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May 2 , 2006
This Week in Afghanistan Watch
"I was really sad when I saw only one woman in the new cabinet. Karzai just doesn't care. He and his circle are thinking only of themselves. I would love to see women as real decision-makers, but they don't consider women for those positions. They think the Ministry of Women's Affairs is good enough for women."
—Shokuria Barakzai, female parliamentarian
“When we told the international community that we believe in equal rights now, we shouldn't lie to them…If women have no real power, we are cheating the international community."
—Mullah Abdul Salam “Rocketi”, an ex-Taliban commander
with a reputation as a fundamentalist, who nevertheless hoped
President Karzai would increase the number of women in the cabinet
“While establishing quotas to ensure women's inclusion is one necessary step, it isn't sufficient.”
—Isobel Coleman, of the Council on Foreign Relations,
and Swanee Hunt, of the Kennedy School of Government
"Every soldier and officer in the Pakistani military should know that Musharraf is throwing them into the burner of civil war in return for the bribes he is getting from the United States."
—Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second in command,
in a 16-minute video entitled "A message to the people of Pakistan "
Afghanistan by the Numbers:
- New cabinet ministers nominated by President Karzai: 25
- New Supreme Court judges nominated: 9
- Number of women among these 34 officials: 1
- Number of cabinet ministers confirmed: 20
- Number of women confirmed: 0
- Number of women in the previous cabinet: 3
- Percent of registered Afghan voters who are women: 43 percent
Source
20 New Afghan Cabinet Ministers Sworn In
President Karzai received a vote of confidence from the new parliament when they approved his choices for the most important ministries (defense, interior, finance, and foreign minister.) His decision to only nominate one woman for the cabinet reflects a nod to conservatives and to the prevalent (if flawed) view that now that women have representation in parliament they no longer need specific appointments in the cabinet.
Karzai must now re-submit nominations for five candidates that were rejected—and should exercise leadership by nominating qualified female candidates for several of the openings.
KABUL, May 2 By Amir Shah—Twenty ministers of the new Afghan Cabinet were sworn in Tuesday…The ceremony follows an April 20 vote by the 249-member parliament to approve most of Karzai's choices for key ministries…The result gave the U.S.-backed leader a boost as he tries to curb an intensified insurgency more than four years since the hard-line Taliban regime's ouster by U.S.-led forces for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist group.
Afghanistan should make room for its female leaders
Coleman and Hunt argued that denying women positions of influence is fundamentally undemocratic.
April 24, (Christian Science Monitor) By Isobel Coleman and Swanee Hunt—Last month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced his nominations for his cabinet and the Supreme Court. This was the first time that his nominations would be scrutinized by Parliament; last Thursday, the Parliament approved 20 of the 25 candidates for his cabinet.
The approval hearings are a welcome start to a more democratic Afghanistan . Unfortunately, President Karzai did not nominate a single woman to the Supreme Court, dropped all three ministers who were women from the last cabinet, and nominated only one woman to the new cabinet, as minister of women's affairs. On Thursday, she was rejected.
| By excluding 50% of the population from decisionmaking positions, Afghanistan is undermining its ability to capitalize on its potential. |
According to a recent article in The New York Times, "an aide to Mr. Karzai, who would speak only without being identified because he was not authorized to comment on the cabinet debate, argued that women had won their place in politics, with representation guaranteed in Parliament and provincial councils, and no longer needed special appointments to the cabinet." These actions and attitudes suggest a disturbing trend.
Sidelining qualified female candidates from the highest positions in government and the courts is discriminatory and fundamentally undemocratic. But the rights argument is persuasive only to those who cherish fairness. For those who prioritize efficacy, there is another argument: By excluding 50 percent of the population from decisionmaking positions, Afghanistan is undermining its ability to capitalize on the full potential of its society.
Women's inclusion in Afghanistan 's government, which the international community has been using as an indicator of democratic progress, is actually regressing. The interim Supreme Court has consistently sided with conservatives, dashing the hopes of reformers and threatening the rights of women. It has issued bans on women singing on television, tried to bar a presidential candidate for questioning whether polygamy is in keeping with the spirit of Islam, and upheld the marriage of a 9-year-old girl, even though Afghan law sets marriageable age at 16.
Afghan women are repeatedly denied equal access to legal representation and due process. Nearly 80 percent of the women in prison have been convicted of zina, engaging in sexual activity outside marriage. But the majority of those convicted were simply trying to escape domestic abuse and seek refuge outside their oppressive households.
While establishing quotas to ensure women's inclusion is one necessary step, it isn't sufficient.
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Can Afghanistan become a true democracy when notorious warlords and drug kingpins operate with impunity, hold positions of power within the government, and maintain a tight grip on key institutions such as the Supreme Court?
The role and protection of the judiciary is a specific indicator of whether women are gaining their rightful position in society. While Afghanistan 's constitution theoretically represents a major victory for women, they continue to face severe gender-based discrimination in the application of laws.
Strengthening the legitimacy of the Supreme Court is a critical step in the broader process of judicial reform that is needed in Afghanistan , where there are few trained lawyers and 85 percent of justice is administered outside the official court system. The country will never be able to develop a sustainable, modern economy, nor consolidate democracy, without establishing the rule of law across the country and protecting the political and economic rights of all Afghans.
Mr. Karzai has taken a significant step toward beginning a judicial overhaul in his appointments to the Supreme Court - an institution responsible for managing the judicial system throughout the whole country. Karzai nominated a replacement for every member of the interim court, retaining only the chief justice - an Islamic scholar who has said that Afghanistan will be governed by Islamic laws or tumble into violent civil conflict. Therefore, it will be essential that the new members of the Court have a moderating influence on the chief justice in order to achieve real judicial reform and increase public confidence in the courts.
While establishing quotas to ensure women's inclusion is one necessary step, it isn't sufficient.
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The world will remain focused on the decisions delivered by Afghanistan's Supreme Court once President Karzai's nominations are approved. Decisions contrary to the democratic ideals supported by the millions of Afghans who voted in September 2005 (including the 43 percent of registered voters who were women), will impact international support.
Establishing a representative democracy takes time. While establishing quotas to ensure women's inclusion is one necessary step, it isn't sufficient. The inclusion of women in government and persistent legislative and judicial reform will be imperative to ensuring that Afghanistan becomes a true representative democracy.
Isobel Coleman is director of the Women and US Foreign Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. Swanee Hunt, former US ambassador to Austria , is the director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University 's Kennedy School of Government.
Ayman al-Zawahiri targets Pakistan in video
In his latest video, one of three Al Qaeda videos released in the past week, Ayman al-Zawahiri (bin Laden’s second in command) specifically calls for the people of Pakistan—especially within the army—to overthrow President Musharraf. The video may reflect a strategic counteroffensive by Al Qaeda against Musharraf’s successful incursions against jihadists in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the Northwest Frontier Province.
"Al-Qaeda in Iraq alone has carried out 800 martyrdom operations in three years, besides the victories of the other mujahideen," he said. "This is what has broken the back of America in Iraq ."
But the bulk of the 16-minute video, which was entitled "A message to the people of Pakistan ", targeted President Musharraf.
"Every soldier and officer in the Pakistani military should know that Musharraf is throwing them into the burner of civil war in return for the bribes he is getting from the United States," said Zawahiri.
He urged Pakistanis "to remove this traitor from power" and told soldiers to disobey the orders of their commanders "to kill Muslims in Pakistan or Afghanistan."
See the video
First joint exercise for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and U.S.
William Arkin of the Washington Post notes that last week a Tripartite Commission of senior U.S., Afghan and Pakistani military officers met near Islamabad “to discuss the war against terrorism, tensions over Taliban infiltration into Afghanistan from Pakistan and what military spokesmen admit is an increasingly deteriorating situation along the Afghan-Pakistani frontier.” This is the third such meeting of four star Afghani and Pakistani generals to discuss the security situation, but the exercise marks the first time Afghan forces will participate on Pakistan soil.
Arkin notes that “Inspired Gambit 06 is not as large as was originally intended, and it has been combined with a separate special operations exercise called Inspired Venture 06, which was once intended to be a standalone special operations exercise between U.S. and Pakistani forces. On July 25, 2005 , Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sent a "snowflake"—one of his flurry of memorandums - to all commands directing them to reduce exercises to an "absolute minimum."
Here’s a clip from the AP story:
KABUL, Apr 24 (AP) by Rahim Faiez—The U.S. military said Monday it will hold its first joint maneuvers with both Afghanistan and Pakistan along the mountainous border between the two Central Asian countries where Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaida figures are believed to be hiding.
The operation, to be called Inspired Gambit, will be an "air assault exercise" involving a small contingent of Afghan soldiers and an unspecified number of Pakistani troops, U.S. military spokesman Col. Laurent Fox said during a news conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul.
"We feel that it is important that the only way we will solve the terrorism and insurgency problem is to work closely together with each other," Fox said.
Female farmers rebuilding orchards
BALKH, 5 April (IRIN)—For the first time in her life Maruim is sowing seeds and planting fruit trees in nurseries close to her simple house near the town of Balkh in the province of the same name in northern Afghanistan .
Traditionally the work of men, a new program is getting women out of the home and into the fields and orchards in order to improve food security and boost rural incomes.
"I feel happy while working in the fields planting apricots, almonds and walnut trees, soon the money will come in as a result" said the 35-year-old mother of six.
She's part of a food-for-work project organised by the World Food Program (WFP) in Balkh district, around 35 km west of the provincial capital Mazar-e-Sharif.
"Many women are confined to their houses and welcome the opportunity to work outside their homes and earn money to support their families"
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The three-year program, which was launched in October 2005, has established two nurseries that comprise hundreds of thousands of fruit and other kinds of trees in both Balkh and Nahar-e-Shahi districts.
"The project provides training to around 800 women to give them skills in planting trees, irrigation, weeding and other farming activities," said Mohammad Ismail, WFP's field monitor in Mazar-e-Sharif.
The WFP scheme is designed to boost women's economic situation in this impoverished part of Afghanistan by providing the means to grow fruit and crops for cash.
"Many women are confined to their houses and welcome the opportunity to work outside their homes and earn money to support their families," said 23-year-old Huzra, while weeding a field of juicy apricots destined for market in Mazar-e Sharif.
Until the crops mature and start generating income, the UN food agency provides participants with enough provisions to get by. "We are providing 2.88 kg of food, including wheat, vegetable oil and salt to each worker per day," Ismail noted.
The nurseries are expected to produce around 1.5 million fruit and non-fruit trees each year and will be extended to other parts of the province where jobs are scarce and women, many of whom are widowed as a result of decades of conflict, have few opportunities to earn a living.
Afghanistan used to be famous for its fruit orchards, but three decades of brutal civil war and six years of drought have caused massive devastation to the sector.
During 2005, WFP's northern regional office in Mazar-e Sharif assisted more than 400,000 people in five provinces with a variety of programs, including school feeding schemes and responding to emergencies.
Motorcycle crackdown on the Taliban
ISLAMABAD, April 18 (The Telegraph-UK) By Isambard Wilkinson—The government of Afghanistan and its US-led allies have launched commando attacks, sent out spies and paid bribes as part of efforts to subdue a bloody Taliban insurgency. But yesterday one province tried a new tactic--banning unregistered motorcycles.
Authorities in Ghazni said the Taliban had been using motorcycles to carry out bombings and shootings. The Honda 125cc motorcycle has become to the Taliban what the Humvee is to the American military: the ride of choice…It was reported in 2003 that a Taliban army was mobilizing in Pakistan after buying 1,150 motorcycles.
Ministers Under Attack in Afghan Parliament
Institute For War and Peace Reporting, by Amanullah Nasrat in Kabul (ARR No. 212, 19-Apr-06 )
President Karzai's cabinet nominees defend their records in a mudslinging battle that some say is the work of once-powerful political forces who feel excluded from government.
The cabinet confirmation hearings currently under way in the Afghan parliament have—given the normally tumultuous political scene—proved a fairly smooth and orderly process. But while most legislators maintained a semblance of decorum as they began questioning cabinet nominees in a series of sessions broadcast live over most of the major television stations, critics both inside and outside the parliament began a vigorous campaign to discredit the candidates submitted by President Hamed Karzai…
Abdul Hafiz Mansoor, a staunch oppositionist who narrowly missed being elected to parliament, published his own list in his weekly paper, Payam-e-Mujahed, questioning the records and qualifications of the president's candidates. Mansoor, the former head of Radio Television Afghanistan, who was fired when he refused to allow women to sing on air, is a member of the Jamiat-e-Islami faction, which encompasses most of the Northern Alliance, a loose collection of warlords and commanders who battled the Taleban.
Initially the strongest faction in the post-Taleban government, Jamiat has been losing ground of late. Some observers say Mansoor's show of bad grace over the president's nominees reflects his anger at the weakening grip of Jamiat.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah is on his way out—the last in a trio of Northern Alliance strongmen who once held the most powerful positions in government. His proposed replacement, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, has publicly criticised the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, the top Jamiat military leader who has attained near-cult status among his followers.
"Insulting proposed cabinet ministers is the handiwork of those who have lost power in the current line-up of nominees."
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For many observing from the sidelines, Abdullah's departure and other proposed changes represent a tectonic shift in the power structure of Afghanistan. The former mujahedin, they say, will not relinquish their formerly dominant position lightly. Shukria Barakzai, a parliamentarian and political analyst, thinks Mansoor's list is just the beginning of Jamiat's campaign.
"Four years ago, Jamiat had half of the government posts," she said. "Now they have far fewer. Insulting proposed cabinet ministers in the Payam-e-Mujahed weekly is the handiwork of those who have lost power in the current line-up of nominees."
Mansoor's list is full of scandalous, colourful and—according to those targeted—largely unsubstantiated allegations. Among other things, Mansoor claims that foreign minister-designate Spanta has dual citizenship and a Jewish daughter-in-law.
Mansoor's list is full of scandalous, colorful and—according to those targeted—largely unsubstantiated allegations. |
Current defence minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, who is slated to keep his post, is accused of links with Pakistan's InterServices Intelligence, ISI, and once again of holding dual citizenship.
The charges go on, ranging from the serious to the absurd.
According to Mansoor, the candidate to head the interior ministry, Zarar Ahmad Muqbel, has had no education; incumbent finance minister Anwar ul Haq Ahadi has embezzled millions of dollars; proposed education minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar was a member of the former communist regime's intelligence agency who lost a leg fighting against the mujahedin.
Minister of Information and Culture Sayed Makhdum Raheen is accused of immorality for applauding and seeming to enjoy himself at a concert given by a female singer from Tajikistan --an offence reportedly compounded by the fact that he was holding prayer beads at the time. The nominee for the Ministry of Communications, Amirzai Sangin, who is widely acknowledged to be among the foremost specialists in communications in the country, is said by Mansoor to have been a janitor who was elevated to government by late-Seventies communist ruler Hafizullah Amin.
The ministers concerned have defended themselves, in vehemently denying the bulk of Mansoor's claims…
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Afghanistan Watch is prepared by Carl Robichaud, a program officer at The Century Foundation.
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