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

Disconnects between reality and our imagination abound everywhere. Often what we see, hope for, or work towards is skewed by our own stereotypes, idealism, or worldview. From the West, it is easy to bloviate about secular democracy, strong central government, and a separation of religion and state in a post-war nation like Afghanistan. But for Afghans, the view is much different.

[Rusted artillery mounts sit atop a ridge of the Hindu Kush foothills that divides Kabul.]

As the international community seeks to aid in Afghanistan’s development, there is disagreement over what shape and form their society should take. Many in the West have lumped Islam and terrorism together, and even the brightest minds don’t seem to understand the crucial – yet positive – role that religion can play in the country’s reconstruction.

The mainstream media reflects this image. “Positive” stories about Afghanistan (or any Muslim country) focus on how the people are eschewing their religion in favor of a secular state. The media wants stories about women rebelling and throwing off their veils, or men that agree to Western definitions of what constitutes a terrorist and are willing to kill for it.

Positive stories never involve Islam as part of the solution: it’s simply not part of the Western narrative.

But since the 2001 invasion, the Taliban insurgency has been fueled by Western-style policies that have, consciously or not, eroded Islam’s role in society. In a country like Afghanistan, education occurs through the mosque, and Islam cannot be alienated and cast aside as “part of the problem.” Real solutions will use religion as a tool, not an obstacle.

Three Afghans working in Kabul – a ministry official, a parliamentary adviser, and a United Nations development aide – all envision Islam being used differently in post-conflict reconstruction.

Yet they all agree on one thing: Islam will play a big role.

Mohammed Alem Amini, a policy adviser at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA), discovered the crucial role of religion by trial and error. MOWA arranged a meeting with mullahs in a rural province to discuss women’s issues, and according to Amini who admits with a wry smile, “the meeting was not good.” They attempted to talk about minimum marriage age for girls and allowing women to choose their own husbands, but were rebuffed by the conservative mullahs.

“We realized we should find a mullah that agrees with us before the meeting, and that he should approach the other mullahs first,” Amini says with the benefit of hindsight. “It’s important to find a mullah that studied outside of Afghanistan – like Egypt or Iran or Pakistan. They are better than those that only studied in their own village. If we could find those mullahs, we could be successful.”

Sabir Barya, recently appointed the head of parliamentary affairs at the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), knows that religion cannot be cast aside. He seeks to separate Islam from tradition.

“The first way to develop is to defeat extremism: and that starts with attitudes toward women,” Barya relays like it’s common sense, a jovial man with a receding hairline and a thick moustache.

Educating the public about a true definition of Islam can help to sever the two. He has suggested two steps that will formally separate religion and tradition: he wants to eliminate the tuyana, or dowry paid for a daughter in marriage, and believes the decision of whether a man can have more than one wife should be subject to a court’s authority (something that would require approval of both the first wife and the potential new wife). The ideas weren’t approved when the Afghan Constitution was being written, but that hasn’t stopped him from whispering in the ears of politicians.

Barya believes a slow and steady process will eventually overtake conservative traditions. “Women should show that they don’t totally disagree with all of the old traditions. She should approach each one, step by step. It is not useful for a woman to ignore all of the traditions and just say ‘I’m free!’ This is not acceptable for society.”

Friba Nasiry isn’t so patient. She spent the period under Taliban rule working as a physiotherapist with the International Committee of the Red Crescent, and is now a program associate with the Afghanistan United Nations Development Program for Women (UNIFEM). She spends time in the field going door-to-door and speaking with women in rural Afghan villages, implementing literacy programs and helping to create economic opportunities, such as beekeeping operations.

[Nasiry and other UN workers visit women in rural villages in northern Afghanistan.]

She doesn’t deny that laws can have an effect, but preaching equal rights isn’t enough for Nasiry; she wants men to put their ideas into practice in their own lives.

“What about his wife and daughters?” she asks, referring to Barya. “Does he let his own wife work? Do they send their own daughters to school?” The answer is not always “yes,” though most men protest that the security situation doesn’t permit such freedom.

Nasiry believes leading by example should start with Afghan President Hamid Karzai; his wife, a medically-trained doctor, could be a publicly visible figure – a good example of the newfound freedom Afghan women can expect to enjoy now that they are free from the Taliban. But Karzai’s wife is neither seen nor heard.

“Karzai is always waving the flag of democracy, but where is his wife?” Nasiry asks rhetorically. If the president’s wife is not allowed to leave the house, how can other women expect their own husbands or fathers to change?

With religion as the driving force in Afghan society, Nasiry sees real cultural change beginning and ending with the mullahs. She is encouraged by a particular mullah in Kapisa province who is publicly encouraging people to allow their daughters to attend school.

“The mullahs can play a very big and very positive role” in changing outdated traditions, Nasiry says.

Western policy-makers have envisioned an Afghan democracy based on secularism and individual rights, and tried their best to administer this system from the top down. But their perceived ignorance or dismissal of Islam’s role as a building block for Afghanistan’s political and social structure has been to the detriment of Afghan society.

Islam is a part of life, and a truly free and just society cannot be established without the guiding hand of religion. Insisting that Islam is part of the problem only reinforces the fanatical definition that the Taliban preaches.

When the West should be helping to shape the future, instead they seem to be trying to write Islam out of the history books.