. With support of Taliban they
cruelly tortured hundreds of people. Through its association with former
members of Nahzat Islami, Taliban gathers information in order to arrest
hundreds of people. So there was no choice for me except to flee Afghanistan,
and I decided to take refuge in Australia.
After the downfall of Taliban regime and the entrance of foreign forces,
out of the nine Islamist parties only two survived and shared the government.
Seven others did not survive. "Nahzat Islami" has entirely lost
its power. The key man of this party, who had joined Taliban and tortured and killed some political and social people, was arrested by American forces but nobody knows where he is now.
Now I don't have any fear from that
party. In many districts and some provinces in the centre of Afghanistan,
Taliban does not exist.
We set up our projects in safe areas. Sometimes we have to travel across
those areas where Taliban exists but we manage it very carefully. It is
the only danger for us at the moment.
As stated on the Projects page
of this website "Our benefactors are welcome to visit our projects
and see where their money is going and for what purpose."
For more up-to-date information about security, please visit the News page.
Further reading on security:
Afghan police corrupt and brutal and still not fit for purpose
Afghanistan's Police 'Part of the Problem'
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Education
The standard of education in Afghanistan is low in general and rural
areas in particular where the majority of children don't have access even
to primary education. This needs immediate attention.
Afghan rural areas have a very low literacy rate. In the countryside
only about 1 in 20 people can read and write. Almost 70 per cent of Afghans
live in rural areas, so it is vital to provide opportunities for rural
people, especially women, to become literate. The literacy rate can be greatly improved by programs running for 18
to 24 months in every village.
There are many orphans and displaced children who cannot afford to
go school even where schools available. One of the main aims of Nazari
Foundation is to assist these children to gain access to primary education.
To see what we are doing to raise educational standards, please visit the Projects page.
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Health Care
The lack of health care and medical treatment is a major problem for
rural people.
In many isolated and mountainous areas sick people cannot be taken to
hospital because there is no access to transport and, in some cases, no
roads.
Many women die during pregnancy, with the danger being particularly
acute in rural areas. For further information on neo-natal care and midwifery
in Afghanistan please read this
article in New Internationalist magazine.
Opium addiction is another major problem, with many village teenagers
and women becoming addicted to opium. Sadly, the number of addicted people
is increasing.
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Women
Where Taliban exists some women wear burka for their safety from Taliban
and war lords, but in other areas a big majority of women do not wear
burka. Especially where Hazara people live, the burka is hardly found at all.
Afghan women publicly flogged by local warlord and cleric
On 18 February 2010, Afghan media reported the flogging of a woman by a local warlord and cleric Fazal Ahmad in Dulina district, Ghor Province.
According to the report, two women fled their homes due to violence. The police caught them in Herat and handed them over to their families. Fazal Ahmad sentenced each woman to 40 lashes.
The private TV channels Tolo and Ariana showed the flogging scene on 18 February which was very similar to Taliban's ruling time.
This incident puts questions in everyone's mind about the Islamic Sharia Law and the Government Law.
Government condemned the flogging of women but has not taken any effective actions against this kind of violence.
Just two days after this incident the Women’s Affairs Ministry urged the Islamic local clerics to co-operate in order to eliminate the violence against women.
The government expects co-operation from warlords and Islamic clerics in attempts to eliminate violence against women. Government has urged them several times to co-operate but there is never any positive outcome.
The government seems failed in defending women's rights. The Afghan women remain defenseless, particularly in villages.
Read more about this incident
Kabul, 21 February 2010
The situation of Afghan women and children in villages
Women have been deprived of their rights in the entire history of Afghanistan. In the period of kingdom every king had negative and cruel attitudes to women, particularly to the women of minorities. The sale and purchase of women especially under-age girls was a very profitable business during the entire kingdom in Afghanistan.
Dawood eradicated kingdom from Afghanistan and established a democratic government in 1973 but he did not ban the sale and purchase of women, and neither had he given Identity Card to women.
In democratic period the urban women were liberalised, but Islamist radical group, Ekhwan-ul-Muslimin, opposed the liberty of women, and its youth wing members led by Gulbidin Hekmatyar, chairman of Hezb-e-Islami, Taliban allied party, and Ahmad Shah Masood, current Afghanistan National Hero, used to throw acid on women who used to wear pants and did not cover themselves with Burqa. Both were taught guerrilla warfare skills in first three months commander course by ISI in Pakistan. Later on, some of these youth wing members who were university students became the top leaders of various Islamist radical parties and now some of them lead Taliban and some rule over Afghan parliament.
In April 1978, Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) captured the power by a military coup and established a so-called left wing government. PDPA regime banned the sale and purchase of women and provided them better opportunities in social and political fields. The women became more liberal than ever. Primary education was compulsory for boys and girls, and adult literacy program was started on a large scale in cities and villages.
PDPA regime had taken an advanced step towards women's liberty and rights but the Islamist radical movement and insurgency stopped that process as they captured the villages and civil war started. The women were tortured, abused and kept in boundary walls, and the girls schools closed down.
1978-2001 periods were dark times for women and children in Afghanistan, particularly in villages. Thousands of women became widows and thousands of children became orphans. Many of them migrated to Pakistan and Iran, but hundreds of them especially girls went missing at the borders.
Taliban regime fastened the anti-women policy and was the most brutal regime in Afghan history.
Last year, we met some teenagers between the age of 12-17 in an orphan centre. They told us they did not know about their families. They were without any shelter in Iran. Police had caught them in the streets and deported them to Afghanistan. Then Shuhada Organization provided them shelter in Afghanistan. Each of them had terrible and sad story. Majority of them didn’t know about their family background. Particularly the teenage girls were worried about their future. If a girl does not have guardian she is [thought to be] vagrant and loses her social reputation and is not treated well in Afghanistan. Such children are compelled to work hard in agriculture and houses in villages, and the unprotected under-age girls are forced to get married and tolerate violence for life time.
The absence of human rights organisations and the weakness of government in villages has provided good opportunities for war lords and Islamic radical groups to rule over villages and maintain their influence.
After the collapse of Taliban regime, the new democratic government took an advanced step towards women’s rights. The women got National Identity (citizenship) and the rights of vote, and government banned the marriage of girls less than 16 years of age. But the application of this law is a big challenge for government while war lords and Islamist radical leaders are present in the government.
Personal Family Law is dealt with by religious councils. Majority of council members are polygamous clergies in villages. It is ridiculous if we expect the rights of women from such kind of religious councils. The witness of one man is still equal to witness of two women in the law. In property inheritance woman has the right of one third and man has two thirds.
Numbers of women and under-age girls are tortured and abused but they keep quiet because they are afraid of their social reputation. Nobody hears their voices, they are unprotected in villages and their lives can easily be harmed. Some of them burn themselves and commit suicide because of family violence. The local health centers know well about family violence in villages. Majority of cases are not reported. We have got very terrible and sad reports about women from our resources in health centers but we could not get permission to bring any of the reports and cases into public views.
Many women and girls are still not allowed by their families to go to school or literacy centers in villages. Majority of parents want their daughters to go to school but they are afraid of security situation. The war lords have been involved in abusing and torturing the women. So the parents cannot trust in war lords’ government in villages.
Ghazni, 20 January 2010
Further reading on the subject of Afghan women:
Silence is Violence, End the Abuse of Women in Afghanistan
Violence against Afghan Pakistani women escalates in 2009
Sharia for Shias: ‘Legalised rape’
Women still under attack - a systematic failure to protect
Beyond the burqa
The Gendered Politics of Water: Stories of Afghan Widows
A Man's World (a video)
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