March 2010 E-Newsletter

Welcome!

Welcome to the third issue of our quarterly e-newsletter, Itihad-e-Zan, which means "Community of Women": all of WAW's news, stories, updates and advocacy messages are rooted in the lives, experiences, opinions and priorities of the Afghan women and girls we are privileged to serve.

A LETTER FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MANIZHA NADERI

Dear Supporters of WAW,

WAW has lots to report in this quarterly update. We are about to open two new Family Guidance Centers, the Children's Support Center is a model of its kind, and we're currently launching a series of awareness-raising/advocacy campaigns: one on women's human rights, and one on trafficking of women and children for sex and labor. We are also soon to release a study of sexual harassment/discrimination in the ministries. We have our hands full, but fortunately our new development officer, Natalie Ghany, has at last arrived from NYC to assume the onerous job of writing proposals and reports to donors and fine-tuning WAW's communication systems.

In January, I joined a group of Afghan women leaders who met in Dubai to prepare a joint statement to be read at the London Conference on Afghanistan. It was the only input permitted Afghan women, as if the persistent and egregious violations of Afghan women's human rights and their insecurity were trivial matters rather than the prerequisite to stability in the country. Apparently, even the developed world discounts the importance of women's participation in global affairs! For how can we talk about stability when almost 50% of the population in Afghanistan is subjected to brutal, life-denying customs. The statement we prepared in Dubai emphasized the dire situation of Afghan women and the utter precariousness of their position should negotiations with the Taliban proceed without rock-solid guarantees of their rights. It also demanded that women be involved in all government decision-making activities, especially those pertaining to security, development, and any "reconciliation" with warlords, the Taliban, and other insurgents. The Dubai dialogue was a positive step for Afghan women, who united decisively to advance our common cause. We will not be shunted aside, as we were in London, at the follow-up conference in Kabul this spring. We will not be silenced. Our lives and our country depend on it.

Manizha Naderi (third from left) and the participants of the Dubai conference.
(Photo via Peace with Justice for Afghanistan)

As I write this update, U.S. troops are fighting to wrest control of Helmand from the Taliban. Just recently, on Feb. 25th, insurgents attacked an Indian guesthouse in the center of Kabul. A three hour gun battle took place and 16 people were killed. These dreadful events are a prelude to the chaos that will ensue if the Taliban are not driven from this country; a chaos that will spread throughout the region and into the world. The work we and other human rights defenders are doing in Afghanistan would not be possible in any Taliban-controlled area. In fact, if the Taliban assume control of Afghanistan, we and NGOs like ours will have to flee the country, and the progress that has been made on behalf of women and children will have been for naught. That is why WAW supports the troop surge.

We do so reluctantly, for we are not pro-war. We have learned many things during our 8 years here. We know that without a commitment to development-- aimed at education, employment, and women's rights-- that is equivalent to or even greater than the military investment, the surge will ultimately fail. The majority of Afghan people want these things, and they want peace. We know that the commitment of the developed world to Afghanistan must be for the long term-- at least as long as it took women in the developed world to get the vote (Swiss women finally achieved it in 1972!). We believe that after 30 years of war, they have earned our help to recover and prosper.

I invite you to read on for updates about WAW's work in Queens and in Afghanistan. Heartfelt thanks to the staff and volunteers, and of course, our dear supporters, for making this work possible.

In sisterhood,
Manizha Naderi
Executive Director, Women for Afghan Women


FEATURE

Shabana's Story

This e-newsletter features Shabana. She is pictured in our header graphic in this issue.

Last May a beautiful seventeen year old, Shabana, arrived at The Women for Afghan Women shelter in Kabul. She had narrowly escaped being killed by her husband, and had fled to the police station, where they referred her to us. In many ways, she epitomizes the cultural and legal powerlessness of many women living in Afghanistan today.

Shabana's father had died when she was young, and she had no strong male family member to protect her. As a consequence, she was vulnerable to abuse. One day she was kidnapped while walking home from school. The kidnapper abused her and forced her into a marriage with him. She was a virtual prisoner in his home, and endured his beatings for close to seven months. One night, she was sure that she would be killed as her abuser choked her until she blacked out. The next day she fled.

The treatment that Shabana received at the hands of her kidnapper had been hard to bear. However, even more painful was the indifference of her family. Her mother and other adult family members, a close uncle in particular, did nothing to intervene. She was told that her kidnapping settled a long-standing property dispute between her family and the family of the kidnapper. The "property" was Shabana's sister-in-law, who over 20 years ago had escaped from her abusive arranged marriage to the kidnapper's cousin. Shabana's family therefore found her kidnapping to be a just undertaking. Her mother and uncle attended the court proceedings to beg her to return to her husband, as the family now had two stains on their honor. Her mother even visited her at the shelter to try and talk her into returning to the man who had and would continue to make her life a nightmare of abuse and missed potential.

Shabana will always look over her shoulder, worried about retaliation from her former husband and his family. She will always miss her family, and she will never be able to understand how they could have abandoned her so completely.

When she first arrived at the WAW shelter, she had nothing: no job, no education, no money, and no support. Despite all that had happened to her, Shabana proved to be a determined and resilient young lady. She was able to summon the courage to go to court with attorneys employed by Women for Afghan Women to confront her batterer and seek a formal divorce. From this enormous step she has continued to move forward, with WAW's support, to rebuild the life that was stolen from her. She is now employed as a Children's Caregiver at the WAW Children's Support Center, where she is earning enough money to live with dignity. She is taking accelerated classes to finish high school. In addition, she is studying English and Computer Science so she can get a better job after she graduates. She now has a new, supportive family-- all of the staff and women at Women for Afghan Women who have wrapped their arms around her and helped her move toward a brighter, more secure future. She dreams of becoming a lawyer so she can help others like herself.

Click here to read the LA Times article that featured Shabana and Women for Afghan Women's work.

Shabana

Update from Afghanistan

In our last issue, we debuted our Children's Support Center. Last November, after almost a year of planning, WAW opened a residence for children over 5 years old who had previously been living with their mothers in the Kabul women's prison, Badam Bagh. It was the first home many of them have had for years; some had been living in the prison their entire lives. Currently, 38 children live in the Center.

Children at the Center receive computer instruction.

Schools close down in Afghanistan from December through March--a lucky break, because we used the time to get them ready to register for school in the spring. Many were illiterate or barely literate. For the past 4 months our teachers have been teaching them Dari reading and writing, English, computer skills, math, and Islamic studies. Last week, every child passed the school entrance exams and with higher grades than we expected. They are desperate to learn and soaked the material up.

The children during a reading lesson.

When the children first left Badam Bagh, we settled them in two small houses, but we had to move in February because the property went up for sale. They visit their mothers regularly, but during the move they had to spend 3 days in the dreaded prison. As the vans pulled up to Badam Bagh, they became hysterical, sure we were abandoning them permanently. Three boys refused to leave the van and returned with staff to help pack and move.

The oldest kids are Nargis and Nelab. Their mothers were sentenced to lengthy prison terms, so we expect to have the girls (and Nargis's 3 brothers) for years to come. They are mature and ambitions teens. Above all, their mothers want them to be educated, and we intend to see that they are. Our youngest, Freshta, is 4 years old-- way below the minimum age-- but her mother was abusing her in prison, so we took her to the residence. Myriam, who is 10, was kidnapped as a baby and spent her life begging on the streets of Kabul with the woman she identifies as her mother, whom she adores. Last week, this woman died in prison and the staff is slowly preparing our lovely child for the terrible news.

Some boys with their instructor.

We worry that as more and more women bring their kids to prison, we will run out of room. Every year, many young children living at Badam Bagh will turn 6, while few children will leave us. We worry about what will happen to them when mothers are discharged and want the children with them. Where will they go? Women sentenced to prison bring shame upon their families, who often won't take them back, or who take them back and punish them brutally and permanently, and their children too.

There are 260 children in prison with their mothers, which is not an impossible number to care for. But there are 10,000 living in substandard orphanages. The next generation of Afghans must be prepared for life in a the modern world. So we consider our next steps: opening other CSCs in Jalalabad and Herat, building our own facility in Kabul, a place big enough to house all the children in prison, maybe as many as 260. Then we will turn to the orphanages.

You can still support one of these beautiful children with a sponsorship! Send an email to Manizha Naderi to become a sponsor right now! Or, click here to learn more about sponsorship, and to read our previous eNews's in-depth info on our new Children's Support Center.

Obaida, whom we profiled in our last eNews, is one of the children living at the CSC.
She and many like her would benefit from sponsorship of someone like you!
Please send an email to Manizha Naderi for more information.

Update from Queens

Our Queens staff and volunteers continue to demonstrate their unwavering dedication to WAW's mission of empowering Afghan women. During the last quarter, the Queens office continued to see an increase in the number of women visiting the center seeking to broaden their horizons through WAW's empowerment services. We have many new students in our ESL classes, introductory computer courses, and driving and citizenship assistance courses. This was due to sustained outreach in the Afghan community by all staff members, particularly our energetic Community Outreach Manager, Shakila Hamidi, who has made regular appearances on local Queens Public Television and Noor T.V. Shakila has also continued her weekly outreach to local Afghan mosques as a means of encouraging men and women to begin dialogues around women's issues and the profound role WAW serves in the community. She has received a warm reception at the mosques, and we feel this is a very important way to reach women in the community.

The fall months were full of activity with 52 intakes and 3 domestic violence-related cases. Our Case Manager, Naheed Bahram, has been devoted to addressing the needs of the women visiting the center. Through her case management, Naheed and the staff identified the need to establish a supportive environment that encourages women to discuss issues related to religion, women's rights, economic empowerment, and personal development. As a result, the staff introduced a monthly 'Women's Circle' to discuss these topics while building a sense of sisterhood with all women visiting the office. Since its establishment in mid-October, Naheed has facilitated three Women's Circles with approximately 10-15 women attending monthly. The Women's Circle has proven to be a success and the staff is actively planning circles that focus on issues such as "What does it mean to be a woman?" and "What rights do undocumented women have under VAWA?"

A Women's Circle meeting.

Our brilliant intern, Mehwish Sarwari, is working hard on our Girls' Leadership Program. Mehwish along with WAW's dedicated volunteers attended the New York Women's Foundation "Girls Leadership Day" and CUNY Women's Leadership Conference in an attempt to train young Afghan women to be active participants in their society and learn techniques to further enrich our Girls Leadership Program.

On October 27th, 2009, WAW was honored to join forces with the American Mid-East Leadership Network, Connect, Ehub Human Services, and other local organizations in welcoming New York City's first Arab-American Commissioner for Immigration Affairs, Ms. Fatima Shama. WAW's participation confirmed our commitment to coalition-building in the larger community. It was important for us to unite with other groups in a collective effort to welcome Ms. Shama and convey our community's critical needs.

During January and February 2010, the Queens staff, along with our brand new Development Officer Natalie Ghany and board member Sunita Viswanath, have been engaged in an exciting strategic planning process for our work in Queens. We look forward to sharing our completed plan with all our supporters in the months to come.

WAW IN THE NEWS

News Articles Featuring WAW

Check out these links featuring WAW!

December 1, 2009: AFP- "Women's groups want long-term US presence in Afghanistan"

December 1, 2009: The Daily Beast- "What the Surge Means for Women"

December 12, 2009: Vancouver Sun- "Women’s rights advocates square off over status of Afghan women"

December 17, 2009: WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show- "Afghan Women and the Surge"

January 28, 2010: Peace with Justice for Afghanistan Blog- "Afghan Women Civil Society Leaders Meet in Dubai"

February 16, 2010: de Volkskrant- "Guilty In Advance" (Note: This is an automatically-generated translation of an article which was originally written in Dutch. The original article is here.)