In the Afghan war, women officials bear the brunt

Every morning Shah Bibi Saeedi, a female Afghan government official, goes to her office feeling scared. Sometimes she dons a burqa and walks for an hour to her office. Or she takes local taxis, wearing a shawl with only her eyes visible. She has good cause to fear for her life: Her two predecessors were killed in July and December of last year.

“I am very worried about all this. Hanifa Safi and Naziya Sediqi were martyred by anti-government and anti-women’s rights groups,” said Saeedi, who now heads the women’s department, a provincial office of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, in the eastern province of Laghman. “Since March, I have been warned so many times. The latest threat was two days ago,” she told dpa last week. But someone has to do the job, she said. “And right now it’s me. If we don’t work to defend women’s rights, then our achievements so far will all be gone one day soon.”

Her department regularly deals with cases including domestic violence, forced and under-age marriages, giving women away to settle debts, the buying and selling of women, kidnapping and running away. She says the Taliban are set up just 3 kilometres outside the city. “They roam around the city and mix with locals. After 6 pm, the whole market shuts down and security forces go inside their bases. The Taliban come out.”

Fearing for their safety, Saeedi’s family live in Kabul, while the government provides her with only three police for the whole office. “It’s not enough. If I take them, our department will be insecure. If I keep them here in the office, I will be insecure.” Saeedi’s concern resonates with the surge in targeted violence against women in the country’s conflict.

Even Sima Samar, the head of the national human rights commission, says her biggest achievement has been to remain alive. Last month, parliamentarian Fariba Kakar was kidnapped from the eastern province of Ghazni for four weeks and later released in a Taliban prisoner exchange. A few days before the kidnapping, another female senator was injured in an ambush by gunmen in the same area where Kakar was abducted. Her daughter was killed, along with one of her bodyguards.

An Indian author married to an Afghan man was killed this month in eastern Afghanistan. She had published a memoir about life under Taliban rule in the 1990s. In the violent southern province of Helmand, unknown gunmen have killed three policewomen since July. Lieutenant Islam Bibi, a 7-year veteran, was killed in July, while her replacement Bibi Negar was killed this month. Sergeant Shah Bibi was also killed in July.

Nasima Neyazi, a female parliamentarian from Helmand, said Negar’s death was “a big loss for the women.” “After their death, I do not think any other woman would dare apply for this post. Because of society’s conservative mindset and the lack of support from the government the number of women police is decreasing,” Neyazi said. Afghan police has less than 1 per cent female staff. “We are anxious about the condition of women across Afghanistan,” said Colonel Hekmat Shahi Rasooli, the director of the gender and child rights department at the Ministry of Interior.

The United Nations says violence against women is “pervasive and increasing.” “In recent weeks and months, Afghanistan has witnessed several cases of intimidation, abduction and targeted killings of women government officials and public figures,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the head of UN Women. “Recent cases of targeted killings point to the urgent need to guarantee women’s and girls’ rights.” Between 2010 and 2012, more than 4,000 cases of violence against women and girls were reported to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

Attacks targeted at civilian government officials – male and female – have increased by 76 per cent in the first six months this year, compared to last year, one UN report said in July. It is not clear whether the Taliban were behind all the recent attacks; they never take responsibility for targeting women due to cultural sensitivities. Attacking women is seen as cowardly and unforgivable and females are not generally seen as being involved in the conflict.

Earlier, female officials were seldom targeted, though assaults on women are not a new phenomenon. Women are more vulnerable to ultra-conservative elements in civilian society, activists say. In the Laghman killing, Saeedi said Islam Bibi was killed by the relatives of one Afghan girl who had run away from home and sought help from the women’s department.

One prominent female parliamentarian said most of the security measures available to defend women’s rights are provided by the international community. Many are afraid that will be lost after the departure of Nato-led troops in 2014. “My main fear is the fragility of all the achievements. After 11 years, we should have been able to feel more confident, rather than being in the state of panic,” Farkhunda Naderi said. Saeedi is even less hopeful and wants to leave. “If I am in serious danger or harm, the international community should provide safe passageway and a visa so I can go elsewhere and seek political asylum.”