A broken promise

“NOW WE ARE under the control of someone who looks at women darkly. This is the situation for women in Herat.” Herati student, 11 September 2002.

You would have thought that one year after the terrorist attacks on U.S. trade and military targets, and the subsequent toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the situation of Afghan women would have changed. Apparently not. A report of Human Rights Watch, released in December 2002, revealed that Afghan warlords continue to oppress women despite the overthrow of the repressive Taliban regime.

Every woman in the Western Afghan city of Herat, for example, must wear the burqa and many still do in Kabul too, fearing retribution from Taliban supporters within their communities. After conducting more than 100 interviews recently in Herat and Kabul, the Human Rights group – the world’s largest human rights organisation which is based in the United States – noted how little life had changed for women in Herat under the hardline governor, Ismail Khan. Although particularly bad in this region, the report says similar abuses are to be found all over Afghanistan. In the capital, Kabul, the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue squad has been reconfigured under the name ‘Islamic Teaching’ and harasses women for wearing make-up.

Repression in Herat

While conditions in Herat are better than under the Taliban, women and girls are afraid to go out except on essential business because of tight restrictions enforced not only by the police but by adolescent boys trained to spy on them. A doctor at Herat’s only hospital told Human Rights Watch that police bring in about 10 girls and women a day for ‘chastity’ tests. They can be arrested, taken to hospital and subjected to these tests for such things as shopping in a bazaar with a man or riding in a taxi without another passenger. In one case, police arrested a girl and her cousin in the bazaar. The girl was taken to the maternity ward where two doctors examined her to determine that she was ‘untouched’.

Women and girls in Herat are marginalised politically, economically, and socially. Many of them expressed to Human Rights Watch a strong desire to participate in the country’s civil and political life, to be able to speak freely, both publicly and privately. Yet, very few forums are open to women there, and those that are open are heavily censored by Ismail Khan. He has responded to criticism by denying any violations and claiming that Afghans have different human rights ‘values’.

The Herat government discriminates against women in the right to work. Few jobs are open to them and those that are come with significant limitations from the government. Ismail Khan has pressured women not to work for international non-governmental organisations or for the United Nations, although these agencies need women to administer many of their emergency aid and reconstruction programmes. Women are also prohibited from riding in cars with foreign men or from meeting alone with them. At least one Herati woman has been arrested and detained for her contact with foreign men during the course of her work. At the same time, almost no women have been invited to work in the Herat government. Ismail Khan has urged women instead to work at home or as teachers in girls’ schools. Government officials harass and threaten those who step outside of these narrow boundaries.

Domination by warlords

When the Taliban were driven from power in late 2001, many Afghan women were hopeful. They had long struggled to claim full rights and freedoms and, under the Taliban, their position was undoubtedly worse than at any other time in recent history. Yet, one year after the Taliban’s fall, it is clear that Taliban officials have been replaced by warlords, police officers, and local officials with similar attitudes toward women. In some parts of the country, the same officials who administered the anti-women policies of the Taliban remain in their positions. This has meant the re-imposition of extremely repressive social codes. Such restrictions severely undermine the most fundamental rights of women and girls in many areas of Afghanistan, including threatening their physical security.The central Afghan government is not yet in a position to protect human rights, especially outside of the capital, Kabul.

Extensive discrimination against women and girls may have discouraged some refugees from returning home. Many women in Herat who had recently returned from Iran and Pakistan told Human Rights Watch of the basic freedoms they gave up when they returned, including playing sports and music, and going without a burqa or chadori. In October 2002, Shah Mohammad, who was returning to Herat from Iran with his wife and two young daughters, told a journalist: “We came here hoping things will change. These ideas of forcing women to wear burqas, for example, are nonsense. We are good Muslims and Islam exists in our hearts.” His wife, Taiba, added that, “if we have to wear these things we’ll just go back to Iran”. Women and girls enjoy little freedom of movement in Herat. Unlike in neighbouring Iran, women are not permitted to drive cars, and they do not ride bicycles. A public transportation system hardly exists, and where it does it is inadequate, leaving women and girls with few ways to get to school, work, or the market, or to seek medical care.

There is evidence that restrictions on women and girls are again increasing all over Afghanistan. Even the much lauded restoration of the right to education is under attack. Schools for girls have been attacked with rockets or set on fire in at least five provinces: Kandahar, Sar-e Pol, Zabul, Logar, and Wardak. Local forces have done little to prevent these attacks. As in Herat, commanders in northern Afghanistan have pressured women not to work for foreign organisations. This type of social repression, enforced in some places by government troops, is a source of fear for many women, both because of what is happening now and for what it may signify for the future if restrictions on women and girls continue to increase.

Report recommendations

The U.S and other nations involved in Afghanistan have so far resisted repeated calls from the Afghan government, the U.N. mission, and numerous non-governmental organisations to expand the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the U.N.-mandated peacekeeping force for Afghanistan, outside of Kabul. However, the recent decision by the U.S. and U.K. to deploy additional troops outside of Kabul to work on security and disarmament issues, and the offer of the government of Japan to assist with monitoring of disarmament, are regarded as welcome signs. But, according to Human Rights Watch, much more needs to be done to increase human rights protections and decrease the stranglehold on power enjoyed by Afghanistan’s warlords who rule most parts of the country.

The organisation has urged Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan Transitional Administration to restructure and strengthen the Afghan Human Rights Commission so that it can more effectively investigate human rights conditions in Herat and throughout Afghanistan, including issues pertaining to women’s rights. It has suggested that the Ministry of Women’s Affairs should rapidly open offices in Herat and other areas outside of Kabul.

The U.N.is called upon to make further efforts to ensure that reconstruction funds under its control do not directly benefit, financially or politically, regional leaders who are committing human rights abuses, including implementing repressive measures against women and girls. There is a call for regional leaders to be pressured to repeal restrictions specifically targeted at them. Human Rights Watch has endorsed non-governmental organisations who protect and support those women in Herat and other areas in Afghanistan who seek to organise civic groups and associations.The U.N. Commission on Human Rights special rapporteur on violence against women and the special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan are requested to visit those areas of the country where women and girls are being subjected to restrictions and serious human rights abuses.

The U.S., the European Union, and other nations involved in Afghanistan are urged by Human Rights Watch to use their influence through political, military, and diplomatic representatives to pressure Ismail Khan to take the necessary steps immediately to improve the human rights situation for women and girls in the Herat region. The U.S.could halt all military and other direct assistance to Ismail Khan and all other regional leaders in Afghanistan operating independently of the central government. Human Rights Watch wants the U.S. Congress to conduct an immediate investigation of the role of U.S. military and non-military assistance to Afghanistan in strengthening warlords who are known to be engaging in human rights abuses.

Many Afghans, in Herat and elsewhere, expected the international community to stand up to warlords like Ismail Khan as they had stood up to the Taliban. Many are angry and disillusioned with the U.S., the U.N., and the international presence in Afghanistan generally.

Taliban-era ‘moral’ restrictions remain in force in many areas, such as forbidding families from playing music at weddings and dancing, and in some cases arresting and beating musicians. “Many people outside the country believe that Afghan women and girls have had their rights restored; it’s just not true,” said Zama Coursen-Neff, co-author of the report. “The U.S.-led coalition justified the war against the Taliban in part by promising that it would liberate Afghanistan’s women and girls; the international community has broken that promise,” she added.