Fundamentalism in Comparative Perspective (36 page)

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Authors: Lawrence Kaplan

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Page 140
the women's organization, as well as sat on government subcommittees: Fawjiyah Shahsawari, Dr. Aziza, Shirin Afzal, Alamat Tolqun.
These were the women behind the program for women's rights. Their spirit was reflected in an editorial in the
Kabul Times
(5/28/78) which asserted: "privileges which women, by right, must have are equal education, job security, health services, and free time to rear a healthy generation for building the future of this country. . . . Educating and enlightening women is now the subject of close government scrutiny" (quoted in N. H. Dupree 1984).
Patriarchal Resistance to Change
PDPA's attempts to change marriage laws, expand literacy, and educate rural girls met with strong opposition. Decrees 6 and 7 deeply angered the rural tribesmen and the traditional power structure. Believing that women should not appear at public gatherings, villagers often refused to attend classes after the first day (Katsikas 1982: 231). Because the PDPA cadre viewed this attitude as retrograde, the cadre resorted to different forms of persuasionincluding physical forceto make the villagers return to literacy classes. Often the PDPA cadre were either kicked out of the village or murdered. In the summer of 1978 refugees began pouring into Pakistan, giving as their major reason the forceful implementation of the literacy program among their women. In Kandahar, three literacy workers from the women's organization were killed as symbols of the unwanted revolution. Two men killed all the women in their families to prevent them from "dishonor" (N. H. Dupree 1984).
There was also universal resistance to the new marriage regulations which, coupled with compulsory education for girls, raised the threat that women would refuse to obey and submit to family (male) authority. Land reform, cancellation of peasants' debts, and marriage reform threatened vested rural interests and patriarchal structures. The large landowners, the religious establishment, and moneylenders were especially appalled at the prospect of social structural transformation. An Islamist opposition began organizing and conducted several armed actions against the government in the spring of 1979. Thus, over a year prior to the Soviet military intervention, reaction
 
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developed to the government's program for land reform and women's rights.
Internal battles within the PDPA (especially between its two wings, Parcham and Khalq) contributed to the government's difficulties. In September 1979 President Taraki was killed on the orders of his deputy, Hafizullah Amin, a ruthless and ambitious man who imprisoned and executed hundreds of his own comrades in addition to further alienating the population (Anwar 1988). The Pakistani regime of Zia ul-Haq was opposed to leftists next door, and supported the Mujahideen armed uprising. In December 1979 the Soviet army intervened. Amin was killed and succeeded by Babrak Karmal, who initiated what is called ''the second phase."
In 1980 the PDPA slowed down its reform program and announced its intention to eliminate illiteracy in the cities in seven years and in the provinces in ten. In an interview that year Anahita Ratebzad conceded to errors, "in particular the compulsory education of women," to which she added, "the reactionary elements immediately made use of these mistakes to spread discontent among the population" (N. H. Dupree 1984). Despite the slowing down of reforms (including such concessions as the restoration of Islamic family law),
1
the resistance movement spread, supported by Pakistan, the United States, China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Saudi Arabia. But the weak Afghan state was unable to impose its will through an extensive administrative and military apparatus. As a result, the program on land redistribution and women's rights faltered. The government's efforts to raise women's status through legal changes regarding marriage were stymied by patriarchal structures highly resistant to change.
Since the Saur Revolution, the population-at-large has more or less ignored the early decrees, and ten years of civil conflict have not produced propitious conditions for social change. The emphasis on "the woman question" has subsided in favor of a concerted effort at "national reconciliation," which began in January 1987. In the constitution of November 1988, the result of a
loya jirga,
or traditional assembly, PDPA members and activists from the Women's Council tried to retain an article stipulating the equality of women with men. This, however, was opposed by the non-PDPA members of the assem-
 
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bly. A compromise was reached in the form of another article which stated that all Afghan citizens, male and female, have equal rights and obligations before the law.
2
The Transitional Period: Between Revolution and Reconciliation
Article 38 of the Constitution of the Republic of Afghanistan, ratified in November 1987, stated:
Citizens of the Republic of Afghanistan, both men and women, have equal rights and duties before the law, irrespective of their national, racial, linguistic, tribal, educational and social status, religion, creed, political conviction, occupation, kinship, wealth, and residence. Designation of any illegal privilege of discrimination against rights and duties of citizens are forbidden.
According to government officials with whom I spoke in February 1989, the above article was a compromise, reached after PDPA members and delegates from the Women's Council failed in their attempts to include an equal rights clause.
3
Many writers on Afghanistan are loath to discuss the positive aspects of the PDPA state's social program, notably its policy on women's rights. Urban, however, notes that "one genuine achievement of the revolution has been the emancipation of (mainly urban) women." He continues: "There is no doubt that thousands of women are committed to the regime, as their prominent participation in Revolutionary Defense Group militias shows. Eyewitnesses stated that militant militiawomen played a key role in defending the besieged town of Urgun in 1983. Four of the seven militia commanders appointed to the Revolutionary Council in January 1986 were women" (Urban 1988: 209).
Despite concessions made in the area of family law, women continued to be active in formal politics. Women were present in the different ranks of the party and the government, with the exception of the council of ministers. The Loya Jirga included women delegates; in 1989 the parliament had seven female members. In 1989, women in prominent positions included Massouma Esmaty Wardak, president of the Afghan Women's Council; Shafiqeh Razmandeh,
 
Page 143
vice-president of the Afghan Women's Council; Soraya, director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society; Zahereh Dadmal, director of the Kabul Women's Club; and Dr. Soheila, chief surgeon of the Military Hospital, who also holds the rank of general. The central committee of the PDPA had several women members, including Jamila Palwasha and Ruhafza (alternate member), a working-class grandmother and "model worker" at the Kabul Construction Plant (where she did electrical wiring).
In Kabul in JanuaryFebruary 1989, I saw women employees in all government agencies and social organizations visited. Ariana Airlines employed female as well as male flight attendants. A male employee of the Peace, Solidarity, and Friendship Organization laughingly remarked that he was 37 and male, yet his supervisor was ten years younger and female. There were female radio announcers, and the evening news (whether in Pushtu or Dari) was read by one male and one female announcer. Women technicians as well as reporters were working for radio and television, and for the country's newspapers and magazines. Women workers were present in the binding section of a printing house in Kabul, in the page-setting section of the Higher and Vocational Education press house, at the CREPCA state-run carpet company (where young women wove carpets and received a wage), and at the Kabul Construction Plant (which specialized in housing and prefabricated materials). Like their male counterparts, these women were members of the Central Trade Union. I also saw one woman employee (and several female volunteer soldiers) at Pol-e Charkhi prison; she was assigned to the women's section where she oversaw the six remaining female political prisoners, all charged with terrorist acts. I was told that there are women soldiers and officers in the regular armed forces, as well as in the militia and Women's Self-Defense (Defense of the Revolution) Units. There were women in security, intelligence, and the police agencies, women involved in logistics in the defense ministry, and even women veterinarians (an occupation usually off-limits to women in Islamic countries) and parachutists. In 1989 all female members of the PDPA received military training and arms. These women were prominent at a party rally of some 50,000 held in early February 1989.
Schools were now segregated above the primary level, and girls in
 
Page 144
middle and secondary schools can only be taught by female teachersa concession made to the traditionalist elements. In offices and other workplaces, however, there was no segregation. Neither were buses divided into male and female sections.
During the 1980s a number of social organizations boasted considerable female participation and visibility. Apart from the PDPA itself, they included the Council of Trade Unions, the Democratic Youth Organization, the Peace, Solidarity, and Friendship Organization, the Afghan Women's Council, and the Red Crescent Society. Next we will consider one of them, the Afghan Women's Council.
The Afghan Women's Council
The most important organization actively involved in women's rights and betterment is the Afghan Women's Council (AWC), a high-profile social organization which until 1989 was run by Massouma Esmaty Wardak and her staff of eight women.
4
Mrs. Wardak was not a PDPA member, though some of her staff were. She is a graduate of the Academy of Sciences with a degree in sociology and an interest in literature and history. Among her published works is a book entitled
The Position and Role of Afghan Women in Afghan Society: From the Late 18th to the Late 19th Century
. She also wrote the introduction to a book on Mahmud Tarzi.
Both Mrs. Wardak and Ms. Soraya (currently president of the Red Crescent Society and formerly head of the Afghan Women's Council) explained that the council is less political and more social and service-oriented than in the past. The AWC provides social services to women, such as literacy and vocational training in such fields as secretarial work, hairdressing, and sewing (workshops are located in the complex); organizes income-generating activities such as handicraft production (mainly rugs and carpets, as well as sewing); offers assistance to mothers and widows of "martyrs of the Revolution" in the form of pensions and coupons; and provides legal advice, mainly through a network of female lawyers. Some women have "outwork" arrangements with the AWC: ''They prefer to work at home; they bring their work to us and we pay them." During two trips to the

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