Securing the Future for Afghan Women
M. Ashraf Haidari
March 8, 2011
More than nine years after Taliban militants were driven from power in Kabul,
women in Afghanistan are making slow but steady progress in their effort to
secure basic rights.
The Taliban era, as is widely known, took Afghan women back to the Dark Ages.
From there, it’s been a long climb back to the point where a woman can entertain
even the slimmest hope of realizing her potential. And even now the progress
achieved over the last nine years remains vulnerable to backsliding.
One of the foremost accomplishments of the post-Taliban period is the
appearance of women in positions of political power. The first female provincial
governor and district mayor in Afghan history are currently serving their
constituencies, and the ministries of public health and women's affairs are led
by women, as is Afghanistan's Independent Commission on Human Rights. At the
same time, the Afghan parliament features a higher percentage of female
representation at 27.3 percent than the legislatures of the world’s most
established democracies, including the US Congress (15.2 percent) and British
Parliament (19.7 percent).
More broadly, a record number of girls and women are attending schools and
universities. Of the total 4.8 million children in grades one through six, 36.6
percent are girls. The number of girls in high school almost doubled from 2007
to 2008 (the last year for which there are reliable statistics) from 67,900 to
136,621 students. Some 8,944 university students graduated in Afghanistan in
2008. Of them, 1,734 were female.
Public health also has experienced vast improvements over the past nine
years. Up to 80 percent of the Afghan population now has access to basic health
care, up from just 8 percent in 2001. More than 1,650 professional midwives are
employed by the ministry of public health, providing health and childbirth
services across Afghanistan. This has helped reduce infant mortality rates by an
overall 23 percent in the post-Taliban age, that translates into roughly 80,000
newborn lives per year saved in recent years.
In addition to concrete developments that have improved the lives of Afghan
women, the Afghan government is working to change public attitudes. In
Afghanistan's most traditional areas, conservative social attitudes impede the
progress of women. Working to lower this barrier, the Afghan Ministry of Women’s
affairs is partnering with local elders and religious figures to promote
attitude change with a community-centered approach. Through the National
Solidarity Program, more than 22,000 Afghan women are actively participating
alongside men in more than 10,000 community development councils. These bodies
work to assess local needs, receive and implement grants from the ministry of
rural rehabilitation and development and lead project design and implementation.
Although the progress has been encouraging, the challenges facing women
remain daunting, with a general sense of insecurity listed as the top concern.
The Taliban is increasingly active, targeting and killing female teachers, and
burning down hundreds of girls’ schools.
Lacking capacity and resources, most of Afghan state institutions—including
those focused on women—are unable to fully implement legislation, provide basic
public services, and generate employment opportunities. The Afghan Ministry of
Women’s affairs is a prime example of a government institution lacking both the
capacity and budgetary resources to execute its broad mandate. Its annual $1.3
million budget is dwarfed by the tens of millions of dollars spent each year by
non-state international organizations in Afghanistan.
One way to cement the gains already made in place, and to foster the
continuing expansion of opportunities for women, is for the international
community to work with Afghan officials on the implementation of the Kabul
government’s national development strategy. Part of that overall strategy is a
plan to help reduce violence and the oppression of Afghan women. Afghanistan’s
nation-partners committed themselves last July at the Kabul Conference to
channeling at least 50 percent of international assistance through Afghan
government agencies. Foreign governments remain hesitant to follow through on
that pledge, in large part because of corruption worries. It is a problem that
can be addressed through institutional capacity building, implementation of
structural reforms and increased pay for civil servants. All sides should work
to eliminate existing concerns in order to strengthen the ability of Afghan
women to enjoy a future full of possibilities.
M Ashraf Haidari is an international security and development analyst who
works with Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He formerly served as the
chargé d'affaires and political counselor of the Embassy of Afghanistan in
Washington, DC.
The above article originally appeared in
Eurasianet.org. Reprinted here with permission from the author.
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