Chains of culture, religion, politics still bind Afghan women

<www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2003/April/03/style/stories/07style.htm>

April 3, 2003
By PEGGY TOWNSEND
Sentinel staff writer

After the Taliban was removed from power in Afghanistan, journalists reported stories of women who were now free to walk uncovered on the streets and go back to work.
But, says Tahmeena Faryal, an activist for Afghan women’s rights, that is not the real story of her country.
In rural areas, where most of Afghanistan’s women live, females are still largely housebound and seen as less than human, Faryal said. In those areas, a woman can still be beaten for appearing in public without her burqa.
“The women of Afghanistan,” she said in a telephone interview from the East Coast, “were not liberated after 9/11.”
Friday, Faryal will discuss the plight of women in Afghanistan as part of an appearance sponsored by the UC Santa Cruz Institute for Advanced Feminist Research.
Faryal, who is a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan or RAWA, will speak at 7 p.m. at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Soquel.
Admission is free.
Inside four walls
Faryal, who is in her 20s, left Afghanistan as a child.
“I belonged to a generation who spent most of their lives in migration and refugee conditions,” said Faryal, who now lives in Pakistan.
“My family opposed the Soviet invasion, so it was not safe for them to live (in Afghanistan).”
Her mother was a member of RAWA, an underground group which fights for the rights of women in that country.
When Faryal was old enough, she joined too.
Many people believe women’s plight in Afghanistan began with the Taliban, said Faryal in her heavily accented, but precise, English.
“But the general tragedy for women started with the Soviet invasion,” she said.
“That was the beginning of everything.”
If the Soviets had not invaded, fundamentalist Muslims and the Taliban would not have gained their power, pressing women back into a world that only stretched as far as the four walls of their homes, she said.
When the Taliban took power in 1996, it only cemented rules that were already in place, she said.
Faryal, who will not allow her picture to be published for security reasons, said things are not much different under the Northern Alliance.
“They are warlords, war criminals,” she said. “They do not deserve, at all, to be in power.”
Under its rule, women in rural areas still spend most of their time indoors, cooking, cleaning and taking care of their children and husband, Faryal said.
Most cannot read and have no access to health care.
They are raped, beaten and kidnapped, according to Faryal.
“A rural woman in Afghanistan ... is not aware of her rights,” Faryal said. “She is half a human being.”
Education is key
Faryal said RAWA, with its 2,000 members, is attempting to change the plight of women in Afghanistan not only by political agitation, but by teaching women to read and bringing them better health care.
Members work in refugee camps and in small villages where they often must first get the permission of a woman’s husband before she can take a literacy class.
“But once they see the women in the class and a women teaching them, which is empowering and a role model for them, they realize their potential,” Faryal said.
The strict rules that govern Afghan women are a blend of the political, the cultural and the religious, Faryal said.
“Mingled together, they become like a heavy chain around the necks of Afghan women,” she said.
Contact Peggy Townsend at ptownsend (at) santa-cruz.com.

If you go:
What: ‘One Year Later: RAWA, Afghan Women and the Continued Need for Resistance,” with Tahmeena Faryal
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave.
Admission: free
Arrive an hour early for security.