Armanshahr Foundation in collaboration with the French Institute of Afghanistan, Kateb University and the Student Association of Kateb University is pleased to invite you to its 77th (year V) public seminar.
Speakers: Lucia Direnberger (Researcher and PhD student at l’Université de Paris VII), Mazari Safa (ex-Vice minister of Women’s social affairs), Mohammad Aslam Jawadi (Director of Sociology department of Kateb University)
Moderator: Sediqa Bakhtiari (Sociology student Kateb University)
Date & Time: Wednesday 15 June. 2011, 14:00
Venue: Kateb University, Karteh 3, Shuray-e Alee road, Kabul
Tel: 0779217755 & 0775321697(0784180089)
E-mail: armanshahrfoundation.openasia@gmail.com
“A comparative reading of the conditions of women in Afghanistan and Tajikistan”
The 77th Goftegu public debate – a bridge between the elite and the citizens – of Armanshahr Foundation with the title of “A comparative reading of the conditions of women in Afghanistan and Tajikistan” was held on 15 June 2011 in cooperation with Kateb Higher Education Institute, Kateb University Student Society and the French Institute Afghanistan at the premises of Kateb University.
The Speakers were: Ms. Lucia Direnberger (Researcher and PhD student at l’Université de Paris VII), Ms. Mazari Safa (former deputy minister of Women’s social affairs), and Mr. Mohammad Aslam Jawadi (Director of Sociology department of Kateb University).
Ms. Lucia Direnberger presented a detailed report on the living conditions of women in Tajikistan and the legal, social and political obstacles ahead of their political participation.
Ms. Mazari Safa reviewed the conditions of women during the last 10 years since the ousting of the Taleban. Mr. Mohammad Aslam Jawadi focused on the need to establish a Women’s Studies course in the universities. About 150 students, civil society members, women’s rights activists and university professors as well as representative of the media were present at the meeting.
The moderator was Ms. Sediqa Bakhtiari (Sociology student at Kateb University), who opened the meeting with the following words: Women have always been viewed with humiliation. Women were the second sex, lower than men and rarely enjoyed equal rights with them. Combating such views started at the time of Amanullah Khan in Afghanistan. He and his wife Suraya endeavoured to establish schools and educational centres for girls. Equality of the rights of women and men was made into an issue in the close environment of that era. When the Taleban entered Kandahar, women returned to homes they lost their right to education and work and became captives.
Ms. Guissou Jahangiri, director of Armanshahr Foundation, subsequently opened the meeting, saying: We, in Armanshahr, believe that we cannot bring about changes without preparing their appropriate ground. That is why we have come together with thinkers 77 times, we have organised 77 public dialogues on different issues; we have brought together hundreds of knowledgeable speakers of this country and more than 10,000 good young thinkers. We have to read good new books to think well, to learn and to produce new ideas, to found long-term cultural movements. In the past few years, Armanshahr Foundation has published books with a total print-run of more than 60,000.
Ms. Lucia Direnberger summed up the experience of policy-making in the former Soviet Union in regard to women as follows: Equality of men and women, bringing women into the public life and the labour market constituted the important pillars of the Soviet policy. The age of marriage for girls rose from 9 to 16 in Tajikistan after 1924 and women were given the right to vote and be elected. Religious marriage and state-sanctioned marriage were banned. Women shed the veil in the whole of Central Asia in the course of a long campaign. Women’s liberation was a great achievement for the former Soviet Union and Tajikistan.
The independence of Tajikistan in 1991 and the eruption of the civil war a year later that left 100,000 dead and more than 600,000 refugees, dealt a great blow to the position of women. Nevertheless, the progressive laws have brought about great developments in this country. Tajikistan is one of the poorest republics of Central Asia. More than 1 million men have migrated to Russia and women remain the fundamental axis of economic production in the country. War and the subsequent depression have led to an increase in domestic violence and the rate of suicide among the women. In spite of legal ban on polygamy, underage marriage and unjust and illegal divorce have become common. War, the government’s propaganda discourse about women, interference of international politics and assistance, the gap between the young and old generations and absence of research work on women have prevented the taking shape of a women’s movement in politics. Are some of those challenges comparable with the problems of our women in Afghanistan?
Ms. Direnberger criticised the fact that women have been deprived of their autonomy as a result of the international money pouring into the planning and execution of programmes.
Ms. Mazari Safa began her speech by quoting a new report she had read: “Afghanistan is not a place for women to live in.” She focused her speech on four issues: health conditions, education, economy and political participation and women’s rights 10 years after the departure of the Taleban. Despite the changes in the health conditions of women, she said, every 30 minutes one woman dies at the time of giving birth. The average life expectancy of women is 44 years and Afghanistan is one of the few countries in the world where women live shorter than men. Sixty to 70% of tuberculosis patients are women. Forty-five to 52% of women suffer from malnutrition from the date of birth to adulthood. Ninety per cent of women in Afghanistan are illiterate, in comparison with 36% of men. 1 million girls between the ages of seven and 13 do not attend schools. In 2005, only 22% of 36,000 students who registered for the university entrance examinations in 2005 were girls. The ratio of women with higher education is one to 300 in Afghanistan, in comparison with one to 5 in Iran. Girls stay away from scientific and law courses in the university, and sexual harassment is rampant in the universities. Poverty is prevalent among women. The poorest women in the world live in Afghanistan, because women do not have the right to property and to benefit from their wages. Even though women shoulder 50 to 70% of agricultural work and they weave carpets, they do not benefit from their wages. The average income of women in Afghanistan is $16 per month.
Speaking of women’s political participation, Ms. Safa referred to some of the formal policies, e.g. the 27% quota for women in the Parliament (67 seats), she said: Even though the Bonn Conference decided quotas of 30% for women at all levels, that quota has fallen to 18% in the past few years.
Ms. Safa pointed at cultural backwardness, fanatic customs and traditions such as giving girls to marriage in exchange for life, deprivation from inheritance, self immolation and rape as clear challenges of the current era and added: The goals of women in Afghanistan are as follows: cultural growth, social and human rights immunity, abolition of ugly and anti-women traditions, access to education at all levels, economic power, abolition of economic poverty and access to health and hygienic care.
Mr. Aslam Jawadi presented an analysis of the reasons for the inequality of men and women in Afghanistan and focused on the need to establish women’s studies courses in universities and in Kateb University in particular.
To view the publication related to this Goftegu Public Debate, please refer to the following link: http://openasia.org/item/2038
Invitation to 77th Goftegu Public Debate: “A comparative reading of the conditions of women in Afghanistan and Tajikistan”
