04 December 2001
Text: U.N. Food Agency Employs Afghan Women
(Afghan women regaining opportunity denied under Taliban) (980)
The World Food Program (WFP) will employ more than 2,400 women in its
emergency food distribution efforts in Kabul, Afghanistan. The
recruitment of women in the operation of the relief program attempts
to reverse the effects of a five-year-old Taliban policy barring women
from the workplace.
The women involved in the WFP program will distribute food coupons
house-to-house, receiving payment of $20-$40 a week depending on their
level of responsibility, according to a WFP press release. The U.N.
relief agency will also hire professional Afghan women for jobs in
developing and implementing the food aid programs.
"Being able to work openly for WFP gives me a sense of pride, the
chance to rebuild my country and, most importantly, the possibility of
feeding my family while I contribute to society and interact with
other people -- something that seemed impossible just a short time
ago," says Dr. Massouda Jala, program officer for WFP in Kabul.
Following is the text of the WFP press release:
(begin text)
WORLD FOOD PROGRAM
3 Dec 2001
WFP GIVES AFGHAN WOMEN CHANCE TO WORK AGAIN
Kabul, 3 December 2001 -- After years of being banned from any kind of
professional work by the Taliban's harsh rule, thousands of women are
now getting the chance to return to employment through WFP's Afghan
operations.
The Agency is this week mobilizing some 2,424 women to carry out an
emergency food distribution in Kabul.
Together with 1,200 men, the women will go door-to-door across the
Afghan capital distributing food coupons, which can be exchanged for
emergency aid at WFP food depots.
The Kabul operation is part of a WFP region-wide recruitment drive
with adverts being placed in Kabul, Quetta, Peshawar and Islamabad
appealing for qualified Afghan women to come forward for employment.
The Agency plans to hire professional women capable of designing,
implementing and then monitoring its food aid programs.
"WFP's commitment to women is ever more important, not only in an aid
capacity but also in recruiting professional Afghan women into our
program," said the Agency's Islamabad-based spokeswoman Lindsey Davies
on Monday.
"We hope women can come fully into their own by moving and working
freely."
WFP's Afghan offices are already employing 15 women full-time: seven
are based in Kabul, with others in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Faizabadm,
Heart and Mazar-I-Shariff.
For their role in the Kabul emergency distribution, WFP is paying
women US$ 20-40 for a week's work depending on the level of their
responsibility.
"Being able to work openly for WFP gives me a sense of pride, the
chance to rebuild my country and, most importantly, the possibility of
feeding my family while I contribute to society and interact with
other people -- something that seemed impossible just a short time
ago," says Dr. Massouda Jala, Program Officer for WFP in Kabul.
CATCH 22
Except for essential jobs in the health sector, the Taliban's strict
interpretation of Islamic rule forbade Afghan women from working
outside the home.
WFP's female employees were not even allowed in the Agency's offices
although some could work in women's bakeries and other projects.
Often this left WFP in a "Catch 22" situation where its female staff
could consult Afghan women on their food needs but the Agency was only
allowed to employ men.
"We were so shocked when we heard about the Taliban decree, " recalls
Massouda Jala.
"It made us feel depressed, frustrated, angry, shocked, oppressed,
inferior and heavy. Now I feel the same as a prisoner or a slave
getting released: happy, energetic, relieved and light."
Despite the Taliban's outlaw of female employment, WFP was able to
operate some projects for women. Its bakery projects in Kabul and
Mazar-I-Shariff (see below) provided break for half a million people
of which the majority were women.
The Agency also provided nursing schools with food aid at Kandahar in
the south and Herat in the west to train nurses and health care
workers; WFP also ran community development and income generating
projects, supplying food aid to women in return for making quilts and
sweaters to sell.
WFP PROJECTS IN AFGHANISTAN: WOMEN'S BAKERIES
During the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan, WFP-sponsored bakeries
represented one of the few job opportunities open to women.
The Agency supplied the flour that allowed women, in particular
destitute war widows, to produce the country's traditionally flat
bread at about one sixth of the market price for women and children;
it also provided the bakers with some kind of income.
At one stage a Taliban clampdown forced WFP to temporarily shut down
its bakeries, but the Agency has continued to run its bakery projects
-- although during the current crisis
Today, WFP supports 257 bakeries in Afghanistan that provide bread for
400,000 people. Of these, women run a total of 45 bakeries in Kabul
and Mazar-I-Shariff
WOMEN: THE QUICKEST SOLUTION TO HUNGER
In nearly every society across the world, women control the flow of
food within the household. Yet all too often women, in particular
expectant mothers, eat last and least.
As a result, malnourished women give birth to malnourished children
often afflicted with physical and mental handicaps and the cycle of
poverty and hunger is perpetuated.
Today, seven out of 10 victims of hunger are women and their young
children.
Yet experience also shows that in the hands of women, food aid is far
more likely to reach the mouths of needy children.
So when WFP drafts new operations, both for emergencies and
development, women are top of its priority list.
In emergencies, food aid is increasingly distributed through women.
Likewise women are recognized as having a crucial role in the recovery
phase that follows a humanitarian disaster.
(end text)
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