Today is International Women’s Day — an annual celebration meant to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. Some countries mark it as a national holiday. Here in Afghanistan, government institutions, civil societies, embassies and international organizations honor this event anywhere between March 1-10.
While women have made a modest comeback in Afghanistan regarding education and political participation, the country’s acting Public Health Minister Suraya Dalil told me Afghan women still are lagging in one key area: medical care.
In keeping with the spirit of International Women’s Day, I made a point to talk to as many different Afghan women as I could about their thoughts on women’s rights in Afghanistan. Granted, it’s not easy for an American man to just go up to an Afghan woman on the streets of Kabul and strike up a conversation, and it definitely isn’t easier if you have a microphone. But, I spoke with a few female colleagues and some human rights activists. They all made an interesting point: Why should they support the Afghan government’s policy of seeking reconciliation with the Taliban?
Sima Samar is the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission chairwoman. She says she is concerned because the Taliban violated women’s rights during the years they were in power. She says, “[They] even banned women from access to education, to health care, to work, to movement. [The Taliban] will come back in power and we don’t have any right to say: What?!”
Samar also says it is critical Afghan President Hamid Karzai includes women in a meaningful way during the peace jirga. She says, “What is important is that we have to be [at] the table on the decision-making policy [and] not only in the peace jirga as a piece of decoration.”
What do you think? Will Afghan women play a meaningful role at the peace jirga? And ultimately, will women’s rights be sacrificed if there is reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban?
Pakistanis have told me that the images coming from the relief effort in Haiti remind them of their own country’s massive earthquake five years ago. The effects of that disaster still are visible. But despite Pakistan’s current hardships, some people, such as Abdul Sattar Edhi, are working to send aid to the small Caribbean nation. Watch the story below:
My interview with Edhi — who is known in some quarters for his humanitarian works as Pakistan’s “Father Teresa” — occurred a few weeks after the earthquake struck Haiti. I spoke to him by phone today to see if his wait for visas was over. It isn’t.
Initially, Edhi had gone to the Cuban Embassy in Islamabad to get visas for himself and his fellow team members. However, he said Cuban officials denied their requests because the U.S. military is managing the traffic in and out of Haiti’s main ports of entry.
Edhi then went to the U.S. Embassy. He has a permanent Green Card for the United States, but his team members do not. Today, Edhi said he is frustrated because U.S. officials gave him the impression that his team would not receive any visas for at least six months.
The United States has tightened restrictions on issuing visas during the past few years. In addition, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman told me today that humanitarian efforts are not given any special consideration, and everyone has to go through the same process.
So as it stands, there is at least a million dollars and a team of workers with quake experience on stand by, half-a-world away.
What do you think? I’d love to read your comments below about your views on the situation.
I spoke with former Pakistani Foreign Secretary Najmuddin Shaikh, and he says that Pakistan does not think a military strategy can achieve peace in Afghanistan. Instead, he says Pakistanis believe that they should help promote a political resolution. Watch the story below:
We also discussed a point that Shaikh says international debates are not covering enough: the Pakistan-India dynamic.
The two nuclear powers have fought three wars against each other over the years. Now, India is a major donor in Afghanistan, and Shaikh says Pakistani officials suspect India has strengthened its influence in the war-torn country.
The former foreign secretary also says Pakistanis worry that there is a shortage of troops on their eastern border.
A large number of the Pakistani army’s fighting force is now concentrated in the country’s western regions battling Taliban militants. Shaikh says that if the United States had its way, more Pakistani troops would battle along that border, especially in the North Waziristan tribal area where Jalaluddin Haqqani’s Taliban network is centered.
Coalition commanders say the Haqqani network is a major cause of instability in eastern Afghanistan. These Taliban fighters fled Afghanistan following the U.S.-led invasion, and now operate largely with impunity from the Pakistani military.
I asked Shaikh if Pakistan views the Haqqani network as a strategic asset in Afghanistan in order to counterbalance India’s influence.
Shaikh replied that Jalaluddin Haqqani was “the most capable commander by my reckoning in the resistance against the Soviets and was certainly someone that the Americans talked to in the aftermath of 9/11.” He added that the fighting situation could make for “strange bedfellows” if the future of the Haqqani network remains at the forefront of Pakistan’s relationships with Afghanistan and the United States.
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