Page 10 - aruba-today-20190429

A10 WORLD NEWS
Monday 29 april 2019

Afghan women push for voice in talks, fearing loss of rights

By KATHY GANNON Pakzad operates women's
Associated Press shelters in western Afghani-
HERAT, Afghanistan (AP) — stan. At one of the shelters,
Afghanistan's women are in the western city of Herat,
demanding a seat at the dozens of women and girls
table in negotiations over struggle with their night-
the country's future, deter- mares.
mined to prevent the gains Alissa, a 16-year-old, has
they have made since the lived in the shelter for five
2001 fall of the Taliban from years after escaping her
being bargained away. husband. Her family mar-
But already, they are meet- ried her to him when she
ing resistance to having a was 6. "I didn't even know
strong voice in the talks. what a wedding was," she
Women's rights activists are said, speaking in a near
not just concerned about whisper, her head lowered.
the Taliban, who were no- "All night I was so scared,
torious for their repression and the next day I cried
of women during their rule. and cried."
They are just as worried She wanted to leave, but
that religious conservatives, one of her brothers threat-
warlords and strongmen ened to kill her if she came
who dominate Afghani- home. Finally, after four
stan's U.S.-backed leader- years with her husband, an-
ship — and whose attitudes In this Monday, Feb. 18, 2019, photo, Khadeja, 18, who was burned by a pot of scalding hot water other brother brought her
toward women often differ thrown by her husband, shows her wounds, at a women's shelter office in Herat, Afghanistan. home. Her mother-in-law
little from the Taliban — will Associated Press demanded her back — or
trade away their rights to her younger sister, then 7,
reach a deal. marriage and exclusion council created to shep- ghans live. as compensation. Both girls
Pressure is on for a peace from work and education. herd negotiations. Dozens Only 16 percent of the escaped to the shelter.
accord as the United States The 2018 Women, Peace of women were also taken workforce is women, one She and other girls at the
seeks to end its long military and Security Index rated off the list of planned par- of the lowest rates in the shelter spoke on condition
presence in Afghanistan. Afghanistan as the second ticipants at the first round world, and half of Afghani- they be identified only by
For women, the stakes are worst place in the world to of all-Afghan talks between stan's women have had first name, fearing reprisals
high. The advances they be a woman, after Syria. the government and Tal- four years or less of edu- by family. Another teen,
have made are important Strong participation in talks iban, meant to have been cation, according to data Khadeja, said her father
— for example, women are is "not a gift, it is our right," held last week in Qatar. The compiled by the George- took her out of school after
now members of parlia- said Suraya Pakzad, an ac- gathering was cancelled town Institute for Women, the fifth grade despite her
ment, and their rights are tivist. "We, the women of at the last minute because Peace and Security and pleas to stay in classes. He
enshrined in the constitu- Afghanistan, are suffering, of a separate dispute. the Peace Research Insti- then forced her to marry at
tion, including the right to fighting to bring peace in Pakzad was part of a team tute of Oslo. Only around 16. From the beginning, her
education. Afghanistan, to change Af- of women delegates who half of school-aged girls go husband beat her, often ty-
But the gains are fragile ghanistan." were told even before to school, and only 19 per- ing her to a tree as he did
and limited, and nearly 18 "We will not allow anyone the cancellation that they cent of girls under 15 are it, or cut her with knives,
years after the U.S.-led co- to push us, to force us to go would not be let into the literate, according to The she said. When she fled,
alition ousted the Taliban, back," she said. "We know talks. "Women had trav- U.N. children's agency. her father sent her back,
Afghan women still live un- how to raise our voices." elled from far away rural ar- Most girls are married be- telling her "I only want you
der a crushing weight of Activists are pressing for at eas, through many Taliban fore 19 to men selected by back home wrapped in the
discrimination. What laws least a third of participants checkpoints in their burqas their parents — and in some white shroud of the dead.'"
that do exist are little en- in any negotiations to be and passed very danger- villages, girls as young as 7 Her husband threw boil-
forced, activists say, giving women. ous areas to attend," she or 8 are regularly married ing water on her face and
male relatives and tribal But so far, the door has said. off. Women who leave an body, and for four hours she
councils almost complete been largely closed to Activists say the advances abusive husband or marry had to plead to her in-laws
say over women's and girls' them. President Ashraf for women are erratically a man of their choice risk to take her to a hospital, in
lives. That leaves them vul- Ghani appointed only five enforced and hardly felt in being imprisoned for "mo- agony as her skin peeled
nerable to violence, early women to a 37-member rural areas where most Af- rality crimes." away.q