Opinion
Published on October 25, 2002

Wake-up for Afghan Women
By Rachel Abileah and Sonya Stokes


"I wish I could tell you that widows have no problem, that the jails aren't full of women who ran away from their husbands, that there are no rapes, that women are free, that they are not forced to wear the burqa, that everything is hunky-dory in Afghanistan," panelist Fahima Vorgetts said of her return to her homeland, "but it's not."

Last Saturday on the Barnard campus, Vorgetts and the co-founders of Women for Afghan Women, Masuda Sultan and Sunita Mehta, hosted their second annual conference, entitled "Afghan Women Report: Achievement and Challenges One Year After Bonn." The day-long symposium focused on issues such as human rights, education, health, governance, and law in the aftermath of the American "war on terrorism."

Despite the brevity and depth of issues addressed, the event drew a pitifully small handful of Columbia University students. Was the low turnout solely due to the frenzy of midterms and the priorities given to a full Saturday, or is there a deeper lack of interest surrounding Afghan issues?
Perhaps the answer relates to Afghan women's five minutes of fame--students, following the trail of media coverage, have moved on to more sensational issues. The crisis over a potential war with Iraq must not be taken lightly, yet the idea that our society can move through foreign politics issues like flipping channels on a television leads to a critical misconception about the interrelatedness of the conflicts.

Concern over the war with Iraq must generate a heightened awareness of the lessons that need to be learned from Afghanistan. Since the United States' bombing campaign began one year ago, the so-called liberation of the Afghan people has only led to more bloodshed and economic despair.
An estimation of this collateral damage cannot be measured simply by a tally of casualties; the full picture comes only in the context of Afghanistan's dire economic situation. As Vorgetts stated, "The result of 23 years of war is rubble, is destruction, is poverty; it's poverty beyond belief in Afghanistan."
America's "successes" have thus proven to be shortsighted and hollow. Our government is in passionate agreement over the need to appropriate funds, but simultaneously resides in a state of total inaction. Though the United States reached its minimal pledge goals, these funds are entirely inadequate, and the majority of money is directed toward military spending and warlordism, specifically profiting the Northern Alliance.

American financial and ideological deficiencies are coupled with the failure of the international community to adhere to the Bonn agreements, which specifically address issues of war-lordism, a non-partisan cabinet, women, children and education. Afghan female panelists such as Zolaykha Sherzad, co-founder of the School of Hope, explicitly voiced a strong need for further reform in the area of education. According to Sherzad, "The reconstruction of [Afghanistan] has to start with a positive: the education of our young children."

Current educational standards are poor at best. Children arrive, often unshod and without adequate supplies, at schools situated in hallways, tents, and metal skeletons of buses. Most schools, owing to their inability to obtain formal government recognition, cannot afford to pay teachers' salaries. In the past month, eight girls' schools have been victims of arson--once again, women are fleeing the classroom in fear and seeking refuge in the home.

Despite all of these trials and the additional burden placed upon many youths to provide a steady income to their families, Afghan boys and girls remain optimistic. Hassina Sherjan, executive director of Children's Voice, counters the destruction by opening schools for young women and proclaims that the children possess "high spirits, and have survived with dignity and pride."

The Columbia community should look to the heroism and courage of these children for inspiration and motivation to continue its support of Afghanistan, a country that teaches us that short-term international interventions only result in further complications. Should we choose to neglect the history and current status of Afghanistan and its female population, we will bring about our own demise.

In response to the low turnout at the conference, Barnard president Judith Shapiro proclaimed, "Ladies, wake up!" Columbia University, wake up! Before you hop on that bus heading down to D.C. this weekend or apathetically flip through another set of news channels, reflect on the status of Afghanistan and act on the knowledge we have painfully born witness to.

The authors are Barnard College juniors majoring in environmental science and human rights and anthropology and film, respectively.