Activist fears Afghan policy more than death threats (Feature)

By Subel Bhandari Feb 25, 2011, 4:45 GMT

Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan - In a country where many families still do not send their daughters to school, giving protection and shelter to women who run away is a risky business.

Afghan Hamid Safwat has been doing it in his home town of Mazar-e-Sharif since 1997.

One of the only two women's shelters in northern Afghanistan, Safwat's Cooperation Centre for Afghanistan provides a place to stay for girls and women fleeing abusive husbands, brothers and fathers as well as forced or child marriages.

Twenty-six women and four children are currently in his shelter in Balkh province.

For his pains, he faces frequent threats of violence.

'Many times I have received death threats from police, warlords, tribal leaders and ex-mujahedin commanders,' the 35-year-old said. 'Everybody gets angry when your daughter runs away.'

But Safwat said he is now more fearful of a single government decision than of all the death threats he has ever received.

Safwat, like many other social workers, is pressuring the Kabul government to change its decision to take over all the women's shelters in the country, which are at present run by non-governmental organizations and funded by Western countries.

Safwat, father to three girls himself, said he does not feel the Kabul administration is best placed to take on the responsibility. 'The problem with the Afghan government is that they just work in the cities,' he said.

'Our cases are from remote villages where there is no presence of government. There is a substantial gap between the government and the people and their accessibility to the state.'

Safwat and others have also voiced their concern that the new law may make the shelters inaccessible for the most vulnerable.

The rules would require women to justify fleeing their homes in front of a government panel and also to undergo a medical examination, including virginity tests, before admission, according to those with knowledge of the new legislation.

President Hamid Karzai defended the decision last week, accusing one or two shelters of unspecified inappropriate conduct. He added that not all shelters are to be taken over by the government.

He said the national authorities are capable of looking after Afghan women in distress. But many believe Karzai's decision to take over women's shelters is to appease hardliners.

In a country where tradition is often more influential than the rule of law, conservatives have accused women's shelters of undermining Afghan mores and promoting Western perversion.

The shelters' very existence, their detractors argue, encourages girls and women to run away.

In 2009, a conservative television show host accused shelters of being a front for prostitution and drugs, but did not provide any evidence.

Safwat, who is also a professor of journalism at Balkh University, said he believes the controversy is a manifestation of an ongoing clash between modernization and traditional values.

'Culture and tradition remain strong in Afghan society. Modernization entered only after the fall of the Taliban,' he said.

'TV channels, internet, et cetera are now promoting modern ideas in Afghan society. But there are people, still influential, who believe women deserve to be treated that way, who believe women are not people.'

The plight of women remains one of the biggest challenges in the nation, 10 years since the ouster of Taliban by the United States-led invasion.

According to an April report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women UNIFEM, a quarter of Afghan women are victims of sexual violence, and almost a third are exposed to physical and psychological abuse.

Traditional practices like child marriages, forced and exchange marriages, so-called honour killings, forced isolation in the home and the giving away of girls to settle disputes are widespread throughout the country, another UN report said in December.

Safwat's organization provides legal advice and vocational training. The women receive psychological support and self-defence classes, and are given literacy classes.

The centre also tries to mediate family disputes. Safwat said it has settled more than 700 cases, including women who marry against their family's wishes, want a divorce or rebel against forced marriages.

Safwat said that none of the women or girls who have left his shelter have returned. 'The girls are safe and happy and living their choice of life,' he said.

'With the new legislation, the victim will have to go through a series of abusive scrutiny before she can land up in a shelter and there will be more manoeuvring and exploitation by the state,' Safwat said.

'Islam says you must protect your daughter and not hit your wife. I hope the Islamic Republic makes the right decision to protect their daughters and wives.'

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