Military

DATE=October 31, 2001

TYPE=Dateline

NUMBER=7-35513

TITLE=Women in Northern Alliance-Controlled Areas

BYLINE=Judith Latham

TELEPHONE=202-619-3464

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Neal Lavon

CONTENT=

INTRO: The status of Afghan women living in areas controlled by the Taleban is well known. But in areas controlled by the Northern Alliance, which opposes the Taleban, women also find their lives circumscribed by a strict interpretation of Islam. Today's Dateline examines the lives of women today in northern Afghanistan. Here's Judith Latham.

JL: Khodja Bahaoudin [KHOJ-jah bah-HAH-oo-deen], a dusty desert outpost near Afghanistan's northern border with Tajikistan sits in an area controlled by the Northern Alliance. Health worker Faranoz Nazir [FAHR-ah-nohz nah-ZEER], whose family fled to the region from Taleban rule in the capital city of Kabul, stands out from most of the other women in the village. She refuses to wear the burqa, the all-enveloping veil with a small mesh peephole for the eyes. She told V-O-A's Irris Makler [EER-iss MAK-ler] that women in this area controlled by the Northern Alliance follow strict Islamic custom.

TAPE: CUT #1: MAKLER/NAZIR [FM 5-50369] 2:22

"(FN) Women's faces are never seen in public. They wear a head-to-foot cloak, called a burqa, at all times. They are not permitted to go to the local market or even to some local hospitals. Our society has a very small mind for women. They think a woman is like a material. They can see them, they can buy them, they can beat them, they can hit them."

IM: Faranoz Nazir is an Afghan health worker employed by the international aid agency Medecins sans Frontierres, or Doctors without Borders. Her life story is a typically Afghan one of relocation and flight, moving her family over and over again, often just ahead of Taleban troops. She talked with Irris Makler about her relocation to the northern region six months ago and how she tried to establish a woman's group to teach local women English and hygiene. When she did, she received death threats.

FN: "Because of that, we became careful. We don't want to push women to die. Because of that we move slowly, slowly."

IM: "But even here, you say, when you started this women's association, there were threats to you. Did you take them seriously?"

FN: "Yes, I took them seriously because I have children and a husband, and for them I am always afraid."

IM: Regional commander Ajosi Kobir refused her permission to teach local women to read and write or to teach infant care. Instead, Faranoz set up classes under the umbrella of Doctors without Borders for refugee women in the camps that ring Khodja Bahaoudin.

FN: We start with the Quran, and now they are reading very well. I provide health education, and in this group no one is sick, and nobody has thin babies because the mothers take care of them."

IM:But these achievements haven't influenced the local authorities. Faranoz is still not permitted to hold similar classes for women in the town. She hopes that this will not become standard treatment for women by any new government in Afghanistan, but she is not optimistic. She believes that in the future, the West may have to step in to protect the rights of women in Afghanistan."

JL: Irris Makler reporting for VOA News in northern Afghanistan. For the past seven years, Iranian humanitarian aid worker Sippi Azerbaijani-Moghaddam [SIP-pee AH-zer-bye-ZHAHN -ee MOH-ghahd-dam] has been working with women and children throughout Afghanistan. She says she has spent much of that time in the northeastern province of Bahdakshan [BAH-dahk-SHAHN], which is firmly controlled by the Northern Alliance. Women there wear burqas, she says. And, although they are allowed to go out to work, they have difficulty finding employment even with international aid agencies. Girls attend school, and there are many female teachers. However, Ms. Maghaddam says, access to health care is poor in rural areas, and many women die in childbirth.

In Taleban-controlled areas, she says, the situation is far more difficult, because female employment was restricted by last year's

edict solely to the sphere of health care.

TAPE: CUT #2: MOGHADDAM Q&A [FM LATHAM] 5:11 (3:35)

"(SAM) So women who were teachers or who worked for international agencies in any sector other than health couldn't work anymore. This didn't happen in Northern Alliance areas. Girls could not attend school in Taleban areas. This was shortly after the arrival of the Taleban, first in Herat and then in Kabul. In both areas, women had to cover up. But, at least in some Northern Alliance areas, women had that choice. In Taleban areas they generally don't have that choice. This is restricted to urban areas. Once you get out into the rural areas, everyone has their own distinctive type of covering. So, it varies.

(JL) There has been a lot of emphasis in the West, and particularly the United States, on the covering of women. But among Afghan women themselves, is the principal problem the lack of access to education and employment and being able to take care of one's family? When you have talked with women about the conditions in which they live, what do they tell you is most distressing to them?

(SAM) When I was looking into the employment edict issue, they were saying, "Some of us don't mind wearing the burqa. But the important thing is that we can't educate our daughters. And we're educated doctors, and we're watching our daughters grow up uneducated. This is very painful for us."

(JL) Given the war and the drought and the fact that young men are forced into military service, are there a number of families that are headed by women? And what does this mean in terms of survival?

(SAM) There are more and more families that are headed by women, which has a lot to do with men having to migrate for work abroad or to the Gulf States, Iran, Pakistan, or other parts of Afghanistan. So a lot of families are left without guidance. Every time I asked them, "Why didn't you send you children to school? Why didn't you receive health care, they would say. "My husband takes care of those things, and he wasn't there, and it's the man's job to do this."

JL: (OPT 0:41) You spoke also of the fairly high incidence of death in childbirth. What is the level of medical care?

(SAM) A very high percentage of women give birth at home, and they usually have a close family member attending the birth. If there are complications, then a midwife is called. But even in situations where health care is available, there are other obstacles to accessing the health care. Is the woman's health a big enough priority to spend money on it? In some families, the feeling is that, if a young woman is taken to receive health care, then she is seen as damaged, and that is shameful for the family. So, they tend to avoid taking these young women to the doctor. (END OPT)

JL: (OPT 0:24) You spoke of the conditions in areas controlled by the Northern Alliance as being better than in areas controlled by the Taleban.

(SAM) When I say it's better, it's marginally better than in the Taleban areas. I found that women in remoter areas have a very difficult time. There are variations, but the discrimination against women runs quite deep in the communities. (END OPT)

(JL) Have you been able to keep in contact since you have been out with former colleagues there? And what have they told you about conditions in the last few weeks?

(SAM) Lately we've been working with Afghan women's organizations that are based in Peshawar. I have been in daily contact with them by e-mail or telephone. The situation is dire. People are turning to all sorts of survival mechanisms such as selling off assets and putting their children to work. In the refugee camps children as young as five are spinning wool and earning 50 cents a day, if they're lucky.

(JL) There has been a lot of debate in the press and elsewhere about the effect of the bombing on civilians. What information are you receiving?

(SAM) There are reports that families have been moving out to rural areas with little or no preparation. So, they are going out without winter clothing and without any thought to shelter or food. There is a second group of people who are not moving because throughout these years of war, they moved and then came back to find their houses looted of everything. So, they're staying where they are. And there's another factor. They won't move because they're afraid that, when they get to the border, they'll have to resort to smugglers. Especially families with young daughters because there have been stories of abduction and abuse from smugglers. Some organizations are already talking about the necessity to set up trauma counseling programs for women and children who are traumatized by the recent bombings.

JL: (OPT 0:31) How politically active and interested have you found the women with whom you have worked?

(SAM) I think, because of the political assassinations and because of the violence that has often surrounded politics, a lot of women tend to distance themselves from it. There were plenty of Afghan women judges and lawyers and women who were involved with the loya jirga and Afghan women who were involved with writing the Constitution. So, there are plenty of very well qualified female candidates out there. Some of them are still working in Peshawar. (END OPT)"

JL: Sippi Azerbaijani-Moghaddam [SIP-pee AH-zer-bye-zhahn-ee MOH-ghahd-dam] is a humanitarian aid worker in Afghanistan with the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. Darla Silva is the Washington representative of the Women's Commission.

TAPE: CUT #3: SILVA [FM LATHAM] 0:30

"My work is either lobbying Congress or the administration. Lately, it has been focused a lot on securing adequate funding for the humanitarian effort in Afghanistan. One of the major things we have done is to bring Sippi to Washington. This is her second trip here. Last year she came. And it's amazing how many more meetings we've been able to get this year. We've done meetings with the State Department. We've worked with religious groups as well as human rights groups and refugee humanitarian aid organizations."

JL: Darla Silva is the Washington representative of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

Some analysts say that if the Northern Alliance gains power, it would get rid of the current hardline rules such as those barring women from education. However, human rights groups in the United States point out that if Washington is going to cooperate with the Northern Alliance against the Taleban, it must pressure the Northern Alliance to comply with standard humanitarian practices, particularly those involving women and girls. "Afghan Women in Northern-Alliance Controlled Areas" was the subject of today's Dateline. I'm Judith Latham.