Fitzpatrick Award.

It's an award by Farrago magazine, in which I contributed and sub-edited.

I have been nominated for Best Political Piece for my "Plight of Afghanistan Women" article.

Totally unexpected at all, and my friends who have known this have expressed similar happiness and support for me.

For this I am really, really appreciative and grateful. When I first heard about it, the first though that crossed my mind was " I was never going to be nominated for anything at all. Didn't even contribute to each issue."

I am happy that my own negative thoughts had been proven incorrect. Alhamdulillah...Thanks a lot God. And the editors too, for they have made the original piece more polished and tight in the magazine!



Afghanistan Women’s Plight

By Melita Rahmalia

Sitara Achakzai is a women’s rights advocate and politician in the Southern province of Afghanistan. On April 12 this year, she was killed by four gunmen just outside her home in Kandahar city. Taliban spokeman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, claimed the responsibility.

This is an example of intimidation and threats that Afghanistan women receive, even during what should be an era of democracy under Hamid Karzai, the current President. Why does this still happen?

Politically, a lack of genuine support by the government for the development of women and a corrupt government, as claimed by Ashraf Ghani, former Finance Minister who quit Karzai’s cabinet in 2004. “The largest threat to this country is this predatory government. Why did the Taliban reappeared? People who expected justice, fair play, and development feel betrayed,” said Ghani in a Newsweek interview. Further, Ghani revealed that Karzai auctioned off government positions (promising hundreds of people governorship, ministerial positions, and deputy ministerships) in order to win elections.

Indeed, some of the steps taken by Karzai might have decreased a set of rights that women in Afghanistan have when Taliban fell.

In March this year for example, he approved a new law which introduces restrictions on Shi’ite women: barring them from leaving the homes without the permission of their husbands and obliging a wife to submit to husband’s sexual demands, whenever he wants it. This approval was to get the vote of Shi’ite influential clerics for the Afghanistan national general election, incoming August 20, 2009. Under international pressure, he finally agreed to have the law reviewed again by the Justice Ministry.

Culturally, many of the women’s problems are ingrained in the country’s deeply patriarchal culture and conservative traditions. This is particularly more pronounced in the rural areas. Many families still restrict their mother, wives, daughters, and sisters from participation in public life. They are still forced into marriage and denied basic education.

The statistics in March 2007 from Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) are daunting: 87 per cent of Afghanistan women are illiterate, 70 to 80 per cent faces forced marriage, 1 in 3 Afghan women experience physical, psychological, and physical violence, and 70 per cent does not have access to education. The only education they get is on being second class citizens.

Fahima, a 19 years old girl, shares her experience in IRIN: “I was put into chains for a whole month by my father. I ran away twice but was returned home by the police. Everybody says I am the guilty one, that my father has the right to beat me,” she said.

As the majority of Afghanistan’s population proclaimed to be Islam followers, it should come to their senses that their treatment for women should be Islam-following too. For example, Islam demanded women have inheritance rights, voting rights, working rights and rights to choose their own partners in marriage. These are rights that Afghan men have held back from their women for decades. In the final last sermon of Prophet Mohammad, he mentioned that Muslims will be judged by how they treat women.

As Karman Pasha, a United States-based Muslim NBC TV series scriptwriter and a historical novel writer set on the birth of Islam wrote in his blog:

“The Taliban and those who share their twisted, primitive vision of Islam do not know the history of their own faith. And as a result, they have become the very monsters that Islam was sent to destroy.”

Although its Ministry of Women’s Affairs’ Head of Legal Affairs department, Fawzia Aminiy, declared that 20 per cent of the ambitious Millenium Development Goals for gender equality (deadline by 2020) have already been accomplished, she also says in Afghanistan a 50-year-plan for achieving equality may be more realistic.

However, she acknowledged that the fact that people are discussing and reading about domestic violence instead of keeping it within the walls of their homes, are improvement too.

Nabila Wafeq, manager for the women’s rights division of the German NGO Medica Mondiale, also said Afghan women are becoming aware of their rights.

“It is positive that women have now enough courage to come out in the street to make their voice heard and demand their rights. These are forward steps for women,” Wafeq said.

It is important to underline the fact that women’s plight in Afghanistan is as much about their economy as it is about political, cultural, and religion tradition. Afghanistan remains a poor country and this hinders progress towards development for women.

The Ministry of Finance acknowledges that 70 per cent of the potential domestic revenue, which was $800 million in 2008, is being lost due to corruption and mismanagement.

Until the government sort corruption and is committed to implement a real economic program that will bring development to Afghanistan’s people, women’s equality remains elusive. On the other hand, if women have equal rights, it would have speed up economic development too.

In general, women in Afghanistan have enjoyed improved political and cultural position. For instance, they have been allowed to return to workforce, they no longer have to wear the all covering burqa, and they have been nominated for important positions in government.

But maybe the word “enjoy” is slightly misplaced for they certainly attained this with considerable struggle and still under the atmosphere of intimidation.

Sitara’s death, hopefully, does not silence women in Afghanistan, but instead propel them into a united and stronger resistance for their intimidators.