I’m off to East Africa for most of October, so in light of Obama’s effort to reevaluate Afghanistan, I thought I’d repost some older stuff from my visit there in the winter of 2007.

Our nation, as a whole (particularly policy-makers), seems unable to acknowledge that Afghanistan is actually populated by real people (if you go by NBC Nightly News and Richard Engel, you’d be excused for thinking it’s only women in burqas and knife-wielding Taliban men…).

But Afghanistan is much more – and until we see it as that, our “new strategy” will continue to be simply an effort to pump more arms, weapons, and firepower into a nation torn apart by three decades of war.

See you at the end of October with some (hopefully) interesting posts about Africa…

December 2007

Just after seven o’clock on a Wednesday morning in early December 2007, the ugliness of the Taliban insurgency struck again in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital city. A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a mini-bus full of people commuting from their Kabul neighborhood of Chilsitoon, killing 13. As with most terrorist acts, the intended targets were not the only victims. Many of the passengers were members of the Afghan army; many more were civilians.

This was no ordinary morning. Falling in the middle of the international 16-Day Campaign to Eliminate Violence Against Women, the Afghan Women’s Resource Center (AWRC) in Chilsitoon had scheduled a ceremony and invited local male dignitaries to attend. The goal was to raise awareness of women’s issues and garner support from local law enforcement, as well as provide an educational opportunity about domestic violence, HIV/AIDS prevention and women’s rights.

Just a few blocks from the ceremony location, less than two hours before the commencement, the suicide bomber had already taken the stage. The blast was so close to the event organizer’s home that her windows and mirrors were shattered. The senior police officers, men all slated to attend and show their support for women, instead were busy collecting pieces of debris, trying to assist the wounded, and organize a dignified system for families to recover their departed.

Yet it is clear Afghans understand that succumbing to fear is never an answer to terrorism. The employees at the AWRC knew that such a celebration is exactly the type of social cohesion that the Taliban insurgency wants to stop; canceling was not an option.

Despite the morning attack, the women and their children still gather in the tiny mud-brick compound for the ceremony. They sit in the open air, huddled underneath brightly colored blankets and shawls that radiate under the winter sun. Though the event and AWRC’s goal is gender equality, a few blue burqas are still scattered in the crowd. Some of the men working for the AWRC busily set up the stage on the porch of a small house, counting off sound checks into the microphone and testing the video projector. Another man carefully positions vases of pink and red synthetic flowers on either side of the podium, and posters declaring “We can end violence against women” are strung up around the yard.

The crowd of about a hundred is solemn at first, but soon chatter and laughter fills the air, as mothers visit and gossip and children fidget in their seats or play together next to a grapevine-covered well. At one point an older woman, perhaps still engrained with the repression she has suffered at the hands of men, stands up and reprimands the women for “talking too loudly,” despite the fact that the ceremony had yet to begin. The crowd ignores her.

The front row seats are empty; the event won’t start until the men arrive: men who are late dealing with a war that appears to be intensifying almost six years after the fall of the Taliban. Hours pass before they filter in from the street, the forlorn look of a difficult morning on their face.

Minutes later the long faces disappear, replaced by smiles and laughter of their own. The ceremony includes uplifting speeches by both men and women, poetry readings, and to the delight of everyone in the crowd, short skits with a humorous touch, performed by high school girls highlighting issues of domestic violence, HIV/AIDS prevention and the importance of girls’ formal education.

“The skits reflected some negative points that are still happening in Afghanistan today. The girls performed very well to demonstrate how we can eliminate violence against women,” says the attorney general of Chilsitoon, Mezor Shah Ehsan, after lunch that followed the ceremony.

A gentle man with a warm smile, he is adamant that cooperation is necessary, and that neither men nor women can develop in isolation. He dismisses the morning bombing as a failed attempt to break the will of the people. “Seven years ago women did not have permission to go outside; they had to stay at home. Today we are very glad that women are working in organizations, government and parliament,” Ehsan beams.

Providing the chance to earn a living is a major element of any group assisting women’s development. The AWRC, a group founded for refugees living in Peshawar in 1989, not only pays women wages for making clothes, but also has projects teaching women how to process fruits and vegetables that can be sold in the market. They conduct computer training, literacy classes and even an accelerated course for women to obtain the formal education they were denied during the Taliban regime. They have centers in dozens of districts, usually staffed by females, though men make up 15 percent of their employees.

Looking for long-term solutions, the AWRC agriculture program is just beginning extensive projects in Parwan and Kapisa provinces north of Kabul, managed by Ahmed Fardoon. “The aim of our projects is to get men and women together,” he says from a cozy-yet-smoky woodstove heated office he shares with three trainers, one of them a woman. “If you go to some rural provinces, most women are working in agriculture“ irrigation, harvesting, etc. We want to support them in the processing of fruits, jams, vegetables and pickles.” The agricultural program encompasses everything from growing techniques to processing to plant disease and pest eradication.

Another example of cooperation between the sexes is a current agriculture project in Laghman province, northeast of Kabul. The coordinators selected a site inside a fort, leasing land for farming from a male landlord. Although the AWRC pays rent for the space (“Who would rent land for free?” asks AWRC Finance Manager Maryam Rahmani), the mere ability to lease land specifically for women’s economic development is a sign of progress.

The landlord also leases space for the project to keep tractors and equipment. Local support around the farm in Laghman is encouraging, and the AWRC, as in other communities where it works, will establish a women’s committee, a men’s committee, and a children’s committee.

The committees create an environment where every opinion and solution can be shared. The AWRC believes inclusion is the key to avoiding disharmony.

Jalaludin Shans is one of those men who is making a difference. He was educated at the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo in the tenants of Sharia law. Contrary to Western images of Islam being oppressive, Shans says Sharia law can actually help women develop if implemented correctly. He believes that a new interpretation of Sharia law is needed – the interpretation he learned in Egypt’s universities – and he has returned to his home in Kabul to spread new ideas of a liberal Islam that can help women obtain their rights and freedoms.

More than six years after the Taliban were driven from power, Afghanistan plods forward in the face of suicide car bombers, kidnappings, and assassinations. It is a country beset by war; it has been almost 30 years since they have known real peace. The oppressive traditions and rules that kept women in a state of inhumane servitude during the Taliban are slowly being lifted. There are both milestones and setbacks, but Afghan women and their male partners in development understand that fear is defeat.