Education is the Key to
Empowering Afghan Women
By M. Ashraf Haidari
May 17, 2009
After thirty years of war and destruction, Afghanistan remains on the bottom
of the human development index with the worst social indicators among women, who
together with children constitute more than half of our population. Beyond
protective security concerns, the only way to empower women in Afghanistan’s
traditional society is through enhancing their access to primary and higher
education inside or outside the country. We know from the experience of women in
the developed world, of course, here in the United States or Europe, where women
were not fully enfranchised as early as last century until they were able to
acquire higher education and became financially independent. A least developed
country, Afghanistan has much to do in order to catch up, following on the
footsteps of the developed world. Indeed, Afghanistan’s economy could hardly
grow on a sustainable basis without half of our population contributing to the
reconstruction and development process of the country.
In spite of much effort by various international organizations to promote
gender equity in Afghanistan, there are very few programs that help Afghan women
gain higher education, particularly abroad. One key exception is the US-based
Initiative to Educate Afghan Women, which has managed to enlist the support of a
dozen American universities to grant four-year scholarships to qualified Afghan
girls with leadership skills to study in the United States. Such programs need
to be funded generously in order to meet Afghanistan’s urgent demand for
developing our cadre of female leadership to ensure equality between women and
men under our progressive constitution. And needless to say, with Afghan women
educated, their children will be healthy and educated too, who together will
contribute to a productive labor force that is needed to integrate with the
global economy.
Afghan women welcome the renewed commitment by the United States to our
country’s stabilization, not only militarily but also through increased social
and economic development assistance. President Barack Obama firmly committed to
protecting the basic human rights of Afghan women and children when he announced
the new US strategy for Afghanistan on March 27, 2009. For Afghan women, no
human right is more fundamental than the right to an education inside or outside
our country. Prophet Mohammed (PBU), whose wife was a businesswoman and
equivalent of a female CEO today, often told his followers: “Seek knowledge,
even unto China,” meaning go in quest of education wherever possible.
Over the past eight years since the end of gender apartheid under the
Taliban, Afghan women have made considerable progress, participating in the
political life of our country. From the Bonn Agreement to the drafting,
reviewing, and finally adopting Afghanistan’s new Constitution, women were
involved every step of the way. Afghan women played a seminal role in each
process from the Emergency and Constitutional Loya Jirgas to the presidential
(2004) and parliamentary (2005) elections. Their participation in these historic
processes have not only helped establish Afghanistan’s state institutions but
also ensured that women become equal partners to men in leading these
institutions forward to serve our nation.
Therefore, Article 22 of the Afghan Constitution affirms women’s equality to
men before the law, and Article 83 guarantees women 27 percent of the seats in
the Lower House and 17 percent of the seats in the Upper House of the Afghan
parliament. Beyond the constitutional guarantees, Afghan women set out to
participate and campaign hard in the national elections. More than 40% of the
registered Afghan women turned out to vote in the presidential elections and
more than 50% women risked their lives to vote in the parliamentary elections.
Afghan women enjoy the deep respect, support and commitment of President
Hamid Karzai to their Constitutional rights and the implementation of those
rights through various mechanisms established in the government so far.
President Karzai has called into question the constitutionality of the recently
passed Shi’ite family law, which discriminates against women. The law allows men
to restrict women’s movement, except in emergency situations, or to engage in
marital sex without consent. These articles clearly contradict Afghanistan’s
progressive constitution, which provides women and men with equal rights. On
April 19 in an interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN, President Karzai stated, “I
have instructed—in consultation with the clergy of the country—the Ministry of
Justice, that the law be revised and that any articles that is not in keeping
with the Afghan constitution and Islamic Sharia must be removed from this law.”
Despite landmark achievements by the Afghan women, the challenges facing them
are many and daunting. Today, Afghan women list insecurity as the number one
obstacle to their progress in any area. Eight years on, the Taliban have
expanded their presence where the government is absent, particularly in the
countryside where most women live and where the terrorists daily carry out
suicide attacks against military and soft targets. The Taliban have targeted and
killed female teachers, and burned down hundreds of girls’ schools. They will
continue their campaign of terror in Afghanistan so long as their leadership
remains intact in Pakistan where they find safe havens, arms, and ideological
support.
Insecurity in Afghanistan is also due to a lack of international assistance
resources that has resulted in weak state institutions. Without capacity and
resources, most of Afghan state institutions—including those focused on
women—are unable to enforce the adopted legal framework, provide basic public
services, and generate employment for the people. The Afghan Ministry of Women’s
Affairs is a prime example of both lacking capacity and the necessary budgetary
resources to execute its broad mandate nationwide. 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.
Yet, it is the justice sector that remains the most under-reformed due to a
lack of international attention and resources from the beginning. It is
unfortunate to know that Afghanistan’s 30 million population has some 60 female
judges, 35 prosecutors, 70 attorneys, and very few defense attorneys. More than
half of these women may hold a four-year degree which may not be in a legal
field. And of these women, who do show up to work, lack a physical office with
proper equipment to carry out their duties.
Women are the pillars of any society including Afghanistan. By enhancing
attention to women’s basic needs such as education, more than half of our
population can be empowered to make a significant contribution to Afghanistan’s
long-term development. Afghan women have done their part over the past eight
years, and will continue to do so as long as we stand by them. The international
community must continue to do theirs through partnerships—such as the Initiative
to Educate Afghan Women—to help ensure gender equality in the Afghan society now
and on the long run.
M. Ashraf Haidari is the Political Counselor of the Embassy of Afghanistan in
Washington, DC. His e-mail is
haidari@embassyofafghanistan.org
(Originally published on the
International Affairs Forum;
republished with permission from author)
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