Afghan Women's Mission

A child bride, forced to marry at 11, fled and took refuge in one of the shelters. (Photo: Getty)

Secret shelters which protect women from murder, forced marriages and ritual mutilation will be turned into “virtual prisons” that make women less safe, under Afghan government plans to wrest control of them from local charities, women’s activists warned yesterday.
The exact whereabouts of the safe houses and the identities of the women who hide there are carefully guarded secrets, but proposals seen by The Scotsman would put government staff in charge and force them to inform police of anyone who goes inside.

Campaigners said the draft legislation was pandering to conservative male prejudices that shelters harbour prostitutes, and they warned it would roll back years of hard-won progress towards improving women’s rights.

“We are outraged by this bill, which is a patent effort of the Afghan government to stop the work of non-governmental organisations on behalf of women’s rights,” said Manizha Naderi, executive director of Women for Afghan Women (WAW). “Clients who have suffered heinous abuses, whose lives are in danger, or who have nowhere else to go live in WAW’s secret shelters while counsellors and lawyers help them find justice.”

Ms Naderi’s network sheltered Bibi Aisha, a former child bride whose husband sliced off her nose and ears after she fled their home to escape horrific beatings. The teenager ran to her father’s house but he handed her straight back to the men who disfigured her. Aisha, now 20, is in America getting counselling ahead of reconstructive surgery.

Ms Naderi also claimed that Sediqa, a young woman whose gruesome stoning was filmed on a mobile phone, would still be alive if she had had access to a shelter.

Afghan women in a shelter in Kabul. (Photo: Lynsey Addario for the New York Times)

There are only 14 shelters serving Afghanistan’s 34 provinces and activists urged the government to open more, if it wanted a stake in how they are run, rather than trying to interfere with the few already open.

The new legislation, which appears to undermine President Hamid Karzai’s public commitment to improving women’s rights, follows unfounded allegations from senior government officials that the shelters were fronts for brothels. It is being drawn up by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

Afghanistan’s deputy justice minister, Dr Qasim Hashimzai, said a government investigation found no evidence of prostitution, but he said some shelters had “discipline problems”. He insisted women had “nothing to fear” from the new law which prescribes strict conditions for who can be admitted and rules for how and when they can be released.

Wazhma Frogh, a prominent women’s activist in Kabul, accused the government of succumbing to conservatives.”It will turn the women’s shelters into a kind of women’s prisons,” she said. “At least, now, when women escape violence, there are some options for them. Anybody who is at risk, we help them.”

However, Enayatullah Balegh, a senior member of Kabul’s influential council of religious scholars, said: “These houses are not safe for Afghan women, according to Islam,” he said. “They are not shelters. A shelter or a safe house for a woman is the family home.”

Although shelters are often run by local charities, they are mostly funded by international donors, including the USAID, the EU and the United Nations.

Sediq Muslim, the head of the Fatwa Department at Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, who was part of the team charged with investigating shelters, claimed it was inevitable that women in shelters would turn to prostitution.

“Of course, if a shelter is working under control of foreigners, without the police or (the intelligence service] or the government’s knowledge, then the women will be prostitutes. They do bad things inside,” he said.

By Jonathon Burch
Reuters Canada

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KABUL (Reuters) – Foreign military assertions that security in Afghanistan is improving are intended to sway Western public opinion ahead of a troop withdrawal and do not reflect the reality on the ground, a security advice group said.

“Indisputable evidence” that conditions are deteriorating included a two-thirds rise in insurgent attacks in 2010 compared with the previous year, according to the EU-funded organization, that advises aid groups on safety.

In one northern province raids more than tripled, the group said in a report.

A war review by U.S. President Barack Obama last month said “notable operational gains” had been made and the Taliban’s momentum arrested in much of the country and reversed in some areas, but gains were fragile and reversible.

Those findings have been echoed by military commanders on the ground. On Wednesday, General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO-led forces, delivered an upbeat assessment of 2010 in a message to foreign troops and civilians.

“Throughout the past year, you and our Afghan partners worked together to halt a downward security spiral in much of the country and to reverse it in some areas of great importance,” Petraeus said in the message.

The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office (ANSO), which advises non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on security, said positive “strategic communication” messages were only aimed at preparing the way for troop withdrawals scheduled to start this year.

“No matter how authoritative the source of any such claim, messages of this nature are solely intended to influence American and European public opinion ahead of the withdrawal,” the group said in its quarterly report, designed to help aid groups make decisions involving security.

“(The messages) are not intended to offer an accurate portrayal of the situation for those who live and work here,” the group said. The report is not released to media but Reuters obtained a copy. (Click here for a copy of the ANSO report.)

“THIRTY-THREE ATTACKS A DAY”

Obama has pledged to begin gradually withdrawing U.S. troops in July, as Afghan forces slowly take control over security.

This is part of a wider plan by President Hamid Karzai for Afghans to take the lead in securing the whole country by the end of 2014, an ambitious goal endorsed by Western leaders, who are under domestic pressure to bring forces home.

ANSO found militant attacks were up 64 percent last year compared with 2009, and an average of 33 incidents had taken place every day. While violence may have decreased in some areas, it had dramatically increased in others, the group added.

“If losses are taken in one area they are simply compensated for in another as has been the dynamic since this conflict started,” ANSO said.

Casualty numbers on all sides are at record levels. A total of 711 foreign troops were killed in 2010, by far the bloodiest year of the war and up from 521 in 2009.

But ordinary Afghans bear the brunt. According to U.N. figures, 2,412 civilians were killed and 3,803 were wounded in the first 10 months of last year, up 20 percent on 2009.

The insurgency has also been rapidly spreading out of traditional strongholds in the south and east of the country and into previously peaceful areas in the north and west.

Militant attacks in six northern provinces increased faster than the average for all of Afghanistan, more than doubling in five and tripling in Sar-e-Pol, ANSO said.

In the south, where foreign and Afghan forces have stepped up offensives over the last year, the increase in insurgent attacks suggested the capacity for militants to conduct raids had “improved substantially.”

Helmand province saw a 124 percent increase while attacks rose by 20 percent in Kandahar, it said.

Although there had been a decline in attacks from August onwards, this most likely reflected seasonal factors consistent with previous years, ANSO said, and attacks in December 2010 were 47 percent higher than in December the previous year.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved.

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ReliefWeb

Protection of civilians must be at the heart of Afghanistan ‘transition’ strategy, warn aid agencies.

2010 is already the deadliest year in a decade for civilians, but risks could increase unless NATO takes immediate action

International military forces must take urgent steps to protect civilians caught up in the escalating conflict as they plan for the handover of responsibility for security to the Afghan government, warned leading aid agencies today (Friday 19 November 2010).

The call comes as NATO leaders gather for a major summit in Lisbon on November 19-20 where they are expected to discuss the transition plan drawn up by US General Petraeus, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan.

Twenty nine international and national aid agencies including Oxfam, Afghanaid and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, have released a new report – Nowhere to Turn – which urges NATO to do more to improve the training and monitoring of Afghan national security forces during the transition period.

Ashley Jackson, head of policy for Oxfam in Afghanistan, said:

“Transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces faces enormous obstacles. There is a grave risk of widespread abuses by the national security forces, which can range from theft and extortion to torture and indiscriminate killing of civilians. NATO member states, who train, advise, fund, and arm those forces, share responsibility for making sure this does not happen, but so far we have seen little action on the ground.”

The report notes that Afghan soldiers and police are poorly trained and command systems are weak. It says that there are no effective mechanisms for registering community complaints and that civilian deaths caused by Afghan forces are not adequately investigated or tracked. The report calls on NATO to rectify this as a key part of its transition strategy.

Nader Nadery, Commissioner for the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, said:

“Recent revelations of abuses by Iraqi security forces and militia – and the fact that we are already seeing abusive behaviour by militias in Afghanistan – should be sounding a warning bell. There is still time to get the right controls in place in Afghanistan. But NATO must act now.”

The agencies argue NATO should abandon dangerous schemes such as the so-called “community defense initiatives”, which involve supporting local militia groups to fight the Taliban.

They say that the international forces must immediately stop arming these community militias. Recruits are barely vetted, receive little training and are often accountable only to the local commanders. Far from helping to stabilise the country, they are likely to contribute to the growing instability.

2010 is already the deadliest year for Afghan civilians since 2001, with civilian casualties up 31 percent in the first six months alone. Security is rapidly deteriorating across the country with even the previously stable north reporting a 136 percent rise in civilian deaths.

Anti-government groups cause most Afghan civilian casualties. However, the report warns that while NATO forces have taken steps to reduce the direct harm their operations cause to civilians, their military tactics are continuing to put Afghan lives at risk. A key factor behind NATO’s reduction in direct civilian casualties is the decrease in the use of airstrikes since 2009. However, the agencies warn that there is a risk that such casualties may now increase as there has been a dramatic rise in airstrikes in recent months.

“More civilians are being killed and injured than ever before and Afghanistan is more insecure than at any time in the past nine years. We are concerned that unless urgent steps are taken now, the violence will continue to escalate in 2011 and civilian suffering will only increase,” said Farhana Faruqi-Stocker of Afghanaid.

Get the full report (Oxfam)

• Signatories to the report are ACSF, ACTED, Action Aid, ADA, Afgana, Afghanaid, AIHRC, AMI, AWN, AWSDC, CAFOD, CHA, Christian Aid, CIVIC, CoAR, Cordaid, CPAU, DACAAR, HRRAC, Ibn Sina, ICCO, INTERSOS, NRC, Open Society Foundation, Oxfam, Peace Direct, SMO, Tearfund, War Child UK.
• The report focuses specifically on the impact of security strategies on Afghan civilians. As humanitarian organisations, the signatories to the report Nowhere to Turn cannot comment on the effectiveness of security strategies in achieving their intended military objectives.
• NATO has command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which operates in Afghanistan under the mandate provided by UN Security Council resolutions 1386 (2001), 1510 (2003), 1868 (2009) and other resolutions.

Daniel Flitton
The Age (Australia)
November 13, 2010

Malalai Joya believes the solution to the Afghanistan conflict is the withdrawal of foreign troops. Photo: John Woudstra

Malalai Joya – the youngest woman elected to the Afghanistan Parliament, in 2004, who then faced death threats for her outspoken criticism of tribal warlords – said the image of Afghan women was being unfairly used to justify the foreign presence.

”The tragic situation of women under the Taliban was a very good excuse for the US and NATO after the 9/11 tragedy to occupy the country,” Ms Joya told The Age yesterday during a visit to Melbourne.

Time magazine recently featured a cover photo of a mutilated, 19-year-old Afghan woman, Aisha, after her nose and ears were hacked off by her husband. The photo carried the caption: ”What happens if we leave Afghanistan.”

But Ms Joya said despite the presence of the Western troops, women continued to suffer.

”They replaced the Taliban with fundamentalist warlords, who are the same like the Taliban – they are misogynist and have committed many crimes against women and human rights,” she said.

”Today, most of the women are wearing the burqa just to be alive because of security reasons.”

Ms Joya will discuss the Afghanistan conflict at a public lecture today at Deakin University in Burwood.

She describes herself as a member of a ”war generation” – born in 1978 shortly before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan – that has seen the crippling effects of civil war and the rise of the Taliban.

She said the 68 women now in the Afghan Parliament only served a symbolic role.

Elections earlier this year were marred by corruption and Ms Joya said she refused to participate so as not to legitimise a flawed process.

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates – in Melbourne this week for meetings with Australian counterparts – flagged a transition by US forces to Afghan control in 2014.

But Ms Joya said the only solution to the conflict in Afghanistan was the withdrawal of foreign troops and support for education and social networks.

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