Seven years ago Fahima’s husband dissolved their marriage by saying “I divorce you” three times–and then threw her out of their house in the Panjshir Valley. That is a legally binding form of divorce under Sharia, or Islamic law. Fahima, then 15, was left with little financial support and so moved in with her uncle. Two years ago he arranged a second marriage in Kandahar, a union that entitled him to a sizable dowry. Then came more trouble. Four months ago Fahima’s first husband showed up and demanded 200 million afghanis (about $4,350) from his former wife. If he didn’t get it, he warned, he would declare that he had never divorced her. She couldn’t come up with the money, and now could face 20 years in prison for adultery. “I’m innocent. I haven’t done anything wrong,” she says.
Fahima’s story wouldn’t have been surprising under the misogynist Taliban regime, when women were regularly beaten for dressing improperly and jailed for the slightest act of impropriety. But she was thrown in jail in late June, seven months after the Taliban were driven out of Kabul. Afghan women have made substantial progress since last fall: they can now work for the first time in five years, and girls can attend school. Yet behind those images of liberation, many Afghan women continue to suffer harsh treatment, especially in areas outside Kabul where conservative attitudes persist. That is worrying human-rights activists at a time when Afghanistan is beginning to debate new laws. “Women’s rights are being neglected again, particularly in rural areas,” says Amena Afzali, head of the women’s rights office at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. “There’s a lot of cruelty toward women, and they’re generally treated like slaves.”
Several recent incidents show how serious the problem remains. Last week a girls’ school in the northern city of Sar-e Pol was burned down, allegedly after fliers were distributed to students warning them to wear the burqa. (No one claimed responsibility.) Two weeks ago a religious council in the western city of Herat announced that women should work in separate offices from men, could not visit public parks at night and could not wear colorful clothes in public. Ismael Khan, the military commander who runs Herat like a feudal lord, has demanded that Afghan women avoid working with foreign nongovernmental organizations and stop driving cars. “Many of the Taliban-era restrictions are still in place,” says John Sifton, a consultant with Human Rights Watch.
The danger for Afghan women is that edicts announced and enforced by provincial leaders like Khan could soon be codified into law. Afghan President Hamid Karzai will soon appoint a commission to write the country’s new constitution. It will likely be modeled on one written in 1964 during the reign of King Zahir Shah, which Afghan-law scholars see as a balanced document that treats men and women equally. But Sharia will almost certainly be the backbone of the country’s legal system, as it was under the 1964 Constitution, and how it is interpreted will be crucial. The constitutional commission (whose members haven’t yet been named) will be under pressure from conservative provincial warlords and fundamentalist clerics to enact strict Sharia. If that happens, women may find themselves not that much better off than they were under the Taliban.
Even if the constitution is fair, provincial authorities could ignore the new laws. “That’s my fear,” says Fatima Gailani, 45, the recently appointed director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, a counterpart of the Red Cross. Afzali, of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, notes that many male leaders have not changed their demeaning attitudes toward women. “There are some decision makers who are still close-minded. They won’t give women their rights and don’t trust them.”
Ismael Khan certainly meets that description. “He doesn’t want women to organize on their own,” says a senior NGO official in Herat. “He wants women’s organizations to be crushed, or to act like puppets.” Last month female students at a high school in Herat who’d removed their burqas were beaten by the principal. Attitudes such as these are not likely to be swayed by anything other than an adamantly progressive constitution. “In reality, men and women don’t have equal rights in Afghanistan under Sharia law,” says Nasrullah Stanikzai, 44, a law professor at Kabul University. “Sharia is about 40 percent in line with international human-rights law.” In practice, women’s rights are apt to be limited even further by what freedoms their husbands allow–not much, typically.
Supporters of a truly liberal constitution, however, face an uphill battle. The depth of resistance to social reform was apparent at the National Assembly, or Loya Jirga, held last June. Conservative warlords like Abdulrab Rasul Sayaf and Burhanuddin Rabbani passionately argued against the secularization of government. Mujahed, a newspaper published by Rabbani’s conservative Jamiat-e-Islami party, ran a letter the same month alleging that Sima Samar, the former Women’s Affairs minister, had said she did not believe in Sharia. She claims she was misquoted. The paper went on to label her the “Salman Rushdie of Afghanistan,” hinting she deserved the same sentence of death for blasphemy. She received several death threats during the Loya Jirga, some from fellow delegates. Many believe she was not reappointed as the Women’s Affairs minister because of the controversy. At the same time, the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, notorious for its strict decrees under the Taliban, reopened last month as the only slightly less threatening Ministry of Islamic Guidance. The department doesn’t have the power to issue edicts anymore. But it has begun to hold classes and seminars in Kabul mosques, taught by conservative mullahs.
Human-rights activists say two things are needed to boost the stature of women and then cement those gains. The first is a new constitution that is unambiguous about women’s rights. “There should be no room for personal interpretation,” says Afzali. Second, women must get educated so that they are aware of, and can protect, the rights they have. Fahima, for example, had no idea that she was entitled to a lawyer. Mary Nabardain, publisher of the feminist weekly Seerat, says that Western organizations can play a significant role in championing women’s rights, but heretofore have been too focused on symbols like the burqa. “We are an Islamic country, and women have gotten used to wearing the burqa,” says Nabardain. “If foreign organizations want to pull Afghan women from darkness to light, they should help with education programs.” Only that might keep women like Fahima out of jail.
