Women situation in Afghanistan (Not Very Nice)

In the last 25 years:

Patterns of violence against women in conflict do not arise 'naturally' but are ordered, condoned or tolerated as a result of political calculations.

The status of women in Afghanistan has been used by armed groups as a political tool in their struggles to secure and maintain power. Most armed groups have imposed restrictions on women in the name of religion and culture as a means of consolidating their own position and legitimacy. Notions of honour and shame underpinning cultural norms and practices emphasise female modesty and purity. During the last two decades, but particularly between 1992 and 1995, armed guards have used these norms as weapons of war. At the same time, acts of violence perpetrated against women - public beatings, and sexual assault - appear to have been used as instruments of intimidation, humiliation and coercion, of women and the wider population. The repression of women symbolises not only their vulnerability, but also the powerlessness of their male relatives to protect them. If the aims of peace and development are ever to be realised in Afghanistan, then women's fundamental human rights must be respected. It is now recognised the world over that progress, social justice, the eradication of poverty, sustained economic growth, and social development all critically depend on the full participation of women on the basis of equality in all spheres of society.

Invoking religion and Afghan culture, most armed groups have made pronouncements about appropriate behaviour for women, imposing restrictions on their freedom of movement and access to employment and education in areas they controlled. Women have been publicly harassed, intimidated and beaten for carrying out activities deemed by armed guards to be 'un-Islamic'. Most consistent and stringent in their enforcement of restrictions on women is the Taleban.

Current Situation:

it's quite interesting to see that women rights have been used by americans as justification for military intervention in Afghanistan. on the ground the situation changes very little in favor of women ... in Afghanistan we have seen some urban improvement.

Warlords are occupying parts of the territory and see women as commodities for trading, to settle land dispute. Abductions and forced marriages are about as bad, if not worse, than at any time in Afghan history.

Warlords are not being pulled out, they're not being prosecuted, they're not being investigated for the crimes that are openly committing. expereince from other post-conflict / violence countries shows that human rights violation will prolong if some of the people who were involved in the violation hasn't been courted.

amnesty international urged the International Criminal Court to "pick up and prosecute one or two high-profile cases because that will send the message that violence against women cannot continue in such an impunity, which is the norm today."

Even where women are not deliberately targetted, they are the main victims of so-called collatoral damage, whether caused by "precision" bombing or landmines, the report said.

wrote to BBC

I was born when the soviets had already spent a year in Afghanistan. The only image which I clearly remember from soviets is when I was six.
On my way to school in a very bitter winter day with snow up to my knees and blizzard blowing to my face. I saw a Soviet soldier standing in the middle of the main Karti-Parwan road.
He was standing on this slope road, rapped in thick warm woolen military uniform. He had big wind glasses on through which I couldn’t see his eyes. He was pointing a very big gun toward pedestrians and traffic; everyone was passing by with extreme caution.

The next day I didn’t take the main road to school; my grandmother advised me to avoid bumping into Roosah (Soviets). She told me they are barbarians and tyrant and they are here to kill good Muslims. She was telling me stories of how they entered Afghanistan through air and ground; it was a very noisy night. The roaring of Tanks entering Kabul and big planes landing in Kabul airport made people sleepless. She was saying the city was ordered to put black curtains on all windows so no light could be seen.

Few months later a unit of Tajik soldiers delivered some gifts and letters from children of communist countries to my school. A Tajik soldier gave me a toy and talk to me about life, home, family and children. He was full of love, feelings, humanity and affectation. When talking to him I totally forgot that their red army killed a million of my brothers and sisters and our warriors with bare hands killed tens of thousands of them. I found qualities and feelings in him that mattered to me; the massacre the invasion and the resistance was neither his nor mine fault, we were just specks stuck in the middle of a big horror and crime.
The entire war was part of a big thing, organized by systems and cleverer people than both of us setting in huge red and white castles.

I hope history doesn’t repeat it self, today I meet wonderful Americans who I could understand and are here definitely with good faith and mean to help. These people are too good to do any harm. But what about the system and administration, sadly the system and administration is always stupid and irrational.

The photo attached is the cover of a USAID publication and it says in bold letters “Building Afghan Democracy”, the editor forgets the first thing about democracy which is you can’t impose democracy on people, democracy is a process, not an answer or outcome. It has taken several hundred years in the US and other democratic nations to emerge under each nation’s VERY UNIQUE SITUATION.
I wonder how it (Bush Administration) could help if they have such a predetermined opinion and position.

Afghanistan wouldn’t be able to make it without their help and presence, but the administration should stop controlling Afghans and telling them what is good for them. The sooner the Afghans are able to run things the better it is for both sides.

I don’t know if it’s something wrong with Afghans or something wrong with the armies or maybe it’s the hospitality, for thousand of years when they arrive in the land of Faghan they tend to control things and they don’t learn from each other. They don’t learn people here hate to be pushed; other armies prior to them tried to control them, but they even couldn’t make it out of this place in each corner of this country you could see grave yards of invaders.

Abasin

Abasin just stepped into my office very upset and frustrated, he said the police in a chinese restaurant question him for 10 minutes, because he had lunch there.
Afghans are not allowed to go there.
He was almost arrested yesterday by the police because he was dropping a girl colleague home. Apparently, the cab-driver freaked out when he saw a boy and a girl chitchatting in a very un-triditional way and he wanted to report to police.

Last year he was in police costudy for a couple of hours because he went out camping at midnight, in the winter, in 30cm of snow, with a bunch of friends.
made a big fire and all those stuff… and had a lot of fun, the chief of police could understand the concept and was angry why young chaps showed that much freedom.

It's Abasin and people like him who are pushing the envelope and are trying to make a difference…. He is the man who will ensure the freedom of others.

Rules & regulation

Unnecessary rules will suppress people. Young Afghans are having some freedoms for the first time, and they don't know ways to maintain them and gain further freedoms, unless they are provided with a situation and are encouraged to obtain more freedoms.

Any unnecessary restriction might discourage them and they will lose their confidence and will never try new things. There are a lot of things young people in the west would do that afghan youths can't and it's because they don't have the confidence. When you come to rules and regulation it's not important to have it and implemented because it has traditionally been done so, but it should be put in place if it's required.

kabul security

The reason they are called terrorists is because they are trying to terrorize people, if we start to freak out it is exactly what they want us to do.

You are terrorized when you confuse precaution with unnecessary restriction and panic.
They want you to stop thinking. Terror and confusion brings two things, it either breaks you down (happens most of the time) or gives you reasons and strength.

One is confused and terrorized when you establish restrictions which you can't stick to; like xian and david's ideas, every Int'l should go out with an Afghan or they shouldn't leave homes for a certain period of time; these are not precautions because you can't follow it.

you are broken when you don't think what the issue is and how to set up plans to deal with it.
you are broken when you establish unnecessary restrictions. terrorists usually organize cluster attacks to confuse and terrorize people. But kidnapping can't be organized clustery it is not like smuggling a lot of explosives into the town. the moment a kidnapping happened the security organization goes on alert and another one is very unlikely to happen.

The reason I think it was a very organized thing is , why it happened in Kabul, if they wanted to kidnap foreigners they could have ambush them when they are going to Paghaman or somewhere else for partying.

Also kidnapping election workers should be more than a coincidence.
Precaution is usually taken to minimize the amount of risk. How far are you willing to go with that? Even 1% risk is too much far a paranoid person; what if you are at the wrong time in the wrong place? By coming to Afghanistan every foreigner should take (I don't know maybe) 5% risk.

Minimizing 5% risk is panicking. You could analyze the amount of abduction likelihood by playing around with the number of foreigners in Kabul, and the number of kidnapping in the last two years and half. I bet the number will be very small.
You could also find more data like how many of kidnapping was done by taxi drivers? To enable you to decide whether foreigners should take taxi or not; And etc.
if you want have more fun you could match the percentages against other normal risks; like getting killed in a traffic accident in NY.

Saturday 0940hrs:
it shouldn't be a surprise, but it could be. Staff breaks the rule. Hugo, Saira and I went to birds street in a Taxi and climbed the TV mountain. I would say its more important to train people how to handle a kidnapping situation, conflict management, negotiation skills than setting up rules which we know people won't observe.
It's also definite that the kidnapping was a deliberate plan.
Let's not forget a major factor setting up such restriction; which is called FUN. It's fun to panic.
If the security is bad, that how it is. We can only imporve it by doing our job in the best possible way. If you think you are afraid now, you are gonna be afraid if you want to be afraid you are afraid for the rest of you life.

Random Thoughts in the last few days

• Suppression brings either of the two things; it breaks people down (happens in most of the cases) or gives people reason and strength to stand up.
• i wonder if people in the peaceful situation know what the war cost Afghans, two millions deads, 7 million refugees.... how could people know the price being paid by individuals in chaos, agony, terror and bloodshed if they never been to Kabul.
• freedom of information (freedom of expression + freedom of listening) is............ the touchstone of all the freedoms.
• civilzations/Empires were not brought down by outside forces, they were destroyed by internal weaknesses. ..... Media globalization is a bad thing.
• A marriage is perfect with the marriage of the hearths, minds and sex.

Guy Shareit

"Marginalised people are more sensetive." well said mate

random thoughts

• technological media is the best way for civil soceity groups to interve in political process and bring peace to war torn countries where former enemies must live together in close proximity.
• Norwegians breath deeper when they are agreeing with you.

"Cultural sensetivity to certain things changes over time and that creates a new perception; names for sensitive things should change. e.g. Condomes" Lyndal Barry, what do you think a new good name could be lyndal?

"Mahee ra Ahr Waqt az Abb Bigeri Taza Ast" Afghan Proverb

"Mahee ra Ahr Waqt az Abb Bigeri Taza Ast"
everyday is good to start fresh, everyday is the first day of the rest of your life.

whoeversay their is not a such a thing as second chance is a studip mother fucker.

Namat, a wonderful guy

After jamshid was sacked yesterday, Namat was interduced as the intrem administrator, the only qualification he has to be appointed in this position is people can trust him, he doesn't have proper education, he doesn't speack english, he doesn't have the classic qualifictions tobe employed.

He was too nervous when John asked me to explain to him what is going on and if he want to be intrem admin. He said whatever you think is right I'll do it, which basicly means yes, John offered him a raise to $500 basic, but he was saying $300 is fine 5 is too much. Would be interested to see how he is gonna develop in the next few months I would love to see: 1. how he handle crisis? Someone fights like Dawod and Mustafa. Some police busts in. etc 2. how he manage conflicts? And takes decisions? 3. how judges people?

importance and caring

It is interesting how people remember horrible things for a long time, inspite their knowledge of negative effect of the memory on their life and day to day activities.
The more important something is for you the more difficult for you to get over it.
From my expereince of mingling into different cultures, it's very interesting how people decide something is important for them .

Westeners could get over certain things very fast, but will not forget about other things which are important for them,
I think in the list of westners forgetable things there are some very important emotional things.
Sometime when they forget about those too much , it makes them soulless*.
Afghans could much more easier get over certain things, but can't forget about others. The prolongation of war and conflict is perhaps because they can't forget about certain things, like a friend of them died in war and he roughly knows who killed him. He want to retaliate because he can't forget about it.

The more less things you have to care about, the more simple and painless* your life would be; also the more unimportant things you care about the more painless and simple life you would have.

Westeners have a relatively short list of things they care about.
INTERESTINGLY some important things for some people could mean nothing for others.
It's not wise to freak out when you think some one is not doing something important right. Because importance and righthood could vary.

Two friends were talking to each other the first said "wise people are not certain about things while idiots insist they know how things work."
Second friend " are you sure about this theory"
First friend " hundred percent"

*pain is not necessarily something bad, some people enjoy certain kinds of pain, at least a lot of Afghan do.
*defination of soulless.
*what are things Afghans Care about, what are things westerns care about, what are some interesting things other cultures care about?

violence

Is Violence a need or a mistake? violence comes to existance when people mishandle or can't handle a conflict. However, as time pass violence transforms to a habit.

Every event has an infinit number of causes

Every event has an infinit number of causes why would people choose one instead of another? Which one would they choose?
1. The one they are sure about the cause, and have facts and has done expermints; e.g. earthquick happens as a result of tectonic movement of earth layer.

2. Human being when don't have enough information by default chooses the one which sound like more fun. E.g indian would say earthquake happens because earth is on a cow horn and the cow moves harder sometime. People don't want to see and understand what's going on, they want to see what they want to see and understand going on

july 28

با آمرین رادیو های مستقل در مورد ایجاد رادیو های تازه ، ستراتیژ و پیشرفت کار صحبت میکردم که یک بار محراج الدین آمر رادیو قره باغ داخل صحبت ام شد و گفت : "مشکلات رادیو های موجوده چی میشود؟"
نگاهم را به هاشمی دوختم و او فهمید که میپرسم : قرار بود شما در باره این موضوع امروز صبح صحبت کنید. محراج فهمید و گفت "او در باره آن صحبت کردیم، میخواستم ببینم اگر باز هم میتوانیستیم صحبت کنیم"
مردم وقتی با آنها بشکل انفرادی معامله شود توقع های غیر معقول ندارند اما زمانی که کسانی با سرگذشت، موقف و دیدگاه های مشابع با هم یکجا شوند بسیار زرزری و بیمعنی میشوند.
همی گپه که گفتم دیروز بیادم آمد که آمر صاحب اداری با معاون صاحبه اداری و مسوؤل ترانسپورت اعتراضی نموده بودند ومیگفتند که اختیارات لازمه را ندارند و هم مداخلات شعبه مالی کارشان را مشکل نموده است.
1. داشتن یک وجه مشترک مردم را نزدیکتر میکند، بعضی اوقات این کاری خوب است اما بعضی اوقات نیست، بعضأ چون مردم فکر میکنند قوی هستند و با هم بودن سرگرمی است حتی به پیشنهاد های معقول نیز گوش نمیدهند.
2. وقتی مردم مشکلی داشتند آسانتر میشود ایشان را استعمال کرد. جمشید بخاطر جلب توجه دیگران به مشکلاتش چند نفر دیگر را استعمال نمود.

who am I ?

I am a lot of thing, too complicated to find out in this life.
I am 65% water; I am phosphorus, sodium, potassium, blood, muscles, brain, and a million of other things.

What I have just found out, I am an influenceble man. I could easily be influenced. The movie I watch last night, will have a lot of influence on me the next morning, and so on.
I think the reason I like societies and places with a lot of activity is to be influenced by them; I love to be influence of course subconsciously

Why Afghans aren't welcome in westner's premises

Afghans need to be at least freasked in to extra place where the foreingers doesn't when they are going to airport.
It's because Afghans are more personal than the foreigners, why is that? Perhaps 3 reasons
no system: watch the rules of engagement. When system doesn't exit people revenge to make life meaning full that's why there are more chances of Afghans blowing up a place than a westener. None of the suicide attacks in the TERRORISM AGE (it starts after the cold war and continues to today) has been done by a westner. Of the thousands of Taliban and Alqaida member only a few were brit and american and they were muslim.
There is also another aspect, how many of the 1.32 billion muslims are suicide attacker; how many of 23 million Afghans are suicider attacker, probably a few, so the chances of blowing up a place by an Afghan is very low. Does it worth checking every afghan and suspecting him to be the attacker?

I would say it does to check, but in a free and fair society you are hold innocent until they prove you are guilty, in a skrewed up system you are always a suspect. Sadam Hussein had six security unit separate from each other, the closest one was the most suspected one.
This is no random suppresion, it's very systematic; thosn't this systematic thing called descrimination; shouldn't there be a law which makes everyone equal, and treat everyone equal, even if they are white and more likely innocent.
FREEDOM IS POWER, Why did Taliban supresed Afghans to take their freedoms and thereby to take their power.

Half a day in Sayedabad of Wardak

It's 0920 on a warm Kabul summer day. Sahibzada, Fardeen and I are heading in the newly hired red Super Custom Van toward Sayedabad of Wardak, where according ANSO yesterday's security briefing around 12 gunmen have been seen and according to intelligence reports they might attack any soft targets in Sayedabad such as Voter Registration Centre, NGOs' and government building. Sayedabad is one of the four districts which is known as Wardak and together with Maidan they make a province known as Maidan Wardak.

In the northern part of the province in Jalreez, Maydanshar, Nirkh and Hisa awal Behsud the war has drastically changed the local culture and especially in the last 13 years. The soviets and later on the Najeeb government was always trying to bribe them not to provide sanctuary for the Mujahideen and not to let them to rocket kabul on the other hand Mujaheeden was trying to get their hearts and have a save heaven in their places.

we have a 0900 appointment with the Local shura of Maydan shar and later on with the Maydanshar journalist institute which is a surprise and the religious figures.
We are already late for it, because Fardeen failed to make the van ready for the time we wanted him to, although I give him specific instructions how to do that. Fardeen also didn't know the road to Sayedabad we work that out. Now he is not driving steady sometime he drives too fast and some time slow and I am telling him this is not the way a professional driver should drive.
Fardeen as every other new staff is very nervous and that's why he does things wrong; I was just telling him, it's very normal to make mistakes as every human does. (Oops, I was wrong about that, I know someone who doesn't make mistakes and his name is sculpture). He needs to process all steps of his life that includes mistakes. No one is perfect in this world and instinctively no one likes perfect people, they are boring. Whatever I was telling him he was giving me YES! YES! That's another thing of being nervous, I told him not to be so agreeable I am not his dad or his teacher or some Talib even if I am he shouldn't necessarily agree with them. If he stops being nervous he could think and once he think his thoughts are different to mine and that will make him not to agree with me.

But never mind the meeting didn't happen until 1030.
I am now in the second meeting with the religious people, I exactly don't know where but some where on this planet.

I was thinking we are here to see if you as religious leader want a radio, what do you say?
At the end he said radio is important and the community wants one.
I am on the way back; we are gonna set up a radio in Sayedabad and thinking if radio could change any thing in such a conservative society?

Westernized Azeri radio stations

Western influenced radio contents is very intertainment oreinted, exert beneficial influence, fosters escapism, doesn't reinforce values and aspirations for other standards and model of devlopment so by constant bombardment of western culture whose emphasis on individualism and materialism media evades indeginous culture.