Final Copy Of Master Paper

The Heller School of Social Policy and Management Brandeis University

War, Political Economy, Poverty and Women in Afghanistan Submitted by

Nadia Behboodi A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Master of Arts Degree in Sustainable International Development _______ Professor Jehan Raheem _______________________ ____________ Academic Advisor Date __________________________________________________________ __________ The Director of the Sustainable International Development Program Date

Students who do not want their Master’s Paper or excerpts from it posted on the SID website or otherwise used by the SID Program in print or electronic versions MUST sign below: __________________________________________________________ ____________ Signature Date

War, Political Economy, Poverty and Women in Afghanistan

Kyrgyzstan

Tajikistan Uzbekistan Turkmenistan

Afghanistan Iran

Pakistan

TABLE OF CONTENT The Heller School of Social Policy and Management....................................................................1 Brandeis University....................................................................................................................1 Submitted by...................................................................................................................................1 A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the .........................................1

Master of Arts Degree.................................................................................................................1 _______ Professor Jehan Raheem _______________________ ____________..................1 TABLES, MAPS AND GRAPHS...................................................................................................3 ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT..............................................................................................................2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................3 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................8 GLOSSARY....................................................................................................................................8 A. INTRODUCTION AND LEARNING OBJECTIVE.................................................................9 A.1 Learning Objective: ..............................................................................................................10 A.2 Hypotheses: ...........................................................................................................................10 A.3 Methodology: ........................................................................................................................10 B. DESCRIPTION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROBLEM ........................................................................................................................................................11 C. LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................................13 C.1 Conflict Definition ................................................................................................................14 C.3 Conflict: Impact on Civilian’s Survival.................................................................................15 C.4 Conflict: Impact on Gender....................................................................................................15 C.5 Conflict: Impact on Human Rights and Human Development..............................................16 C. 6 Conflict: Impact on Poverty..................................................................................................18 C.7 Political Economy of War......................................................................................................18 C.8 Exploitation of Natural Resources.........................................................................................19 D. SOCIOPOLITICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC ANALYSIS..................................................20 D.1. Russian Occupation (1978-1987) ........................................................................................20 D.2. Mujahiddin Empowerment (1992-1994)..............................................................................26 D.3. Taliban Movement (1994-2001)...........................................................................................29 D.4. Post Taliban...........................................................................................................................31 E. SOCIOCULTURAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF WOMEN’S LIVES ...........32 E.1) Gender Role in the Sociocultural Framework.......................................................................32 E.2) Impact of conflict on the socioeconomic status of women...................................................33 E.2.1) Education ..........................................................................................................................33 E.2.2) Economic ..........................................................................................................................39 E.2.3) Politics ...............................................................................................................................41 F. COMPARISON OF WOMEN STATUS WITH NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES.................42 G. ANALYSIS OF CONTEMPORARY POLICIES ..................................................................44 G.1) Gender equality and women empowerment:........................................................................45 F. OVERALL CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................50 G. RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................................................52

TABLES, MAPS AND GRAPHS Exhibit 1

Development and Poverty Indicators

Exhibit 2 Exhibit 3 Exhibit 4 Exhibit 5 Exhibit 6 Exhibit 7

Perception of Liberalization in Afghan Society Direct Effect of the Soviet’s Strategies on Agriculture IDPs during Three Phases of War Export of Natural Gas Cross-border Armed Trade in Afghanistan Opium Production in Afghanistan

Exhibit 8 Exhibit 9 Exhibit 10 Exhibit 11 Exhibit 12 Exhibit 13 Exhibit 14 Exhibit 15 Exhibit.16

Historical Events toward Gender Liberalization Primary Education in Afghanistan Girl and Boy Schools in Afghanistan General Education Growth by Enrollment Major Problems Women Faced During Taliban Regime Afghanistan in Comparison to the Neighboring Countries Afghanistan in Comparison to the Average of the Neighboring Countries Pillars and Themes of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) Comparison of Women’s Situation in Pre-war and during War Eras

Nadia Behboodi 1 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABSTRACT Afghanistan is one the most conflict-ridden countries of the 20th century. It has endured various forms of national and transnational crises introduced by the Soviet Union, civil war and a totalitarian Islamic regime (Taliban). Each crisis single-handedly brought about unprecedented disasters such as, destruction of the rural livelihood by the Red Army, the urban livelihood by the Mujahiddin; and entire societal foundations during Taliban regime. 1 All these crises had the aggravation of gender inequalities and poverty as a common theme. It was increasing by every measure in the political power of the country. While the macro level disasters affected entire nation, the micro-level catastrophes particularly devastated the wellbeing of often vulnerable and most marginalized people. They did not merely encounter hardships as poor, but their vulnerability was significant under gender segregation. While ending the gender discrimination has never been a strong and feasible element of the government policies in the past, the continuous war furthered inequalities in all social institutions. It resulted in the multidimensional features of nation-wide poverty and structural inequalities that has curbed nation-building efforts. This paper attempts to analyze the status of women under the impact of conflict on the socioeconomics and sociopolitical structures of the country, and thereby the impacts on gender inequalities and poverty. It also provides an analysis of the current national developmental policies and strategies to ensure genderinclusive approaches targeting inequality and poverty at national level and propose some changes. The overwhelming conclusion of this paper is that women are the principle victims of war and poverty. Key words: armed conflict, parallel economy, poverty, drug economy, warlords, Soviet Union, Taliban, Mujahiddin gender discrimination, human rights, empowerment

1

The Red Armey was the title of the Army of the Former Soviet Union, or Soviet Army

Nadia Behboodi 2 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This study could not have been completed without the advice, support and cooperation of significant number of people. Particular thanks are due to my advisor Professor Jehan Raheem who tremendously supported me in the overall aspects of this paper. I would also want to extend my gratitude to Professor Ricardo Godoy assisting me in comprehensive data analysis and presentations. This paper vastly benefited form the series of consultation sessions arranged by the Heller School. I would like to thank Professor Kelly Ready for her helpful feedback during these sessions. Valuable comments and advice were received from my UN and Government colleagues in Afghanistan. This report constitutes a synthesis of the information on the situation of women in Afghanistan. I would like to thanks Mrs. Laila Mozaffaruddin and Mrs. Suraya Barien for their helpful insights on the condition of women and information gathering.

Nadia Behboodi 3 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This paper presents an analysis of current status of women in Afghanistan as the results of long period of conflict (1978-2001), poverty, and culture to the policy announcement in 2004. It particularly shades light on poverty among women; the structural and institutional inequalities that affect them; and the current government responses to the needs of women. It is confined to a desk analysis of internal and external resource available on Afghanistan. The status of women was improving as of the late 19th century; this however, declined since 1978 when the conflict ensued. Deterioration of sociopolitical and socioeconomic situations bred devastating impact on women by: extermination of the livelihood resources; erosion of infrastructure and institutions delivering key services to women; and depletion of legislative institutions protecting women. Excluding women from participating in the economic, political and social spheres increased their vulnerability to the vicious cycle of poverty. The relaxation of efforts on the development of rural women that had been a product of the cultural conservatism remained thoroughly intact during conflict years.2 The following comparison portrays the impact of war upon women in different sectors. Before war < 1978 Education (urban and rural) Enrollment in the primary 198,560 education Percentage of overall schools 13.1 % for girls Growth of the overall 229,690 education by enrollment Estimated number of female 7,400 teachers Economic activities (urban and rural) Employment (urban women)  50% of civil servants

During war (1978-2001) 64,110 2% 64,110 2,700

  



Participation in agriculture, embroidery and carpet waving (rural women)





2

Active participation of women labor in agriculture Significant participation in the handicraft



Improved for urban women during Communist regime Slumped under Mujahiddin government Declined to 0% by the Taliban government Only by late 1997 the medical personnel was allowed to work under the Taliban regime Considerably limited during 1980s due to the destruction of the rural livelihood and social networks.

Vulnerability of urban and rural women systematically increased by factors such as: destruction of their livelihood and social networks; lack of access, control, and utilization of economic resources and opportunities; lack of food security and sufficient consumption; access to health and education services; employment and income; and ultimately insecurity and violence. Counting for 50% of population, women’s poverty – both income and human poverty - significantly contributed to the overall poverty in the country. Their underdevelopment has affected sufficiency in the human capital and workforce, and caused impediment on the overall development in Afghanistan.

Nadia Behboodi 4 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------businesses

Political participation (urban women) Political representation  Strong participation of urban women in the political structure of country including cabinet, parliament and women political organizations





The scope narrowed down by the Mujahiddin Swiftly brought to an end by the Taliban

For nearly a quarter century (1978-2001), Afghanistan has hardly seen any significant span of stability due to social unrest. As the result of various internal and external conflict lines, under different motives of war: religion, ethnicity, language, geography, political division and modernization that resulted in the structural and institutional mayhem of the country. The turmoil of conflict has affected entire population during past three regimes. However, the calamities of the poor remained increased by: being exposed to direct killing; targeting their livelihood and assets; insecurity; migration; and deprivation from access to and use of necessary services. This situation consequently drove the country into chronic poverty, and furthered inequality and injustice against women.3 The meticulous impact of conflict on women originated from the destabilization of sociopolitical and socioeconomic structures of the country during the years of conflict. The malady in these settings resulted in: devastation and loss of the livelihood resources; erosion of infrastructure and institutions delivering key services to women; and depletion of legislative institutions protecting women. Tragically the situation reached the point when institutional discrimination against women took an official form ignoring women’ needs and rights, and marginalizing them from the public spheres. The relaxation of efforts on the development of rural women that had been previously a product of the cultural conservatism remained thoroughly intact during conflict years. Vulnerability of urban and rural women to poverty systematically increased by factors such as: destruction of their livelihood and social networks; lack of access, control, and utilization of economic resources and opportunities; lack of food security and insufficient consumption; access to health and education services; employment and income; and ultimately insecurity and violence. Counting for 50% of population, women’s poverty – both income and human poverty - significantly contributed to the overall poverty in the country.4 Today 70% of population resides under poverty and the poverty index of country stands at 94 among all developing courtiers.

3

“Chronic poverty is typically characterized not only by low income and assets, but also by hunger and under-nutrition, illiteracy, the lack of access to basic necessities such as safe drinking water and health services, and social isolation and exploitation. In many contexts, poor women and girls, children, and older people (especially widows) are more likely to be trapped in this poverty”. http://www.chronicpoverty.org/about/what_is_chronic_poverty.html 4

“Human poverty is a concept that captures the many dimensions of poverty that exist in both poor and rich countries—it is the denial of choices and opportunities for living a life one has reason to value. The HPI for developing countries – measures human deprivations in the same three aspects of HDI (longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living) and social exclusion.” http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/faq.html

Nadia Behboodi 5 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------On the policy side, this paper focuses on the current policies enacted by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan under Hamid Kharzai’s leadership. The two critical documents in the policy environment are: 1) Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS); and 2) Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP). The post war operation in Afghanistan since December 2001 opened doors of new opportunities for women’s empowerment. It is the most momentous and unparallel period in the history of Afghanistan toward both women and country’s development. The analysis of ANDS and IPRSP reveals that the government presumes extensive responsibilities for the gender development by setting gender as a cross-cutting theme across the overall levels of development. Nonetheless, there are some limitations in terms of gender-inclusive strategies corresponding to the short-term and long-term needs of women in the country. It also lacks strategic view to reduce inequalities among women dwelling in the rural and urban communities. In spite of some policy gaps reaching all women, the countrywide implementation of these policies is eking out due to uprising of Taliban. It has seriously challenged service delivery particularly to 1.2 million women in the southern region. Gender inequality and poverty are multifaceted concepts that imply symmetric use of opportunities and participation in the social, political, legal, and economic systems of the country. Therefore, a complete set of macro and micro level approaches are required to achieve it. Given the volatile picture of stability in Afghanistan, there is a huge need for the major global response and commitment toward people of Afghanistan particularly women who have been paying variety of price for external interventions. The policy analysis reveals the government’s willingness to advance the course of women by placing gender on a cross-cutting theme across all levers and levels of development. Nonetheless, lack of comprehensive gender-inclusive and bottom-up strategies corresponding to the short-term and long-term needs of women limits the effectiveness of such policies. Additionally, the countrywide implementation of these policies is being seriously challenged by the uprising of the Taliban. Based on limitation of ANDS and IPRSP, this paper recommends the following in order to enhance efficiency and efficacy in obtaining better and sustainable outcomes for women. Education: • The higher education of women should be emphasized and supported by all educational institutions for long term gains in the status of women and their share of responsibilities toward nation building and development of Afghanistan. •

Opportunities such as women’s access to scholarships, fellowships, international conferences will boost women’s higher education in Afghanistan and will build the women intellectual capital

•

Vocational education system should be established for women who are unable to continue their higher education due to their obligation for family formation. This system should be expended beyond Kabul.

Nadia Behboodi 6 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------• Life skill program shall be embedded in the curriculum of schools for the whole youth in the secondary school to prepare them for job. The priority should be given girls secondary school as their share of work force is quite low in the market. Economic: • Gaps in gender development between rural and urban and the distinct structure of rural and urban economy necessitate desegregated strategies for the economic empowerment of women. In the rural communities, women’s participation must move beyond simply working on the agricultural field. Paid economic opportunities should be created in the countryside to alter women’s wageless labor status and build their access to the market. •

The micro-finance programs and micro-credit schemes should target women’s small entrepreneurship in rural and urban areas. They should place women as the direct borrowing groups to support their direct participation in transformation of their lives. These programs can also promote gender sensitive entrepreneurship relevant and flexible to the social structure of each community.

•

There is a serious need to address the rights of women to the economic decision making within household and their unpaid work through nationwide campaigns. While other factors count, women’s access to capital can reduce poverty and improve their wellbeing at the household level. Economic empowerment of women will considerably contribute to the economic development and the society’s wellbeing as whole.

Politics: • Creation of women social movement can play a formative role in connecting the national and local political entities of women. Establishment of women’s political organizations in both national and sub-national levels can support the political representation of women in the community and their share of power in the local power structure. These organizations can additionally support the establishment of women networks that can contribute to: building social capital in community; supporting creation of civil society and in that connection the process of democratization; giving political voice to women - from all walks of life- as individuals and groups; and advocating for the women’s needs and rights. Cross-sectoral Themes: • The leadership of women should be addressed by periodic trainings at organization and community levels, not merely improving their decision making abilities, but equipping them with skills to steadily lead the change and manage the process of change in society. •

A national level Women Research Center should be established to conduct periodical empirical studies for women in order to provide realistic basis for the policy decision making toward women. This center should apply approaches

Nadia Behboodi 7 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------such as action research, and community research by women and men to increase their participation and control over knowledge.5 •

Participation to promote women empowerment should be more than a process of consultation over decisions that were already made somewhere else. Developmental programs targeting women’s empowerment should encourage their participation from the process of planning to implementation and evaluation. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) should be used as an instrumental tool connecting rural women to the mainstream development.

.

5

“is research that each of us can do on our own practice, that “we” (any team or family or informal community of practice) can do to improve its practice, or that larger organizations or institutions can conduct on themselves, assisted or guided by professional researchers, with the aim of improving their strategies, practices, and knowledge of the environments within which they practice.” http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/

Nadia Behboodi 8 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ANDS GBV HDR IDP IPRSP ISI MDGs PDPA PRA SCA WDO

Afghanistan National Development Strategy Gender Based Violence Human Development Report Internally Displaced People Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Inter Service Intelligence Millennium Development Report People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan Participatory Rural Appraisal Swedish Committee for Afghanistan Women Democratic Organization

GLOSSARY Burqa

All-enveloping veil, which covers a woman from head to foot with only a small lace to look through

Jjihad

Etymological meaning is 'an effort directed towards a

determined objective’. The struggle against the PDPA and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was termed a Jihad, popularly translated as 'holy war'.

Khaleq

People

Khan

Landlord

Madrassa

Institution where Islamic sciences are taught, i.e. religious school

Mahram

Permitted' category of relatives of opposite sex, i.e. either one's spouse or close relatives with whom sexual relations are forbidden.

Mujahiddin

One who partakes in jihad. The Afghan resistance fighters to the PDPA government and the Soviet occupation were called and called themselves “Mujahiddin”

Parcham

Banner

Purdah

It is meant to separate the world of women from that of men through various code of behavior

Nadia Behboodi 9 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Taliban

Talib is an Arabic word meaning “one who is seeking” but the word has to mean “someone who is seeking religious knowledge”

A.INTRODUCTION AND LEARNING OBJECTIVE The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country one third of which are mountains. The Hindu Kush mountain range divides the country into south and north Afghanistan. According to census, the overall settled population estimated as 23.6 millions of which 78% reside in rural areas (CSO, 2006). 6 The main ethnic groups are Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek, Aimak, Turkmen, and Baloch.7 Afghanistan has 1.5 million nomads (Kochi), over 5 millions refugees out of the country and a considerable number of internally displaced people. Entire population is Muslim, 80%-85% are Sunni, and 15%-20% are Shiite (Library of Congress, 2006, PP.4-6). The official languages of the country declared as Pushto and Dari in Constitutions (2004, P.4). Suffering from more than two decades of armed conflict, Afghanistan has hardly experienced any significant span of stability due to various internal and external conflict lines, under different motives such as: religion, ethnicity, language, geography, political division and modernization. All these resulted in the socioeconomic and sociopolitical mayhem of the country and introduced such forms of multifaceted poverty and inequalities that require long-term recovery. In a conflict-ridden country, the study of poverty and inequality is not possible without exploring its root causes. Studies reveal that historical events such as conflict, insecurity, political instability and economy of war play a vital role in this discourse. This study, therefore, focuses on the account of war on poverty and gender inequalities in Afghanistan. It also analyzes the contemporary national policies to ensure that gender inequalities and poverty are addressed through gender-inclusive approaches. While this paper examines the causation of the overall poverty in the country, concentrating on it at the policy level and recommendation for the way forward will be voluminous. For the purpose of streamlining this study, the author rather addresses the women in poverty and gender inequalities that in turn contribute to the national level poverty alleviation.8 Since almost all documental resources of country were looted and destroyed during conflict, this study will additionally fill the knowledge gap about women’s lives in the 6

The data was taken from online databases of Afghanistan census available at www.cso.gov.af

7

The composition of different ethnic groups: Pashtun, 42%; Tajik, 27%; Hazara, 9 %; Uzbek, 9%; Aimak, 4%; Turkmen, 3 %; and Baloch, 2%. Another largest group is nomadic groups “Kuchis” that counts for 1.5 million. 8

The study of overall poverty was necessary as the root causes of women poverty and their inequalities in accessing and utilization of resources, opportunities, and services ingrained in the national level poverty.

Nadia Behboodi 10 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------pre-conflict, during conflict, and post-conflict era. It will provide a synthesized version of analysis about women’s situation in the political, social, educational, cultural and economic fabrics of society.

A.1 Learning Objective: The overarching objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of factors underpinning the prevailing poverty and gender inequalities in the country; and to make recommendations with a view to tackling them through gender inclusive strategies.

A.2 Hypotheses: This paper hypothesizes the following: 1. Destabilization of the socioeconomic and sociopolitical structures during conflict have deepened poverty in the country. 2. Conflict systematically widened gender inequalities in Afghanistan with a concomitant severity of poverty among women.

A.3 Methodology: This is a desk study of internal and external documents available on Afghanistan. The author starts with an exhaustive literature review on conflict in general; causalities, casualties, consequences on human rights, human development, gender and poverty. It also encompasses political, economic, and factors such as exploitation of natural resources as an engine fueling the conflict and insecurity. The study attempts to address the following question 1.1 How did the conflict devastate the livelihood resources for people in both urban and rural areas in Afghanistan? 1.2 How were the economic coping mechanisms and consumption ended/reduced during years of conflicts? 1.3 How people were denied the access to service delivery? 2.1 To what extent were the preexisting cultural and institutional inequalities intensified against women during conflict? 2.2 To what degree did deterioration in the socioeconomic conditions of women, increase their vulnerability to poverty and gender inequality? This paper is categorized into four areas of analysis: I. Analysis of the country’s present poverty and inequalities: presentation of the national level of poverty and inequality indicators under the sustainable development problem description.

Nadia Behboodi 11 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------II. Sociopolitical and socioeconomic analysis of war: impact of war during different regimes: Communists, Mujahiddin and Taliban III. Sociocultural and socioeconomic analysis of women’s lives: a historical and analytical presentation of women’s position in Afghan society and the varied impact of war on their lives in the context of education, economic and politics. IV. Analysis of contemporary policies: two key national strategies are selected: 1) Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS); and 2) Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP) for review plus analysis to bring the study up to date. The absence of adequate quantitative testimonies restricting balanced presentation of data in some parts; exclusion of the Afghan refugee women in the neighboring countries, and nomads are the limitations of this study. This paper was written during my second year of advanced studies at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. Since my master paper describes the multidimensional features of women’s lives in Afghanistan, my advanced studies were aimed at gaining theoretical and analytical skills with respect to the gender dimension of conflict, political economy, poverty, and development. It further served my personal objectives of exploring why gender liberalization did not move forward even though it started in 1883; and which kind of measurements should be undertaken accelerating it in today’s Afghanistan. Throughout the course of academic year 2006-2007, I enormously benefited from attending the courses on gender and development; the social policy theory and practice; the political economy and measurement of income inequality, social capital, and empowerment in development countries; youths’ national and international policies, and management of development. Among many activities, my participation in the analysis of developmental policies - income and gender inequalities- in developing countries; the women’s political and economic empowerment and its connection with the poverty alleviation; and proposing youth’s development models for Afghanistan drastically assisted me to achieve my objectives.

B.DESCRIPTION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROBLEM The history of Afghanistan in 20th century has been marked by the Soviet occupation, civil war, and extremist Islamic movement (Taliban) each of which imposed heavy costs in terms of mass destruction of urban and rural communities. The macro and micro level impacts of different crisis in Afghanistan resulted in long-term suffering of people. Constant targeting and eroding of fundamental intuitions - educational, political, legal, and economic - generated sever forms of poverty and gender inequality that seriously challenge its development. As reflected in (Exhibit 1), 70% of population lives below the poverty line. Human poverty is a multidimensional problem in Afghanistan that includes: inequalities in

Nadia Behboodi 12 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------productive assets and access to services; poor nutrition, health care, and education; weak social protection, decent work, and sustainable livelihood; vulnerability to macro and micro level risks; political marginalization; gender inequalities; and human displacement. The share of annual income stands at 1,182 $ for men and 402$ for women at the national level. Low income and poor standards of living for poor are associated with poor health, education, and nutrition which in turn reduced their economic productivity and thereby directly or indirectly contribute to the slower growth of economy.

Using food as proxy for the variables in income, the poorest 20% spends four times more on food than 20% richest at the country level. Nearly 21% of rural population consumes less than 2,070 kilocalories per person per day. Twenty percent of rural population are extremely poor and chronically food insecure. Another 60% are living in poverty or close to poverty lacking dietary diversity (NHDR, 2004, PP. 34-36). The survival indicators of Afghanistan are one the worst in the world. Every 30 minute, a pregnant woman dies due to pregnancy complications. The delivery of only 1 out of 20 babies is attended by the trained birth attendant (Nawa, n.b. P.3). 9 Yearly, 230,000 children under five years die due to the most preventable and curable diseases (Best Estimate, 2005, P. 51) Lack of adequate medical professional staff and health facilities is a major problem increasing the probability of high mortality rates in Afghanistan. According to the World Bank report, only 40% of population has access to health facilities (2005, P.27). The ratio of basic health facilities to population is generally worse with noticeable regional differences; one health facility per 40,000 population in Central and East regions and one per 100,000 populations in South. Thirty eight percent of rural districts do not have access to any basic health facility (World Bank, 2005, P.23). The erosion of the previous health infrastructure and slow progress in reconstruction and installation of new facilities are strongly associated with insecurity in Afghanistan. Exhibit.1 Development and Poverty Indicators Indicators life expectancy at birth

Value 44.5 years (45 female, 44 male)

literacy rate (age 15 years and above)

28.7% adult (43.2% male and 14.1% female) US$ 190

GDP per capita (Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) of the adjusted income)10 Proportion of people living below poverty line (2$/day)

70% of population

Share in economic active population

70% male and 30% female

Estimated earned income (PPP US$)

1,182 US$ for man and US$ 402 for women 40%

Proportion of population with access to safe drinking water source Maternal mortality rate Infant mortality rate 9

1,600-2200/100,000 life births 115/1,000 life birth

Source (National Human Development Report [NHDI], 2004, P. 275) (NHDI, 2004, P. 257) (NHDI, 2004, P. 257) (Securing Afghanistan’s Future Report, 2004, P.3) (NHDR, 2004, P.275) (NHDR, 2004, P.275) Best Estimate, 2005, P. 32). (UNICEF/CDS, 2002, P. 4)11 (Multiple Indicator

This document lacks the publishing date. Purchasing power parity (PPP): this theory enables us to understand the distinction between nominal and real exchange rates. Exchange rates fluctuate according to many factors including speculation and so will not give a real measure of a country’s relative worth, PPP attempts to overcome this problem. 10

Nadia Behboodi 13 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Under five mortality rate Share of income and consumption for 20% poorest

172/1,000 life birth 6%

Share of income and consumption for 20% richest

43%

Cluster Survey [MICS], 2003, P.11) (MICS, 2003, P.11) (National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment [NRVA], 2003, P.7) (NRVA, 2003, P.7)

Gender disparities are predominant in all sectors and this not only leads to gender inequalities, but also affects the overall development of the country. Only 14 % of all women (age 15+ yrs) are literate. Stagnation in their educational development during conflict has compromised their active participation in other fields and has entirely limited their growth in professional work. A mere 30% of women population is engaged in economic activities (mainly in agriculture); vast majority of them are unpaid labor. Their wage gaps in the formal economy (administrative work) stands at 66% lower than men. Women’s underdevelopment increasingly affects the size of work force required in different sectors. The market economy is completely men-driven; unavailability of women labor and women entrepreneurship can be strongly realized in all businesses. Lack of access to market and capital has deprived them from benefiting from contemporary investment regime available in the private sector. Furthermore, lack of access to capital prevents women to reach their full potential to undertake responsibility in the economic growth of their countries and poverty reduction. The country’s economic structure is mainly dominated by agriculture. The share of GDP from different sectors counts for 27% cereal, 35% opium economy, 9% manufacturing, 8% transport, telecom and power, 3% public administration, 6% trade, 4% livestock, 3% reconstruction, and small portion for other economic activities. Eighty to ninety percent of economic activities take place in the informal sector of economy that poses a big challenge to the formal sector economic growth (World Bank, 2004, P.5). Given the fact that the Afghan informal economy is mainly driven by opium production, its outputs create a criminalized environment which aggravates security for the overall development. In comparison to 178 countries worldwide, Afghanistan is placed at the ranking of 173 in its Human Development Index (HDI) (NHDI, 2004, P.v). Comparing to the Least Developed Countries (LDC), it is 29% below the average of LDC for 41 development indicators (Best Estimate, 2005, P.58).12 At an international level comparison, it is ranked at 94 for Human Poverty Index (HPI), and 143 for Gender Development Index (GDI) (NHDI, 2004, P.18). Among various factors placing Afghanistan in the current ranking, more than 20 years of conflict played a crucial role that is going to be explained in details throughout this paper.

C.LITERATURE REVIEW 11

This study was carried out base on a sample from four districts in four different provinces (one district per province). But, with expansion factors, the calculation provided a national estimate. 12

See page 58 of Best Estimate report for the details of indicators

Nadia Behboodi 14 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Understanding poverty and gender inequalities involves the background analysis of situations leading to their status quo. Countries with conflict history should put a close lens on the conflict profile; causes, actors, and dynamics to determine to what extent they took part in exacerbating poverty and unbalancing gender roles. There is a growing body of literature on the conflict in the 20 th century ranging from its typology to its micro and macro level impacts on the wellbeing of states and nations. This literature review pinpoints how women and poor get vulnerable while conflict is fading away the structures and principles of a society. It specifically elucidates the impacts of armed and violent conflict on: survival, gender, human rights, poverty, and human development. It also explicates the political economy of war and exploitation of the natural resources as a tool for the continuation of war.

C.1 Conflict Definition Conflict has been defined in variety of ways as following: Goodhand and Hulme defined it as: The struggle between individuals and groups over power and scarce resources where the goal of the belligerents is to force the superiority of their values and claims over that of others (1999, P.14). Etienne C. Hirsch defined conflict as; The result of the interaction in the political, economic and social instabilities, frequently stemming from the bad governance, failed economic policies and inappropriate development programs which have exacerbated ethnic or religious differences ( Etienne C. Hirsch, 1996b:biii cited in Duffield, 2001, P.38).13 The Peace and Conflict Research unit of Uppsala University defines conflict as: Armed conflict is a contested incompatibility that concerns government and/or territory where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is the government of a state, results in at least 25 battle-related deaths in one calendar year (Available at http://www.pcr.uu.se/database/definitions_all.htm). 14

C.2 Typology of war As described by Byrne, the war is divided into two categories: “International conflicts” and “Intra-state war” (1996, PP 4-6). International conflicts refer to incursion and conquest of one state over another or where more than two states involve at war. They are high-profile wars in which heavy weaponry is used by armies. These wars potentially bring about fatalities, destruction of infrastructure, political and social structures, and environmental degradation through militarization. The gender-relations 13

The above quote extracted from the Book “Global Governance and the New War” by Mark Duffield. This book integrated in the reading package of the “Development in Conflict Situations” course. The original citation was not found in the reference of the book, Duffield, M. (2001), Global Governance and the New Wars: The Merging of Development and Security, Palgrave Macmillan , London 14 This definition has been broadly used in conflict studies. See Raleigh and Gleditsch (2005), Collier and et al., 2006), and Lacina (2004)

Nadia Behboodi 15 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------are also affected through militarization of state, always ending up with conservative attitudes toward gender. It often includes restriction over women’s movement, expression and isolation from social activities (Byrne, 1996, P.5). The intra-state war is led by a group or groups who stride for sovereignty or renovation. This war does not involve formal military operation, but of the informal militia. Therefore, distinction between civilians and armed forces remains blurry. Gender relations are affected through economic, physical and emotional insecurities (Byrne, 1996, P. 5).

C.3 Conflict: Impact on Civilian’s Survival Conflict affects the survival of civilians both indirectly and directly. Attacking the opposition’s sites, either government or militia’ where ordinary people reside, victimizes civilians as indirect targets. However, their deliberate killings for political and economic gains make them direct target of hostilities. On one hand the physical violence and on the other the mental and psychological traumas resulting from the personal and social insecurities weaken their ability to survive during the armed conflict. According to El-Bushra and Piza-Lopez (as cited in Byrne, 1996, P.2), the trend in armed conflict and its impact over civilians has followed an upward slope since First World War. In the First World War, the casualties reported for civilians were only 5% while it reached 50% during Second World War and 95% in the major contemporary conflicts (1993, P. 6). As reported by the Human Development Report, since 1990, nearly 3 million people have lost their lives in armed conflicts in developing countries (2005.P.151). Since the middle of 20th century, the nature of armed conflict has changed to the violent conflicts resulting in millions of deaths. For instance, since start of Sudan’s conflict, 1.5 million people; in Somalia since 1988 some 300,000 people; and in Burundi since 1997, two hundred thousands people were killed (Fisas, 2004, cited in Torres, 2005, Para. 3). Besides the direct killing, the health consequences of armed conflict further endanger the survival rate of civilians by displacement of populations, the breakdown of health and social services, and increased risk of diseases transmission. This indirect impact keeps going even after conflict is ended (Murray, King, Lopez, Tomijima, & Krug, 2002, PP. 346-9)

C.4 Conflict: Impact on Gender While conflict affects both men and women as civilians, each conflict has different impact on men and women based on gender relations, gender ideology and gender power balance (Byrne, 1996. P.22). In any society, the gender relation is influenced by the mixture of the political, cultural and economic structures and therefore gender relation is affected by these structures prior to the conflict. However, as El Jack expressed, the conflict affects it in many ways such as inequality in accessing the resources and opportunities, participating in decision making and gendered activities (2003, P.11).

Nadia Behboodi 16 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The susceptibility of women to armed conflict differs from that of men. Byrne asserted that men tolerate the pressure of being killed in the conflict either as soldier or warriors; while, women face the burden of safeguarding the wellbeing of family when their breadwinners are engaged in war or killed. On one hand, it imbalances the sex ratio of women to men and on the other increases the proportion of female headed households. Since many of the wars take place in the south (developing countries), women are culturally and economically dependent to men. The loss of their men forces their involvement in the economic activities and economic resources that are controlled by men in an absolute insecure environment. Despite the pressure of being insecure, lack of their skills to benefit from those economic activities is another factor escalating their vulnerability. Therefore, women during conflict are not only economically double hit, but are prone to physical and mental violence and abuse (1996. PP 25-32). The vulnerability of men and women to the conflict grows when militarization increases (Byrne, 1996. P.22). According to El Jack, the two main impact of militarized conflict on gender are forced displacement and gender based violence (GBV). Both are not the inevitable outcomes of conflict, rather the deliberate strategies of combatants to destabilize communities (2003, P.3). Displacement leads to shift in the gendered role and responsibilities for both men and women. Demographics changes due to the conflict and women become responsible for the household. Displacement disproportionately disadvantages women as it reduces their access to resources and leads to social exclusion. Therefore, the emotional violence preoccupies their physiological health. (El Jake 2003, P.15). Under GBV, physical and sexual violence particularly toward women and children occur. The violent sexual abuse against women takes place based on two reasons: first, to take advantage of their biological sexual identities; second, to use it as a means to break down the resistance of oppositions (el Bushra and Piza Lopez, 1993: 26). Sexual exploitation not only remains as a threat to women dignity, but also can deteriorate their health and survival through transmission of deceases such as HIV/AIDs (HDR, 2005, P.160).

C.5 Conflict: Impact on Human Rights and Human Development All conflicts involve transgression of human rights in one way or another: rights to survival, to security and protection, to education and health, and political and economic. It has been widely accepted that once violent conflict starts, it can threaten the life of entire residents of a country. As stated by Kofi Annan, “what begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations” (HDR, 2005, P. 150). It not only violates human rights, but also withholds entire human development process. The 2005 HDR analysis claimed that nine out of ten countries with the lowest Human Development Index in the world are those who since 1990 have undergone the violent conflict at some point (P.151). The impact of conflict on human development is straightforward. According to UNDP conflict prevention guidance note, human development is all about expanding human choices, and security allows their safely fulfillment (2004. P.13). It is armed conflict that restricts fulfillment of those options among human leading to asymmetries in society. The impact of the armed conflict on the following fundamental elements of human development can clearly explain the hindrance.

Nadia Behboodi 17 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Denies the possibility to live a long and healthy life: Armed groups targets individuals and groups to eliminate them. In this process, the most vulnerable are the one ill-prepared to bare the attacks. Women, minority, rural population and poor remain in the heart of these attacks. Even if they survive the armed conflict, they endure destitution and low propensity to survival during post-war (2004. P.15). Access to health facilities is another elemental part of human development that is widely disrupted by the armed conflict. Conflict reduces the resistance of people against diseases: malnutrition, diarrhoeal diseases, respiratory infection, malaria, measles, and tuberculosis. Additionally, the vulnerability of people increases due to injuries and disabilities. Conflict also influences the spread of HID/AIDs through sexual violation. Health facilities are considered as the eligible military target during conflict. For example in Mozambique, approximately half of all health facilities were looted and the area was mined to save the conflict line (HDR, 2005, P.160). 2. Denies the option for knowledge: As reflected in HDR, education is the fundamental element of human development. Besides being one of the basic human rights and important factor in building human capital, education opens the threshold for the progress in other areas such as, health, nutrition, institutions, nation building and democracy (2005, P.160). During conflict the armed groups interact with people and state based on the forces. Guns are used to save resources. Therefore, knowledge and education gains little relative value. Youth and some disadvantaged groups prefer guns as sign of status over school. Additionally, the conflict can destroy the education infrastructure, reduce the expenditure on education, and create barriers for the children to attend the school. The overall insecurity of the conflict-ridden communities increases the personal risk for all, but particular for girls to pursue their education (2005, P.159). During conflict, the education elites such as teachers, writers, political leaders, artists and journalists are slaughtered; or they flee the country because they are target. Some who remain turn their back to conflict resolution or peace building. This void is therefore filled by the extremist view exacerbating the situation. Such situation engrosses people for years in conflict and deprives them from access to school. The involvement in conflict may also divert resources from the social system toward military spending. The impediment in human development in long-run has negative impact on the society; it particularly preserves the poverty unchanged. 3. Denies the option for a decent life: Calculation of damages produced by conflict is highly attributed to the permanently traumatized people. However, loss of productivity by falling international image, loss of international investment, aid, and tourism take away the features of decent life from a society. Armed conflict takes short time to destroy what takes generations to build such as factories, schools, roads, and territorial unity. It has tremendous effects on both availability and productivity of factors by destroying

Nadia Behboodi 18 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------infrastructure, human capital, and deters investment. At individual level it affects trust, confidence and leadership; and at society level, it affects every sort of capital. It moreover diverts productive investment from government and leads to the flights of educated professionals. It is the most suitable time for the dominant groups to monopolize all resources and services, and introduce unjust and unequal systems in society. (2004, P.13).

C. 6 Conflict: Impact on Poverty Various studies reflected a mutual direct and indirect correlation between poverty and violent conflicts. As expressed in PRSP, “conflict is an integral part of the experience of poverty” (Ames, Brown, Devarajan, & Izquierdo, 2000, P.343). Goodhand also claimed the same correlation and its macro and micro level impacts on the poverty. Nonetheless, according to him, the degree of impact differs according to other variables such as, gender, age, and ethnicity. Poverty alone is not sufficient to cause conflict as poor people do not have political voice. But, when it moves in parallel with social exclusion and structural inequalities, more often greed and grievance, it raises the tendency of a society to violent conflict. (2001, pp. 4-5) According to him, the impact of war on poverty is also different based on its nature, duration and the economic and social structures of a society. However, one should bear in mind that the persistent internal conflicts result in chronic poverty. “These pervasive conflicts interweave with other societal catastrophes such as, weak governance, humanitarian crisis, warlordism, and lack of development that complicate breaking the cycle of conflict.” (2001, PP. 4-5) Furthermore, purposeful destruction of livelihood and violation of people rights to generate and have access to sufficient livelihood is another reason that raises proclivity to poverty. For instance in Afghanistan during Soviet Union invasion, the irrigation system was intentionally attacked in order to interrupt the food production for the Mujahiddin (2001, P.13). Ruined livelihood by armed conflict always arrives to the involuntary migration which deepens the vulnerability of people to poverty.

C.7 Political Economy of War Despite the conventional theories about nature and impact of national and transnational war, the political economy of war attracted great attention in the 20th century (Goodhand, 2001, P.8). It has been widely accepted that conflict creates different economies that can affect the people’s lives in variety of ways. Collinson et al. (2002) claimed that three types of economy develop during conflict: The war economy, the parallel or shadow economy, and the coping or survival economy (P.5). According to her, these three types are not exclusively different from each other. All of them involve different categories: actors, motivation and incentive, key activities and commodities, and impact (2002, P.8). Keen (as cited in Collinson, Bhatia, Evans, Fanthorpe, Goodhand and Jackson, 2002, P.2) found out that armed conflict creates war economies that are either underpinned by regime to weaken the power of oppositions or by some groups to control the resources for their economic interests. In such situation, the powerful groups increase violence because they do not want to lose their access over resources. At the same time, ordinary people due to their fear of political and economic insecurities might turn to violence.

Nadia Behboodi 19 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Therefore, the applications of “need” and “greed” stimulate continuation of the conflict (1998, PP. 11-12). On the regionalization of the war economies, Duffield (2001) claimed that conflict provides environment for emergence of war economies that is often centered in a region controlled by the militants.15 Some of the warriors profit by looting others, while others from illicit economic activities (P. 24). Moreover, according to him (as cited in Goodhand, 2001, P.8) the link between the Political Complex Emergencies (PCEs) and the process of state’s power decline results in creation of multiple actors and authorities, and develops the network of the parallel economy (Para.12). 16 Parallel economy has many implications on the stability of country and the formal economy. Byrne (1996) asserted that one of the important motives of war is “parallel economy”. It emerges as a consequence of war and is also the major reason for its persistence because it fuels the war (P. 7).17 It is the economy that is out of control of government (when formal economy declines) and can therefore threatens the security of public wellbeing and their assets. It is the economy that is in hand of privileged political elites or groups who more often confiscate the properties of those who lack political voice. The segregation of power between politically strong and politically weak plus destitution of people increases the probability of war to continue. Therefore, as Collinson suggested, a political economy approach is important to identify how the power relations and wealth distribution generate crisis and vulnerability in war-prone societies (2002, P.1).

C.8 Exploitation of Natural Resources Many empirical studies illustrate the role of natural resources in the armed conflict by increasing the competition of groups to have access to the precious natural resources, particularly, as described by Billon, the scarce (renewable resources) and abundance (non-renewable resources) (2001, PP. 562-563). According to him, scarcity and abundance can raise the tendency toward violent conflict because people struggle to access resources in order to survive either politically or economically. After the end of Cold War when the international aid declined to support the war, many parties in war explored private funding sources to support their conflicts. Hence, in many resource rich countries, the illegal extraction of the natural resources became the main financial support for the continuation of war (2001, P. 265). Availability of international trading network is another factor that changes the nature into tradable commodities. It not just augments exploitation of natural resources by militia, but also influences engagement of individuals in this business. Therefore, a shift from ‘political need” to the “private economic agenda” increases the likelihood of “greed-driven conflicts.” (2001, PP. 563564). This type of conflict always involves deliberate deterioration of security; resistance against peace building; domination and superiority of elites and certain

15

For instance in Afghanistan the cultivation of opium started in Helmand province in the Southern part of the country. Later on the Southern region became the center for drug economy, armed smuggling and trafficking of illicit goods between Afghanistan and neighboring countries. 16 “The term Complex Political Emergency (CPE) has been coined to describe what are essentially hybrid conflicts that combine transnational and internal characteristics. CPE, is not an analytical tool but a descriptive category which provides a short hand expression for many, often dissimilar conflicts” (J. Goodhand, 2001, P.7) 17

For instance, the Afghan parallel economy “opium economy” that emerged due to collapse of rural agrarian economy. However, it has been controlled by war militants in order to cover the cost of war.

Nadia Behboodi 20 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------group; and marginalization of vast majority from equal access to and utilization of resources. Conclusion Conflict systematically erodes the foundations of societies. Many countries in conflict have experienced long-enduring underdevelopment in which the gender discrimination and poverty have been the main outcomes. Conflict entails sever forms of emergencies victimizing civilians’ lives and rendering their development. The direct effects of conflict on the destruction of productive factors, capital (human, physical, intellectual, productive, institutional) and infrastructure provides welcoming opportunities for poverty and structural inequalities. Conflict decelerates the process of human development, the consequences of which in long-run deprive people from the different economic opportunities and decent work New forms of economy emerges benefiting dominators, but lead to the marginalization of majority. Control of economic resources and opportunities, including illegal exploitation of natural resources, breeds the network of new elites and warrior. They deliberately oppose peace building for the purpose of personal gains. As a result, overall civilians, but in particular, poor people, women, ethnic minority, and rural population stay on the horizon of loss during armed conflict.

D.SOCIOPOLITICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC ANALYSIS In order to have a fundamental understanding of prevailing poverty and gender inequalities in Afghanistan, measuring the impact of distinct phases of Afghan war on sociopolitical and socioeconomic features of the country is necessary. This analysis provides a background on how deterioration and manipulation of the social, political and economic situations since late 1970s shaped the underdevelopment elements of Afghanistan. I am going to begin from the Russian invasion to the Mujahiddin’s empowerment, and lastly the Taliban despotic regime.

D.1. Russian Occupation (1978-1987) Afghanistan was one of the most peaceful countries in Asia for the fifty years of 20th century, 1929-1978. It evaded war in both the Second World War and with the neighboring countries. With the wave of Marxist rebellion (the Marxist political ideologies and economic theories) in late 1970s, the stability evaporated and mass killings and violence dominated the country for more than two decades. It was the starting point of long enduring crisis that retarded development (Maley, 2002, P.1). The Russian occupation of Afghanistan had very deep roots stemming from Cold War era. Afghanistan during 19th century titled as the buffer-state between Czarist Russia and British imperialism (Grant, 1980, Para.4). Contestation between communism and imperialism and their expansionist strategies in the Central Asia led to the pervasive interest of these two superpowers in Afghanistan. Russia’s concentration on Afghanistan was the main source of Britain’s concern in the British Indian colony. As a driving force, it led to the three Angola-Afghan wars which occurred during 1838 – 1919, lastly ended with demarcating Afghanistan’s international boundaries (Goodson, 2001, PP 31-35).

Nadia Behboodi 21 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------According to Goodson, Russia’s interest grew in Afghanistan based on two strategic goals: 1) Soviet’s access to the warm-water ports of Indian Ocean which was controlled by the British, and 2) Russia’s expansionist theories in Central Asia where Afghanistan, geopolitically, had offered incredible opportunities (2001, P.32). Soviet used four methods in order to sweep Afghanistan into its orbit: diplomatic pressure, economic support, military assistance and forces, and political manipulation. Diplomatic: As Goodson pointed out, Russia’s first potent penetration of supremacy started with the recognition of Afghanistan as a sovereign state after the third Angola-Afghan war in 1919. In 1921 the first treaty of friendship signed by two countries in which they requested establishment of consulate in both countries. The technical support of the Soviet for establishment of the telegraph line between Kabul and Russia was further emphasized in this treaty. The treaty of Neutrality and Nonaggression signed in 1926 that again sought Soviet’s technical assistance for building the air service between Kabul and Moscow (2001, P.46). Economic: The economic penetration which was based on a tale strategy of economic development in Afghanistan was designed to increase the Afghan economy dependency on USSR (Goodson, 2001, P.50). Economic support started with the technical assistance, building transportation system (air services and constructing road between Kabul and North of the country), and credits to Afghanistan. In 1978, cumulatively US$ 1.265 billion economic financial aid provided to Afghanistan (Bradsher.1999, P.2 cited in Maley, 2002, P.21). Meanwhile, some 2000 Soviet technical and economic exports deployed in Afghanistan to promote those industries which can sell their outputs such as, fruit and natural gas directly to USSR. Involvement of the Soviet’s exports in the process of planning and policy development for the advancement of Afghanistan’s economy was another strategy that further implanted Russia’s tactics into country’s economy. Therefore, the economy became dependent to the Soviet support (Maley, 2002, P.21). Military: In addition to friendly diplomatic posture and massive economic aid, the Soviet parlayed a new opening through modernization of army forces in Afghanistan. Bradsher (as cited in Maley, 2002, P. 21) pointed out the surge in the military support during 1955-56 which was composed of the shipment of Russian weaponry to Afghanistan; training of 3,725 Afghan military personnel in USSR; and loan of US$ 32.4 million for military services (1985, P.28). According to him, by 1978, the size of army forces grew almost threefold, from 44,000 to 100,000 men, an air forces of 10,000 equipped with moderately modern Soviet weaponry, and 30,000 paramilitary central police (Bradsher as cited in Goodson 2001, P.51). This military penetration was aimed to increase the Soviet potential for the political leverage and lulling people into a false sense of security. Political Manipulation: Soviet subtly targeted the young urban students for the training in USSR academic institutions. The strategic vision behind this stride lied in creating Afghan doctrines that will make possible the soviet’s coup in the later stage. Five thousands students admitted into Soviet’s institutions, ,1600 in technical schools and 3,725 in military systems overpowering USSR presence in Afghanistan before invasion (Goodson, 2001, P.51). The growth of the communist parties (Khalq and Parcham) in Afghanistan under the influence of USSR caused instability in the political system of the country. According to Maley these Soviet-backed factions who were established among the urban young people led to the revolution against the Daoud’s regime. Afghan-communists who lacked the leadership capacity became the state’s ruler.

While the Soviet Union occupation affected the overall structure of the country, it led to the catastrophic changes in the political and economic structures of Afghanistan. On the political side, both urban and rural political structure underwent radical change. Within government (cabinet, parliament and government departments mostly urban-based), the growing conflict between Khalq and Parchem (communist-supported parties) led to the greed-driven struggles over power. In a period of 2 years, 3 times power shifted among these parties. This turbulence never let a unified nation-wide political strategy to constructively support the embracement of the new political reform in the country. The radical members of this regime coercively expected the civilian, particularly in provinces, to comply with and act upon the reform was being led by the government. This reform included: land reform, illiteracy campaigns, education of women, conscription and census data collection (Rubin, 2002, PP.34-37).

Nadia Behboodi 22 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The resistance against this regime initially was not an Islamic revolution. It was rather a discontent between Kabul-based elite -who controlled the state’s apparatus- and the local power holders (landlords and khans) whom on the state relied for patronage, but had pushed them to the margins of national power (Rubin, 2002, PP. 185-188). Since the old regime had favored these local power holders, they were quite influential in the provinces and regions. Therefore, they were able to act as the state’s broker with officially recognized segments of the society. These Influential figures were able to arrange movements and domestic insurrection especially in the tribal areas. Another factor counted equally important to uprising was the sensitivity of the religious leaders to liberalization. Afghanistan has been a traditionalist society in which liberalization has always been resisted under the several interpretations, utmost loss of Islamic and cultural values (see exhibit 3). Given that these religious leaders were also one of the most influential actors in the power structure of rural communities, they were able to incite the rural residents against government reform, particularly in regards to women’s education and their presence in public. Exhibit.3 Perception of liberalization in Afghan Society Westernization Lose of tradition Liberalization Distance from Islam Penetration of non-Islamic values

Lack of a strong leadership to manage the domestic’s grievance made the government request the military support from USSR to control the internal conflicts. In the absence of an effective and cautious diplomatic relationship of the country with Russia, political instability among communist parties, growing domestic opportunities in the country side, and finally the divergent social structure of the country (power relations, culture and ethnicity), the relationship between Afghanistan and Russia soon changed from a coop to invasion (Rubin, 2002, PP.25-36). In the country side, the tension and conflict roused to the extent that the government lost its control over the countryside resulting in wide-spread domination of Mujahiddin. Before war, these areas had an established system in which the land lords, religious leaders, and tribal leaders formed the triangle of power working as decision making entity. Emergence of this new dominant groups ‘Mujahiddin’ led to a massive power vacuum in the former power structure of rural societies. The shift in the power from those elders to younger radical Mojaheedin coercively introduced radical Islamic ideology into the political structure of the country and allowed its leadership by the Mujahiddin commanders (Swanström and Cornell, 2005, P.3). On the economic side, before explaining the damages brought bout by the Soviet Union invasion, I would like to walk you through a brief description of economic situation in the country before 1970s. Even though Afghanistan was one the poor countries in the world, the economic stability prevented extreme poverty before war. According to Nyrop and Seekins, the modernization of economy started in 1930 by focusing on

Nadia Behboodi 23 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------trade. Agriculture, livestock and surge in the private sector moved the economy forward (1986, PP. 200-201). Afghanistan in the 1970s had a dual economic structure with a rural subsistence economy on one hand and on the other the urban economy that was dependent on the government income received from market and international aid. USSR (50%) and USA (30%) were two main aid suppliers to Afghanistan. Eighty-five percent of population engaged in agriculture counting for 50% of GDP. By 1978 the country was selfsufficient in food production and agricultural products were the main exports (Jalalzai, 2003, P. 304). After the Russian invasion, due to the same reason, i.e., lack of government’s control over countryside, the Mojaheedin became the main rulers of rural communities. The Soviet anti-Mujahiddin strategies deliberately targeted the destruction of rural livelihood in order to break down the resistance of Mujahiddin. These strategies arrived at: deactivating the irrigations system, destroying the food production system and infrastructure (roads and bridges) to hinder trade, and blindly killing of the rural population.18 Subsequently, this situation produced migration and internal displacements, and ultimately led to the collapse of the rural agrarian economy (Goodhand, 2005, P. 197). The direct effects of the Soviet’s strategies on agriculture were computed in a SCA study (as cited in Rubin, 2002, PP, 227-228). The following figures (see Exhibit 3) were reported by the farmers remaining in Afghanistan in 1987. More than half of them reported bombing their villages, destruction of irrigation and livestock shot. The ramifications of those mischievous actions introduced a 50% decline in the agricultural products. Bombing over villages and districts also paralyzed the trading infrastructure and network among provinces and regions (Jalalzai, 2003, 304). 19 In rural, the agricultural products and pastoral are mainly used for the subsistence and remains the main sources of income generation. Decrease in food production and trade had profound impact on the level of consumption and income gained through agricultural and pastoral resources among rural population. It further declined when insecurity obliged them to migrate internally and flee to Iran and Pakistan. Exhibit.3 Direct Effect of the Soviet’s Strategies on Agriculture

18

My two uncles who were teachers in the Helmand province were killed at their homes by the Redarmy. 19

“Overall agricultural yield declined by 50%. Livestock was seriously depleted. Water reservoirs ran dry. The canal system, which used to meet 85% of the water needs, was badly damaged, and trees and shrubs were cut indiscriminately for fuel that resulted in a widespread deforestation and environmental degradation”. (Jalalzai, 2003, P 304)

Nadia Behboodi 24 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Direct effects of Soviet war on the rural agriculture 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1978

1980

1985

Destruction of Irrigation Destruction of grain store

1986

1987

Burning of crop Livestock shot

Bombing of villages livestock killed by mines

Note: Data for each category was calculated out of 100 % separately in ever year.

Exhibit 4 illustrates nearly one million population internally displaced. While they were relatively safe from the immediate threat of killing in the new locations, they widely suffered from the lack of livelihood resources such as: lack of proper shelter; weak food security; lack of access to facilities (health and education); low resistance against diseases; loss of assets; and low or almost no economic coping mechanism. Exhibit.4 IDPs during Three Phases of War (Total 921,316 IDPs)

20

250000 No. of Families 200000

No. of People

150000

100000

Zabul

Wardak

Uruzgan

Takhar

Sari pul

Samangan

Pakyta

Ruristan

Nimroz

Nangarhar

Laghman

Kunduz

Kunar

Khost

Kandahar

Kabul

Hirat

Hihlmand

Bamyan

Balkh

Baghalan

0

Badakhshan

50000

Source: AIMS (2002), IDP profile for Afghanistan , available at www.aims.org

20

This figure presents total IDPs during more than two decades of war. Migration took place due to intense insecurity in the countryside during 1980s, due to civil war in 1990s and during Taliban due to drought.

Nadia Behboodi 25 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Many peasants joined Mujahiddin’s parties under the name of “holly war”. Most of these poor people stayed and were used as the pawns in the conflict front line. Their death rate was also computed higher than the other fractions among Mujahiddin. The dependents of these peasants (old people, women and children) were multiply hit by destruction of their livelihood, decline in agricultural products, migration, and loss of their breadwinners. The decline in agrarian economy not only affected the peasants, but also the elites whose social prestige had depended on their control over agriculture and pastoral resources (Cicero, 2000, Para. 16). The former elites burst out their hatred in the form of becoming oppressor by joining the warlord’s network with an anti-development agenda. Their justice system identified not only the Russians eligible to punishment, but every Afghan civilian lived under the communist regime. The surge of rocket attacks over Kabul and other cities victimized hundreds of thousands innocents, and ruined their houses and assets. To restore their power, the new elites also began the illegal extraction of the natural resources. Absence of state’s control over mines and forests allowed Mojahidden’s extensive engagement in this trade. For instance, the emerald stone of Afghanistan which is one of the best in the world with an almost equal price to diamond, and the biggest mine of the blue stone lapis lazuli, both in Badakhshan province( Northeastern region which was under the control of Northern alliance) were sold by the local commanders. The Afghanistan high quality wood from the East and Southeastern regions was also sold to the neighboring country in this period. The illegal extraction of natural resources had two main implications. One, it played a strong role in continuation of war as it was a profitable source to fund the expanses of war. Second it begat new elites who have been controlling the economic resources that were to be equally distributed among people. To sustain their control over resources, these groups have manipulated the efforts eliminating inequalities and poverty. As a result, poor people (increased burden on women), utmost, got vulnerable and unable to establish economic stability in the rural parishes. In addition to the rural economy decline, the urban economy also drastically suffered during last years of Russia in Afghanistan. While there were short run gains through the Russian strategies, the government ability was systematically weakened to sustain the poise in the economic system. Since most of the government income was financed by the natural gas export, it played a critical role in the government expenditure. Exhibit 5 illustrates export of natural gas during invasion. One might claim that the export value increased from 47 million US$ to the 314 millions US$. But the fact is that Russia was purchasing gas at 5%-10% lower than the international price. Therefore, from 1979 – 1988, Afghanistan was losing in the gas trade at international level. Furthermore, the exploitation was solely based on the Russian technology and its technical experts. These experts did not expand the local capacity to sustain the system. Therefore, after their withdrawal, in 1988, the gas export declined to zero since the equipment were old and no technical expert existed at the local level to uphold the system.

Nadia Behboodi 26 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Unlike other countries where natural resources are utilized for the economic development; the revenue from gas export was increasingly allocated for the defense under the government expenditure in Afghanistan. After withdrawal of Soviet Union, the decline in gas export forced government to barrow from the central bank in order to cover the defense expenditure. In 1988, the debt from bank covered 43% of the government expenditure. This high level of financed debt on one hand transferred the wealth from the holders of monetary assets to the government and on the other led to inflationary cycle. In 1987-1988 the inflation of consumer price reached to 30-40 percent per year; the food price on open market increased by factor of 5 to 10. This situation badly affected average people in the urban parishes, particularly those with income dependency from the civil services (Robin, 2002, PP. 162-168). The widows of government soldiers and those whose breadwinners were killed by blindly rocket attacks over cities went through various hardship and economic shocks. The vulnerability of urban population to economic crisis grew further when Mujahiddin gained the national power in 1992. Exhibit.5 Export of natural gas Export of Natural Gas (millions U.S. $) 350

305

314

284

300

309

273

250

260

216

205

200 143

150 100 50

76 47

40

39

47 0

0 1975

1976 1977

1978 1979

1980 1981

1982 1983

1984 1985

1986 1987

1988 1989

0 1990

Source of data: (Robin, 2002, P. 162)

D.2. Mujahiddin Empowerment (1992-1994) It has been unrealistically believed that Pakistan government supported Mujahiddin in favor of the holy war “Jihad” against non-Muslims. A closer lens on the ground realities presents a different picture. Two political reasons influenced Pakistan to champion the anti-soviet war: fist the territorial dispute between Afghanistan and Pakistan known as “Pushtunistan dispute”, and second Pakistan hostility and contestation with India. According to Maley, even one decade before the emergence of Pakistan in 1947, the Pushtun ethnic group with their separatist leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, had opposed Jinnah and Muslim League in the Northwest Frontier region of India under a demand for independency. When Pakistan came to an existence, the demarcation of Pakistan split them into two parts, half in Pakistan and anther half in Afghanistan. The Afghan government supported the idea of a sovereign Pushtunistan under Mohammad Daud’s leadership. Due to this reason Afghanistan did not vote for the admission of Pakistan into United Nation System before 1978. Therefore, support of Mujahiddin,

Nadia Behboodi 27 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------particularly Pushtuns, was aimed to avoid the resuscitation of the Pushtonistan dispute, and establishment of Pushtun ally to challenge Pakistan control over Pushtuns and territories in Pakistan (2002, PP. 68-70). Afghanistan before 1978 was politically closer to India than Pakistan. After invasion of Afghanistan by Russia, India stood by Russia accommodating its occupation of Afghanistan (Saikel, 1989 cited in Maly, 2002, P.68)21. In view of the fact that Pakistan had extreme hostile policies against India, its leaders immensely felt insecure from this relationship. Therefore, to protect itself from territorial dispute of Pushtunistan and India, it supported Islamic radicalism in Afghanistan (Maly, 2002, P.68).22

Pakistan’s first intervention started in 1981 with the official recognition of six Afghan Islamic parties as the representative of refugees and Mujahiddin in Pakistan (Rubin, 2002, P.184). It was only then that the resistance against PDPA declared a “religious war”. Foreign powers and organization tried to aid and influence Mujahiddin. These included: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, US (with some of its European allies), China, and to a lesser extent Iraq and Libya.

Source: http://www.ariaye.com/english/history.html

Second intervention directed toward military empowerment of Mujahiddin parties in Pakistan. Pakistan played a catalyst role in this process by utilizing international aid for Afghan refugees and Mujahiddin’s insurrection against the central government of Afghanistan. Almost 5 billion US$ (combined aid of US Saudi Arabia) was supplied to Mujahiddin from 1986 to 1990 to fulfill their military requirements (Rubin, 2002, P. 179). In addition to cash, various types of modern weapons were provided to the Mojahidden’s factions. Under the instruction of ISI, the military supplies also sent to the provinces inside of Afghanistan mainly to the Eastern and Southern regions that were out of government’s control (see Exhibit 6). Distribution of supply was merely subjected to the Pakistanbased planning. The cross-border military empowerment had many implications on security even after overdrew of Russians. It also greatly contributed to the disunity between different Islamic parties after occupation of Kabul in 1992. Utilization of those weapons in urban not only destroyed people’s livelihood, but also the physical capital and infrastructure.23 The weapons trade brought a new application of trade “the drug trade” for both countries (I will explain the poppy cultivation in the Taliban’s region). The tracks 21

The original citation for Siakel was not found in Maly’s book. More insights to this reality have been provided by many authors. For more information refer to Goodson, 2001; Edwards, 2002; Rubin, 2002; and Ewans 2002. 23 Destruction included roads, transportation systems, plants, museums, archives of historical documents, libraries, and university building. 22

Nadia Behboodi 28 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------delivering weapon to Mujahiddin commanders inside Afghanistan became instrumental means in this business. Those tracks could easily cross the border to Pakistan without being checked at the custom points in the border areas. They were able to easily carry opium to Pakistan. This situation led to the growth of regional war economy combined with smuggling of consumer goods, the drug trade and gemstones. The revenue from this trade was invested in the continuation of the war after withdrawal of Russia; it never let the placement of a central leadership to work on the political stability of country.

Exhibit.6 Cross-border Armed Trade in Afghanistan

Badakhshan

Jawz jan

Kun du z Balkh

Takh ar Nor thern Areas

Saman gan

Faryab

Bagh lan

Sari Pul

Nur istan

Badg his

Parw an Kapisa Bamyan

Kabul Wardak

Ghor

Hirat

Kun ar

Laghm an

Nor th West Fr ontier Provin ce

Nang arh ar

Log ar

AJK

Paktya Ghazni

Uruzgan

Farah

Zabul

Kho st

Paktika

Islamabad

Federal Ad ministrative Tribal Area

Hilmand Nimro z

Kand ah ar Pu njab

Balochistan

Delivery of arm supply inside Afghanistan Sin dh

In addition to expanding the military capacity, indoctrination of Afghan men in the radical Islamic ideology took place through schools and madressas that were made available for the afghan refugees in Pakistan; the doctrines of these schools were in the heart of Taliban’s movement. Apart from Pakistan, the regional political interest was penetrated through ethnicity cleavages influenced by the neighboring countries in the form of raising tension

Nadia Behboodi 29 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------between different ethnic groups. Since Afghanistan through its major ethnic groups, Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, and Uzbek share the same tribal background with its neighboring countries, each country (in particular Pakistan and Iran) single handedly incited and backed superiority of one ethnic group over another. The economic and political supports of these countries were also extensively based on the ethnic background of Afghans instead of considering them as a unified Muslim nation. Their prejudice stand beside different Islamic parties caused disagreement between different parties, and sanctioned their solidarity for ever. Even today, Afghanistan is not free from this problem that was sowed by its neighbors. After the collapse of Dr. Najibullah’s government in 1992, lack of a national ideology and solidarity splintered the country territory into a regional-based nationalism led by different Mujahiddin parties. The urban areas that were relatively safe during the Cold War fell under the control of guerilla militants. The linguistics and ethnic cleavages became pronounced characteristics of Mujahiddin’s regime, which was responsible for the nation building. The notion of peace and security that could have been maintained for the future of Afghanistan at this stage was captured within the ideology of an unjustified civil war which agitated the Afghan society even further. Lack of quantitative data in this period makes it difficult to compute the exact degree of damages on the urban livelihood, economy and various intuitions. However, descriptively, entire institution got affected in urban, particularly in Kabul. Economic opportunities got limited to people (for instance, many high ranked government officials were fired). Looting and confiscating the people’s propriety became widespread. The national asset “historical objects from museums” was also plundered and smuggled to the foreign countries. The armed conflict among different parties increased the mortality rate of both civilians and warriors. Migration both internal and cross border exposed people to the new hardships and to the lack of stable livelihood. Ultimately these political and economic instabilities and unaccountable attitudes of warlords towards nation’s destiny provided opportunities for the emergence of a new rebellion, the most orthodox Islamic movement “Taliban” whose tragedies have been witnessed by entire world.

D.3. Taliban Movement (1994-2001) The Taliban movement, globally perceived as “Pakistani-backed Madressa students” emerged in 1994 and reached its highest growth in 1996 by Kabul occupation. The calamities of the Taliban regime got popularity in the most conservative interpretation of Islamic conducts, boom in the opium production and isolation of women from societal role and responsibility (insights to this will be provided in the gender analysis section). While supporting the Mujahiddin groups was purely based on the political interest of neighboring countries, the Taliban movement involved both the economic and political stake of Pakistan. Based on a strategic view Pakistan aimed to get connected to the Central Asia through Afghanistan in order to develop a strategic depth in its confrontation with India. In October of 1994, the first convoy of Pakistan headed toward Turkmenistan via Herat and Kandahar along the projected pipeline route. When it encountered checkpoint set up by Achakzai tribal militia for the tolls, the Taliban

Nadia Behboodi 30 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------broke the blockade in the border. This convoy reached Turkmenistan as Taliban marched into Qandahar. Controlling all roads and transit trading check points by Taliban is another factor highlighting Pakistan’s gains from the smuggling of duty free consumer goods from Dubai to Pakistan through Afghanistan. Heroin smuggling was another fact that was further nurtured due to the restriction-free trade between Afghanistan and neighboring countries. Although the dependency on the opium production started after the Soviet departure due to the economic failures of the rural population, it soon transformed to the most profitable source of funding during the regional-based crisis of Mujahiddin, and the main funding source for Taliban’s rebel. As illustrated in Exhibit 7, the opium production increased to 800 metric tons in 1987 (Soviet withdrawal) in comparison to 200 metric tons in 1980. It escalated to 2,400 in 1993 and to 4,500 (44% increases since 1993) in 1999. Exhibit.7 Opium Production in Afghanistan

Taliban despite having fundamentalist Islamic ideologies surprisingly allowed production and smuggling of opium by levying 20% tax over the drug trade. The revenue gained from this business was directly saved to the war treasury controlled by the Taliban Leader instead of spending on the government activities. In 2001, due to diplomatic pressure for a prestigious recognition among other states, the Taliban considerably reduced production amount. However, its benefits already turned to maturity for the development of the parallel economy in Afghanistan. This economy has had many implications. First, poppy cultivation dominated largest portion of arable land that could possibility be used for the food production. Food supply shortage in the local markets increased the reliance of economy on the food

Nadia Behboodi 31 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------import from the neighboring countries. It caused money outflow from the country economy. While the imported food stock were made available by the traders, average people remained unable to afford sufficient amount due to inflation in the market and their lack of reliable and adequate income sources. Second, it intensified the already existed drug trader network. Third, it combined with the arm trade and smuggling which shifted the engagement of a large portion of labor from the formal economic activities to the illegal businesses. All of them together curbed the development of formal economy which is a key to alleviate poverty

D.4. Post Taliban Launch of international war on terror overdrew the Taliban’s government in October 2001. Shortly after, the Bonn conference was held in December 2001. The Bonn agreement brought a new international recognition to Afghanistan through formation of Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan. This agreement set the roadmap for the political transition a long with certain millstones. They were successfully completed by late 2005: Loya jirga (June 2002), Afghanistan Constitution (January 2004), presidential election (October 2004), and parliamentary election (September 2005) are the overall political outcomes. In terms of democratization, the presidential and parliamentary elections were based on the principles of democracy in Afghanistan. The government with the support of international organizations has been trying to build democratic tradition at the local level as well. The “National Solidarity Program” serves this aim by creation of local governing councils in provinces to support democracy and reconstruction. Despite above achievements, the democratization process has been suffering at both the government administration and regional levels. In the government, availability of parliamentarian members who were previously engaged in the civil war has complicated expansion of democracy among institutions and local communities. This fact has to some extent compromised the legitimacy of government in the public eye. Therefore, the current democracy is not owned by the vast majority, and is deemed as an imported version from west, without any local institutional capacity to absorb it. In the community level, one of the most risky factors is resurgence of Taliban, particularly in the southern part of country, which has made it almost impossible to expand democratic regime throughout the country. In spite of challenges ahead of government, it has moved toward consolidating the national unity, security, governance and reconstruction. Tremendous efforts have been on going to free Afghan people from violence, human rights abuse; and build their ability to access basic needs (income, livelihood, education, health, shelter and food) and strategic needs (participation, dignity, empowerment…etc). Reconstruction and development have been moving with extensive financial and technical supports – particularly in terms of policy and programming- of international community and close partnership with Afghan ministries and other local organizations. Rural rehabilitation, rural livelihood development, economic recovery and development, legislative systems, expansion of educational opportunities for all citizen of Afghanistan, construction of health infrastructure, and women empowerment (I will take it in detail in the policy analysis section) are being the primary areas for intervention of government and donor organizations.

Nadia Behboodi 32 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------While much has been achieved on this front, much more are awaiting great responses. The country could easily fall into the cycle of conflict and instability if the grievance of people – lack of jobs, education, health, income, food, human security, and participation - is not addressed with adequacy and appropriate strategies. The greed of people (influenced by drug economy and the struggle of those hungry for power and wealth) is a potential threat to the stability and the process of development. It is the most hazardous instrument leading to the political and economic gains of neighboring countries and destruction of democracy in Afghanistan. Therefore, both grievance and greed in Afghan context requires deep studying and relevant and strong responses. Conclusion The analysis of socioeconomic and sociopolitical situations during Afghan conflicts reveals that the political manipulation of various regimes because of political and economic interests of different countries led to the destruction of rural and urban livelihood, economy, and depletion of institutional capital and social order in Afghanistan. The turmoil of conflict had affected entire population during the past three regimes. However, the calamities of poor people remained higher due to being exposed to the direct killing, targeting their livelihood and assets, insecurity, migration and deprivation from the access to and utilization of certain services. The crisis also caused implantation of radicalism in the political structure of the country, and increased the ethnic cleavages that have seriously damaged the political stabilities in the country. The growth of informal or parallel economy consequently reduced the formal economy capacity. It on one hand shifted the revenue from the public and government to the local elites and warriors and on the other played a strong role in continuation of war. In short, the deterioration and instability paved the roads to the further poverty and inequalities, predominant gender inequality that is going to be explained in the next section.

E.SOCIOCULTURAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF WOMEN’S LIVES In this section I would like to provide a historical analysis of gender roles in Afghanistan and the roots of discrimination against women in the sociocultural setting. I will also present insights on the contribution of various conflicts to the gender inequalities in the context of socioeconomic- education, economics, and politics- as well as the stratum inequalities of urban and rural women.

E.1) Gender Role in the Sociocultural Framework Afghan society has been traditionally characterized by the conservative cultural norms in regards to women and strong division of roles and segregation between men and women. This segregation locally known as purdah basically meant to separate the world of women from that of men through various codes of behavior. As expressed by Barakat and Wardell, these codes stress the avoidance of any contact between men and women in the public, and regulate the association between two sexes at different locations. Based on this rule, women have been given the honor of family in private sphere and men as social participants in the public sphere. (2001, P. 10). The cultural conservatism along with the fallacious religious practices have always underpinned the women’s isolation from the society; and denial of their rights and roles

Nadia Behboodi 33 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------as a potential labor force for the society’s development. Their seclusion varies with age, education, class, wealth and ethnicity. Considerable variation also exists between urban and rural areas. The hierarchical position of women has always been seconded to men as the following in Afghan society. Categories

Male

Female

Parents

Father

Mother

Spouse

Husband

Wife

Children

Son

Daughter

Siblings

Brother

Sister

Superior

Inferior

This hierarchy has been accepted as a normal and natural familial structure in the overall rural communities, but with minor variation in the urban. In this framework, decision making is defined as the inherent right and responsibility of male at any category. Allocation of resources and addressing the needs of female are also less valued than that of male; it is more palpable among families that are traditionally conservative and those living in poverty.

E.2) Impact of conflict on the socioeconomic status of women Despite culture, one should not forget the very devastating effects of war on the growth of asymmetric gender relations in society. A comparison between the pre-war status of women in Afghanistan and their life during war explicitly depicts the impact of war on the different aspects of their lives. Even though Afghanistan was a poor country, it began liberalization of gender roles under secular law more than a century ago in 1883. The historical overview (Exhibit 8) sheds light on many outcomes of liberalization since then. From late 1970s to late 1980s the socioeconomic status of women was growing. The Government initiated particular programs for women’s development in various sectors: education, economy and politics. The progress in each of these sectors varied according to the degree of cultural domination in the rural and urban stratums. Obviously the outcomes in rural were not parallel to urban due to the widespread cultural practices. By the wave of conflict the socioeconomic condition of women faced many challenges and slumped gradually. I am going to explain each separately with a limitation on the equal amount of quantitative evidence in each sector because of the unavailability of data.

E.2.1) Education The education reform took place in early 20th century in Afghanistan by focusing on girl’s education. In 1950, there were only 4,350 girls in primary and secondary education. Whereas by 1970s a total number of 92,500 female students were in 231 village school, 166 in primary schools, 45 middle schools and 16 secondary through out Afghanistan (Samady, 2001, P.14). In terms of higher education of women, it had relatively little significance in 1960s. But, by 1977, it increased to 1,583 (Samady, 2001, P. 64).

Nadia Behboodi 34 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The pre-war situation of women’s education had progressively moved forward. Their education, particularly of the urban women, was valued from primary education up to their higher education in Afghanistan universities and also abroad. In some educational fields, Afghan women were much ahead than some prestigious institutes in the first world. For instance, in 1965, female afghan engineering students studied in coed classes in the Kabul University. However, according to Lederman, the Steven Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey did not have any female undergraduate students until 1970 (Mehta, 2002, P. 49).

1883: The government, first in history, issued a law on the women’s rights by banning early marriage and entitling women to the divo 1909: King Amir Habibullah Shah abandoned the custom of veil in his family; his wife was the first women to appear in public witho 1919: This year embarked with enlightenment that both king Amir Amanollah Khan and his wife queen Soraya brought to the Afghan 1921: King Amanollah Khan opened schools for girls with high quality education. Apart from improving the access to education dom 1926: During the twenty seventh independence anniversary of Afghanistan, Queen Suraya behaved like an earliest feminist addressing

Do not think that our nation needs only men to serve it. Women should also take their part as women did in the

1941: Establishment of the first provincial girls in Kandahar (Samady, 2001, P.14) 1947: Women faculty established within the Kabul University (Samady, 2001, P.14) 1950: The government officially called for the increased participation of women in economic activities. 1959: The official announcement for the voluntary removal of women’s veil by King Mohammand Zahir Shah. Women were given th 1964: Women helped to draft Afghanistan’s third constitution, which gave women the right to vote and opened the doors of elected of 1965: Female afghan engineering students studied in coed classes in the Kabul University. 1965: The Women’s Democratic Organization was formed. 1965: Women achieved seats in parliament. Kubra Nurzai became Minister of Public Health and was re-appointed to the same post in 1969: Shafiqah Ziyai was appointed minister without portfolio; she was re-appointed in 1971 (www.pbs.org). 1960s-1970s: Women enjoyed increased participation in politics. Many women had been elected as members of parliament. For instan 1970: Afghan women were sent to the leading universities all over the world for their higher education.

Nadia Behboodi 35 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nadia Behboodi 36 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the 1970s Afghanistan had the highest percentage of women returnees from abroad after completion of their education programs. They worked as professors at the universities, doctors at the hospitals, lecturer in the new medical schools, member of the ministries, lawyers and judges in the courts and entrepreneurs. As asserted by Mehta, women occupied 50% of college students and government workers; they helped move Afghanistan forward socially and economically (2002, P.49). Surge of conflict in late 1970s affected the overall advancement of women in various fields. Russian occupation strongly interrupted the efforts of state to reach the rural women. Since most of the resistance against Soviet Union occurred in the countryside, the government development focus on the rural areas shifted to the suppression of the overall rural tenants in order to weaken oppositions. The Soviet’s attacks on the rural livelihood demolished the education infrastructure that previously existed in the rural areas for women. They, therefore, fell far behind in education. According to World Bank report 2004 and UNESCO report 2001, while rural women were further marginalized in this period, the urban women were better off in terms of their representation in different sectors. Their education in primary and secondary was valued, the number of schools for girls and gril’s enrollment noticeably increased (see exhibits 9 and 10) (WB, 2004, PP.35-37 and UNESCO, 2001, P.19). Women’s higher education was motivated by scholarships awards to the communist countries of that time such as Russia, Bulgaria, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. When Mujahiddin came to power in 1992, the educational opportunities for women got limited due to the change in the structure of the government. Government’s priorities centered on the cabinet establishment, and distribution of parliament seats among different Islamic parties to ensure their role in the country power structure. This attempt could not satisfy the ambitious objective of parties and led to the internecine conflict between different factions. Schools were closed; many of them were used as the shelter for the IDPs or used as the trench among parties in conflict. Although the government, issued the decree of hijab (a dress concealing women’s body and hair) and permitted women’s presence in public, the insecurity became so entrenched that women and girls deliberately restricted their movement out of their houses. In addition, fear of being rapped and abducted by the Mujahiddin commanders was another reason that confined them at home. While the women education was already declining, Taliban brought an end to the concept and value of education for women. In this period, the doors of educational institutions were closed to all women. Starting from primary education, Exhibit 9 indicates the degree of decline in the girls’ enrollment during Mujahiddin’s and Taliban’s empowerments. Both boys and girls enrollment was affected from 1992 onward. In 1993 the enrollment rate declined by 44% for boys and 35% for girls in comparison to 1990. Keeping the data of 1990s as baseline, after a decrease in 1993, the enrollment for boys increased by 45% in 1999 while it further declined by another 5% for girls. Since 1990-1999 the overall enrollment in primary education reduced by 40% for girls; it regressed to the rate of 30 years back.

Nadia Behboodi 37 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Exhibit.9 Primary Education in Afghanistan Primary Education in Afghanistan 1,000,000 900,000 800,000 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 Male Female

1950 87,444 3,970

1955

1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1993

1999

107,100 155,719 303,739 464,542 303,739 464,542 668,773 917,413 401,472 811,495 8,900

19,939

54,298

76,143

115,795 198,560 179,027 211,667 74,670

64,110

Source of data: Education and the Afghan Society in the Twentieth Century, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2001. P.19)

Similar pattern could be seen in the number of schools made available for girls from 1990-1996. As illustrated in exhibit 10, while only 20% of the overall schools assigned for girls, 7% of schools were closed in 1993 and another 11% in 1996. Generally 18% of schools out of 20% closed owing to insecurity and the government official discrimination against girls and women. In contrast, the percentage of schools for boys increased from 80% in 1990 to 98% in 1996. Many schools previously used for girls in the past were allocated for boys during 1990s. Exhibit.10 Girl and Boy Schools in Afghanistan Girls's schools as perce ntage of total schools

Boys' schools as percentage of total schools 120

25

100

20

80 15 60 10 40 5

20

-

0 1,974

1,979

1,990

1,993

1,996

1974

1979

1990

1993

1996

Source of data: World Bank (2004), National Reconstruction and Poverty Reduction (PP. 35-37)

Cumulative data (see exhibit 11) on the overall education including primary, secondary and higher education illustrates how the various conflicts affected men and women’s education in different ways. However, it at some point had deeper impact on women than men by widening the gender disparities. The political reform in 1980 about the two rounds of compulsory military service (conscription) for men (18 years +) compelled boys and men students of secondary and higher education to flee overseas. A

Nadia Behboodi 38 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------considerable number were hired for the military service by the government; of almost equal quantity joined the Mujahiddin’s movement in the countryside. Therefore a 48% decline occurred from 1980-1985. Exhibit.11 General Education Growth by Enrollment General Education Growth by Enrollment (Primary, Secondary, and Higher Education) 1940-1999 1,200,000

1,000,000

800,000

600,000

400,000

200,000

1940

1945

1950

1955

1960

1965

Female

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1993

1999

Male

Source of data: Education and the Afghan Society in the Twentieth Century, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2001. P.23)

During these years the education of women subsequently improved. However, from 1990-1999 the education of women and men moved to two different directions. 24 Enrollment for boys and men increased; in contrast, it drastically decreased for girls and women. Violating the right of Afghan women to education was one the most destructive policies against women and the nation’s development. According to Human Development Report 2004, only 14% of female (age 15 years +) are literate (NHDI, P. 257). Halt in their education not only brought about the knowledge deficiency, but also hindered the development of their skills and abilities in other areas such as health, economic, politics, and social relations. For instance, lack of female medical personnel in the health centers, 40% according to World Bank (2005, P.vix), notably contributed to the maternal mortality. Because in rural areas, traditionally women do not seek medical care if it is offered by men. Another explicit example is the share of women’s income that is 66% lower than men. One of the most problematic features of conflict is the continuation of its negative impact on certain components of society’s development during war and after post conflict period. We can explicitly observe it in terms of women’s education. As reported by World Bank, despite the efforts of government and international community after the Taliban’s breakdown, nearly 60% of school age girls are still out of school (2005, PP. xii-xiv). A number of factors counting for this gap are: 24

The data in 1999 refers to primary education.

Nadia Behboodi 39 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------• Lack of schools in rural areas ( destroyed during the war) • Lack of female teachers ( restriction over women education during past decade) • Current insecurity (creates barriers for all children but specifically for girls) • Attacking schools and killing and kidnapping girls from school • Lack of facilities in schools (separate latrine for girls for instance) • Campaigning against female education by oppositions • Early and forced marriages • Poverty • Negative attitude of illiterate parents towards girls’ education.

E.2.2) Economic Women have always participated in the informal economic system of country, but their official participation in the process of the formal economy’s development encouraged first in 1950. Since the state had already paid extensive attention to the women’s education, women’s attainment in education facilitated their participation in the economic activities. Far-reaching employment opportunities made available for urban women in the overall government services. According to Barakat and Wardell, 50% of the civil servants were women (2001, P.15). Additionally manufacturing gained importance in this period. Many plants established and vocational training targeted both men and women. These factories provided widespread employment opportunities to the low educated or illiterate city-based women. While women’s participation were strong in the industrial economy and government administrative services in the urban parishes, rural women increasingly involved in the all dimensions of agricultural production and animal husbandry. Men were involved in sowing and heavy harvesting, whereas as Dupree describes, women engaged in the harvesting of beans, cotton, walnuts, melons, …etc. These women were also taking part in the management of domestic food supply, and on the amount of food to be sold as cash crop and stowed for the consumption of the family during winter (Barakat and Wardell, 2001, P.12). Other economic activities such as embroidery and carpet weaving also existed for the rural women. Their traditional kills and high quality work placed them in the center of handicraft business. According to Afghanistan cultural profile 2004, before 1978 Afghanistan’s carpets were ranked fifth in export of county.25 It was the product of highly-skilled Turkmen, Uzbek, Hazara, Aimeq, and Kirghiz women’s creative work.

Source: http://www.womenforwomen.org/index.htm?gclid=CMnBlsqMjIwCFQUQFQod_jJiBg

25

Afghanistan Culture Profile is an online database available in British Council website at http://www.culturalprofiles.org.uk/afghanistan/Directories/Afghanistan_Cultural_Profile/-943.html.

Nadia Behboodi 40 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------During Soviet Union invasion, the economic representation of women was increasingly encouraged by the government. Urban educated women, in particular, enjoyed decent work and secured employment in various sectors of government and private businesses. The proportion of women employment in the formal sectors was composed of 70% of school teachers, 50% of civilian government workers, 40% of health care workers, and 60% of university lecturers.26 Adversely, since the resistance to the communist regimen became focused in the rural areas, the turmoil and atrocities in the countryside seriously affected the rural women participation in the economic activities. Insecurity no longer let them rest in their homes and neighborhood where they lived years in consolation. They had to flee from their homes and leave their all assets behind. The flight of women refugee with their families to Iran and Pakistan, and internal displacement paralyzed the women’s social networks. The collapse of the rural economy systematically secluded the women’s participation in economy. After withdrawal of Russians and control of national power by the Mojahidden, the likelihood of rural women’s re-engagement in agriculture increased. However, lack of proper irrigation system, and land mines (deployed during Russian occupation) kept them passive labor in the farms. On the urban front, the conflict between different Mujahiddin’s groups, kidnapping, and rapping of urban women seriously limited their work outside their homes. Taliban regime brought about a wholesale sanction on the women’s overall conditions of living (see Exhibit 12). According to Brown and Bokhari, the Taliban’s anti-feminist policies strongly implemented towards urban educated women denying their rights and needs to education, employment and social relations (2001, P.7). It not only affected women’s wellbeing, but perpetuated their poverty. Among all, 35,000 female heading households were severely affected (Povey, 2003, P.173). These women left with no mechanism to feed their families. Some of them sold what ever they owned; some other, according to Povey, became sex workers in order to cope with the economic hardship (2003, P. 173). Many other, who were teachers, nurses and administers in the past turned to begging on the streets, particularly in Kabul. By late 1990s and early 2000, NGOs and UN agencies were able to bring about some development in regards to the women’s employment. A new edict issued that just permitted the employment of women in the health sector. But, it was subject to some regulations such as women should not be appointed as senior staff in foreign run hospitals. Government hospitals similar to other governmental services were severely suffering from the insufficient and irregular budget to provide monthly salary for civil servants. Only hospitals supported by international community could offer a better and on time salary that women were prohibited to work in. Even though these small numbers were appointed, the discrimination in every new opening could not mitigate their economic hardship.

26

These figures in many documents reported for the pre-war (before 1978) as well as during Russian occupation. For instance, Mehta (2002)

Nadia Behboodi 41 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Exhibit.12 Major Problems Women Faced During Taliban Regime    

  

 

    

Women physically punished if she appeared in public without “Burqa” Girls were not allowed to attend school Women had home based schools who were previously teachers Women were forbidden to visit a doctor without a close male relative Women died due to of treatable medical conditions because doctors were forbidden to treat female patients Female medical staff barred from practicing medicine Women were forbidden to leave the house without a men If women failed to bring a man while visiting a doctor could be turned away even if she had an emergency Public toilets and baths were closed for women Rap and forced marriages became the culture. Suicide to avoid rape became common among afghan women and young girls Polygamy gained momentum Marrying girls without their will Abduction of women for sex got widespread Amputation of women breasts, stoning and execution were favorite punishment of Taliban if women acted opposite to their desire.

E.2.3) Politics Women’s political leadership has always been an urban phenomena. The gender liberalization in mid 1900s and the improvement in the socioeconomic status of women by late 1970s allowed political leadership of women. Many involved in parliamentary activities ranging from drafting the constitutions to the filling the poisons of senators and ministers (refer to historical analysis in exhibit 9). Women in this period also established political and social organizations and undertook their leadership. For instance, in 1965 the Women’s Democratic Organization (WDO) was formed. It was an organ dedicated to eliminate illiteracy and ban early marriages. The degree of political freedom varied among liberal and orthodox parishes. In the rural areas, the role of women in the local and national political structures was absent. Their weak education performance and outcomes plus unchangeable attitudes of rural population toward liberalization were the major reasons pushing them to the margins of political power. Women and politics during the Soviet Union domination was a reality for many urban women specifically those who had already been indoctrinated into communism. Many women were representing different positions in parliament and running local association and parties. The political freedom, for insistence voting, spilled over to all women regardless of their alliance to the communist parties. Unfortunately, the political representation of women during the next two regimes - Mujahiddin and Taliban - was excluded from the government structure. Conclusion This analysis presented the position of women in Afghan society and discriminative dimension of Afghan culture towards women. This discrimination not only

Nadia Behboodi 42 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------subordinates women in every segments of familial life, but also limits the social relations of men and women. For decades, it has challenged the government’s efforts to succeed on nationwide gender liberalization and elimination of inequalities between urban and rural women. The analysis also described deterioration of women’s socioeconomic status during distinct conflicts; further expansion of disparities between men and women; and inequalities among women residing in rural and urban. A comparative analysis of their situation before war and during war measured the impact of conflict on the backward movements of urban and rural women in different sectors: education, economy and politics. Their participation in these sectors was strongly encouraged in the middle of 19th century. By improving women’s education, the doors of opportunities were opened for their active participation in the economic development and political decision making. Despite great demand for the women’s development in the country, the rural women’s development remained far behind than the urban women due to widespread domination of cultural norms in the countryside. The rural women got further marginalized when insecurity dominated their living environment. After the Mujahiddin’s empowerment, the socioeconomic status of women got vulnerable. Gender inequalities augmented within and between urban and rural parishes. While progress in the socioeconomic status of women was already dwindling, the Taliban regime brought an end to the overall wellbeing of women in the country. The Taliban’s institutionalized and official discrimination banning women’s education, employment and movement has pushed the progress in their education to thirty years back. Of equal damages was women’s (educated women and female headed household) vulnerability to the economic hardship that obliged them to beg on the streets and voluntary prostitutions. The three phases of conflict in Afghanistan have brought sever forms of discrimination for women that have deepened poverty and inequalities.

F. COMPARISON OF WOMEN STATUS WITH

NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES This section conducts a comparison review of poverty in Afghanistan and Afghan women’s health, education and their political empowerment with major Muslim neighboring countries: Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. This review does not include the women’s economic performance due to unavailability of gender disaggregated data in some countries. The main purpose of this comparison is to identify to what extend Afghanistan and Afghan women have fallen behind their Muslim counterparts in the south and central Asia. The following indicators set the base for analysis. • • • • • •

Poverty headcount ratio at $2 a day (PPP) (% of population) Girls’ net primary enrollment ratio (%) Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above) Maternal mortality ratio* (maternal deaths per 100,000 live births) % of births attended by skilled health personnel (doctor, nurse or midwife) Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament (%)

Even though, Afghanistan started gender liberalization in 1883 and economic development in 1930, the years of conflict had made it remain way behind its

Nadia Behboodi 43 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------neighboring countries. The following table displays the account of war on prevailing poverty and women’s underdevelopment. Exhibit.13. Afghanistan in Comparison to the Neighboring Countries Poverty headcount ratio at $2 a day (PPP) (% of population)

Maternal mortality ratio* (maternal deaths per 100,000 live births)

% of births attended by skilled health personnel (doctor, nurse or midwife)

Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament (%)

Girls’ net primary enrollment ratio (%)

Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and above)

a

b

c

d

e

F

70

63

13

1,600

14

27**

Iran

7.3*

90

70

76

90

4

Pakistan

73.6

57

36

500

23

Data was not found

Tajikistan

42.5

97

99

100

71

18

Turkmenistan

10.3

Data was not found

98

31

97

16

Uzbekistan

77.5

102

99

24

96

18

42

86.5

83

146.2

75.4

14

-28

-23.5

-70

-1453.8

-61.4

13

Counties

Afghanistan

Average of the neighboring countries*** Afghanistan in comparison to the average of the neighboring countries****

Source of data: a-WD-MDG 2004 available at (http://www.childinfo.org) b-WD-MDG 2004 available at (http://www.childinfo.org) c-WDI 2004 available at (http://ddp-ext.worldbank.org.resources.library.brandeis.edu/ext/DDPQQ/show Report.do?method=showReport) d-WD-MDG 2004 available at (http://www.childinfo.org) e-WD-MDG 2004 available at (http://www.childinfo.org) f-WB-MDG,2005,available at (http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/0,,menuPK476823~pagePK:64165236~piPK:64165141~theSitePK:4 69372,00.html) Note: The year of data for all countries ranging from 2000-2002, except for Iran. However, all data have been used are valid for the year 2005 as reflected in the World Development Report 2005 * Iran data is from 1998 from WDI ** Data is from 2005 *** It is the mean of other countries excluding Afghanistan **** Afghanistan statistics minus average of neighboring countries

As plotted on the following chart, in comparison to the average of neighboring countries, Afghanistan stands at: • • • • •

28% more population under poverty line; 24% lower girls’ enrollment in primary education; 70% more illiteracy among adult women 15years and older; 1,454 more maternal deaths in every 100,000 life births; and 61% lower birth attendance by the skilled medical personnel

Nadia Behboodi 44 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In regards to women participation in the formal political structure, the progress is thirteen percentage points above than the average of the neighboring countries. This achievement is only attributed to the efforts of current government on the political empowerment of women after a decade of marginalization from having political voice. The religion conservatism has always been claimed as a barrier to the women’s advancement in many Muslim countries in the world. But from the above findings, it is explicit that Muslim women enjoyed development during peace in their countries while Afghan women were struggling to survive the disasters of war. Therefore, their destitution is more conflict and policy-driven. Exhibit 14 Afghanistan in Comparison to the Average of the Neighboring 1454

1500 1200 900 600 300 42

-28

87

-24

83

-70

146

75

-61

0 -300 -600 -900

14

13

Poverty Net primary Literacy rate, Mat ernal % of births Proportion of headcount ratio enrollment ratio adult female (% mortality ratio* attended by seats held by at $2 a day (%) of females ages (maternal deat hs skilled health women in (PPP) (% of 15 and above) per 100,000 live personnel national population) births) (doctor, nurse or parliament (%) midwife)

-1200 -1500 Average of neighboring countries Afghanistan in comparison to the average of neighboring countries

G. ANALYSIS OF CONTEMPORARY POLICIES The findings in the two previous sections have identified the impact of conflict upon poor and women at various stages of economic, social and political lives. Since one of the dimensions of Afghanistan’s poverty is attributed to the prevailing gender inequalities, I would like to analyze the gender-inclusiveness approaches in Afghanistan’s national developmental policies. In this part, I considered the Afghanistan National Development Strategy and Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, both incorporated in one document. My object here is to identify if the policies are adequately addressing gender-related poverty and inequalities from many angles in both urban and rural parishes.

Nadia Behboodi 45 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

G.1) Gender equality and women empowerment: The collapse of Taliban after September 2001 through the support/intervention of international coalition placed Afghanistan in the gateway of new opportunities for development. This stage began with the Bonn Agreement dated 22 December 2001. Since then, the government has been striding for nation building, democracy and country development. In the subsequent years, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan developed the country constitution that guarantees non-discrimination and equality between men and women; improves educational and health service delivery to them; and reservation of 25% parliament seats for women at the National Assembly. Following constitution, the government along with donor community developed strategic vision for Afghanistan’s advancement. The ANDS and IPRSP released in 2004 is one of the key outcomes in the policy environment. It concentrates on interim strategies for security, governance, economic growth & poverty reduction According to this strategy (2004, P.87), the overall development of Afghanistan is categorized into three pillars: Security; Governance, Rule of Law & Human Rights; and Economic and Social Development. Gender equity is considered as a cross cutting theme as indicated in Exhibit 15. Gender mainstream is the government main strategy to achieve constitutional mandate of equal rights between men and women and to eliminate institutional inequalities in regards to gender. Women’s participation in all levels of policy and decision making is particularly emphasized in these strategies. The government supports policies and allocation of resources for the women-specific programs. Female education, reproductive health, economic empowerment, justice and political participation are the main priority areas. Every governmental institution is mandated to incorporate gender mainstream approaches into its operation and sets benchmarks to measure it. The government also calls upon the civil society, private sector and individual citizens to take part in addressing the women’s needs. To support the gender mainstreaming, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) is mandated to be the leading agency at national level. MoWA is to ensure that the government policies and programs are reviewed from a gender perspective. Gender working groups are to be created in all ministries to work with MoWA on gender mainstreaming. MoWA will establish a multi-stakeholder gender mainstreaming management system to serve as monitoring entity on the government’s actions concerning gender equality. In addition, a 10-years national plan of action on women will be developed to support gender mainstreaming. The ANDS also provide separate strategies for different aspects of women’s life in order to improve their standards of living (2004, PP.21-30). They are summarized as following. Exhibit. 15 Pillars and Themes of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) Pillar I

Pillar II

Pillar III

Nadia Behboodi 46 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Security

Governance Rule of Law & Human Rights

Economic and Social Development

Sector 1

Sector 2

Sector 3

Security

Governance Rule of Law & Human Rights

Infrastructure and Natural Resources

Sector 4

Education

Sector 5

Sector 6

Sector 7

Sector 8

Health

Agriculture and Rural Developme nt

Social Protection

Economic, Governance & Private Sector Development

Gender equity (Cross cutting theme 1) Counter Narcotics (Cross Cutting Theme 2) Regional Cooperation (Cross cutting them 3) Anti-Corruption (Cross cutting theme 4) Environment (Cross cutting theme 5)

a) Focus on promotion of women leadership capacity building: The government will undertake programs to ensure the participation of women to oversee implementation of programs for the gender equality in different sectors. The main capacity building efforts are to enhance data collection and use of sex disaggregated data to inform policy and program planning. b) Undertake a national advocacy campaign: In partnership with ulama, spiritual leaders, and civil society, nationwide campaigns will be conducted to enhance understanding of women’s roles in Afghan society. It includes girls’ education, women’s right to reproductive health, and banning early marriages. c) Improve women’s access to health services: To improve the women’s reproductive health, the government tries to increase the number of skilled female health workers, especially for the rural areas; arranges advocacy programs on the understanding and accepting women’s reproductive rights by men and other women. d) Increase the enrollment and retention rate of girls in primary and secondary schools: Despite formal education for girls, the government will provide nonformal and accelerated learning programs with a particular focus on girls and married women. The strategy also includes: national literacy campaigns for women; increase in the number of female teachers; gender-sensitive curricula; teacher training programs; and adequate resources to build schools that are both safe and close to people. e) Promote women’s economic empowerment: The Government will address the barriers to the full participation of women in economic activities and increase their productivity by facilitating access to capital, marketing and skills development. Government will also ensure demand-driven and community-based approaches, and implementation of micro-credit schemes targeting women.

Nadia Behboodi 47 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------f) Address Vulnerable Women. To address the difficulties of poorest and most vulnerable women, the government is committed to serve them by enhancing their skills, placing them in jobs, enforcing their rights, and arranging social protection and welfare schemes for them. g) Enhance Women’s Rights and Political Participation. The government is committed to increase women’s role in managerial, policy and decision-making positions. It will also address the rights of women by the legal reform to reflect gender equality, inheritance and property rights; eradicate violence against women; promote legal awareness; and enhance accessibility of legal services for poor and illiterate women. The women’s rights issues will be integrated into school curriculum and human rights training will be conducted for the police departments. While ANDS/IPRSP covers the gender inequality and development of women from all angles, a number of critiques roused on the insufficient strategic approaches and gap between policy and practice. One of the biggest criticisms of ANDS/IPRSP is its very top-down approach in regards to gender. According to gender empowerment approaches defined by Oxaal and Baden, the empowerment process is more effective via the bottom-up approach rather than top-down (1997, P.7) The gender mainstreaming is being exclusively overseen by the MoWA. All ministries are mandated to consider gender centrality to their programming and create gender working groups to support MoWA with the implementation of the gender mainstreaming. One of the main implications of this top-down approach is devaluing the ownership of gender focused programs in other ministries. Lack of ownership potentially effects accountability and sustainability – an extremely important aspect of development - of programs on gender empowerment at ministerial level. Therefore, gender as a cross cutting theme will not be well acknowledged by ministries when their initiatives for women are reviewed/monitored by a centralized external entity. At the grassroots level, this top-down strategy minimizes participation of women in the process of their development. According to Human Development Report 1995, “Development must be by people, not only for people (UN, 1995b: P.12 cited in Oxaal with Baden, 1997, P.2). The current strategy lacks participatory development from the stage of needs identification to the design of well-suited programs, their implementation and evaluation. It on one hand reduces the likelihood of demand-driven initiatives and on the other weakens the ownership of community-based programs by women. For this reason, the role of women, particularly in the rural, remains passive in this process. The strategy offers extensive opportunities to enhance the socioeconomic and sociopolitical status of women. However, some critical areas are yet to be addressed. On education front, the importance of higher education for women, both undergraduate and graduate; and creating opportunities for them in diversified academic programs is not stressed. Women’s education is highly valued in the context of enrollment in primary and secondary schooling for girls, teacher trainings, and literacy programs for women. Afghanistan stands in a critical historical period not only in terms of gender liberalization or poverty eradication, but also of its overall development. While all these initiatives are an effective start for restoring the women’s educational representation after years of conflict, their higher education acts as a catalyst for building the necessary human and intellectual capital. It is something that in long rung will benefit

Nadia Behboodi 48 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------themselves and the country’s sustainable development. It guarantees the likelihood of their success in many other areas including economic and political leadership. In connection to the economic empowerment of women, this strategy fails to offer disaggregated methods to addresses the particular needs of urban and rural women. For instance in urban, the economic activities are mainly designed at industries and are confined to the government administrative services, while in the rural it depends on agriculture. The urban women’s economic participation is monetized. On the contrary, rural women are mostly non-monetized labor. In the context of capacity development, the needs of urban women are more toward office-based administrative and managerial trainings. But vocational trainings are currently required for the rural women and illiterate women in the urban. Women non-monetized work and their lack of control over income is another area remained out of emphasis. Economic freedom and self-dependency of women is a key to combat their poverty and potential input for the economic development. In many regions of Afghanistan, the time input of women in the economic activities is equal to men (particularly in agriculture and handicraft business), but on the lucrative term women do not gain. In many places of the country - exercised in both urban and rural women do receive income, but they have no control over it. Traditionally, economic decision-making at the household level is men’s primary responsibility. Women can be used as an input for generating income, but revenue of their work is controlled by men. These inequalities are deeply rooted in the Afghan culture and have been practiced for decades. As expressed by Akhtar Women’s empowerment should lead to the liberation of men from false value systems and ideologies of oppression. It should lead to a situation where each one can become a whole being regardless of gender and use their fullest potential to construct a more humane society for all (1992, as cited in Oxaal and Baden, 1997, P.2)27. There is a serious need to abolish these structural inequalities by continuous advocacy programs leading to behavioral change towards women. It is a theme currently falling out of the scope of the national advocacy strategies. The relaxation on this issue not only sanctions the women’s access to capital, but also reduces the effectiveness of micro-credit schemes achieving women’s economic empowerment. The strategy also lacks sufficient attention to the role of women in decision making and leadership at various levels. It supports increased participation at the macro-level, policy and strategic settings. It is an important step at institutional level, but inadequate to reach all women. Because lack of decision making authority is increasingly felt at individual, household and community levels, strongly underpinning gender inequalities. This gap limits the women’s access to resources that are to be equally distributed among men and women; neglects opportunities for women’s empowerment; and undermines their contributions to the process of livelihood development at the household and community levels. Women’s leadership only at the policy environment can be a reality for educated women mostly with urban and affluent background. Vast 27

The original citation for Akhtar was not found in the Oxaal and Baden

Nadia Behboodi 49 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------majority of women population who are illiterate and mostly reside in the rural areas are marginalized from this dimension of empowerment. Strengthening the political participation of women is only captured within allocation of quota over parliament seats, 25%, and women’s rights to voting. The success in this area is widely determined by the level of women’s education the weaker domination of culture, and security. Since illiteracy and conservative cultural practices are widespread, the political empowerment of women is yet to sufficiently deal with the needs of all women. The gap between policy and practice is another area of critique. ANDS/IPRSP is exercised with less enthusiasm to attain some of the agreed benchmarks. One of the most important benchmarks is the following. By the end of 2010, the National Action Plan for Women in Afghanistan will be fully implemented. In line with Afghanistan’s MDGs, female participation in all government institutions including elected and appointed bodies will be strengthened (ANDS, 2004, P.91). This action plan which is meant to be used as a tool for defining specific gals, objectives, benchmarks, and mechanisms to ensure the role of women in various sectors is yet to be finalized. Many areas of ANDS/IPRSP concerning gender are very broad requiring specific dimension through strategic and results-based planning. The national plan of action can be an instrument to fulfill this gap by determining particular outcomes; and role and responsibility of different institutions. To systematically alleviate gender-related poverty and inequalities, this action can produce a guideline to for selection of prioritized interventions, women groups, the degree of their participation, indicators of measurement; and timeframe for achievement of defined outcomes. Conclusion: The conclusion drawn based on analysis of ANDS/IPRSP imparts that the government presumes extensive responsibilities on the gender development by setting gender as a cross-cutting them in all level of development. The government defines gender mainstreaming as the main strategy for women’s development. Although the gender equality and fulfillment of women’s rights are under special focus from different dimensions, there are some gaps in provision of gender-focused programs to abate poverty, gender inequalities, and stratum inequalities among urban and rural women. This strategy lacks bottom-up and participatory development approaches making women unable to critically assess their own situation and create and shape a transformation in their socioeconomic status. Women’s needs to higher education and its importance for the women’s gains in other sectors and overall development in the country are overlooked. In terms of economic empowerment of women, special needs of women to economic opportunities and resources, and non-monetized labors are not addressed for women of different parishes. Lack of economic freedom and decision making at the household and community levels increase the probability of their stay in poverty. Leadership, decision making and political participation of women are more urban-based. No effective strategy is in place to increase the role of rural women in the same fields. Some other critiques are the gap between policy and practice at strategic planning level. Therefore, this strategy requires amendment and incorporation of

Nadia Behboodi 50 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------additional well-suited approaches for mitigating poverty and gender inequalities in the country.

F. OVERALL CONCLUSION This analysis confined to a desk analysis of internal and external resource available on Afghanistan as it was not possible to conduct a field survey for data collection. However, deep insights to this analysis were sought through telephonic interviews, and my personal contacts with different national and international agencies. My professional experience as international civil servant and indigenous knowledge as an Afghan further enabled me to study the causation and correlation of war, political economy, poverty, and culture with women poverty and gender inequalities in Afghanistan. The finding in this paper imparts that women’s wellbeing and representation in the various sectors was enhancing since late 19th century following the government’s gender liberalization policies. But it has changed since 1978 under the corollaries of three distinct phases of conflict: Soviet Union occupation, civil war, and totalitarian Islamic regime (Taliban). Each crisis single-handedly brought about unprecedented disasters such as, destruction of the rural livelihood by the Red Army, the urban livelihood by the Mujahiddin; and entire societal foundations during Taliban regime.28 All these crises had the aggravation of gender inequalities and poverty as a common denominator. While the macro level disasters affected entire nation, the micro-level catastrophes particularly devastated the wellbeing of often vulnerable and most marginalized people. They did not merely encounter hardships as poor, but their vulnerability was significant under gender segregation. The following comparison shads light on the women’s lives in the social, political and economic fronts of country before and during war. From this analysis plus comparison with neighboring Islamic countries, it can be inferred that gender inequality and women poverty in Afghanistan were associated with the degree of the cultural domination over different communities before 1978. However, for the nearly past three decades it was thoroughly conflict-driven. Exhibit.16 Comparison of women’s Situation in pre-war and during war eras Before war < 1978 Education (urban and rural) Enrollment in the primary 198,560 education Percentage of overall schools 13.1 % for girls Growth of the overall 229,690 education by enrollment Estimated number of female 7,400 teachers Economic activities (urban and rural)

During war (1978-2001)

28

The Red Armey was the title of the Army of the Former Soviet Union, or Soviet Army

64,110 2% 64,110 2,700

Nadia Behboodi 51 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Employment (urban women)



50% of civil servants



  

Participation in agriculture, embroidery and carpet waving (rural women)





Active participation of women labor in agriculture Significant participation in the handicraft businesses

Political participation (urban women) Political representation  Strong participation of urban women in the political structure of country including cabinet, parliament and women political organizations

Improved for urban women during Communist regime Slumped under Mujahiddin government Declined to 0% by the Taliban government Only by late 1997 the medical personnel was allowed to work under the Taliban regime



Considerably limited during 1980s due to the destruction of the rural livelihood and social networks.



The scope narrowed down by the Mujahiddin Swiftly brought to an end by the Taliban



Vulnerability of urban and rural women systematically increased by factors such as: destruction of their livelihood and social networks; lack of access, control, and utilization of economic resources and opportunities; lack of food security and sufficient consumption; access to health and education services; employment and income; and ultimately insecurity and violence. Counting for 50% of population, women’s poverty – both income and human poverty - significantly contributed to the overall poverty in the country.29 Their underdevelopment has affected sufficiency of human capital and workforce for the country’s development In the wake of Taliban defeat, the history of Afghanistan welcomed the most precious and unique historical period of nation building, democracy, and development. This era has unleashed the official sanction over women’s development. While bringing women out of poverty and eliminating inequalities have the policy coverage, the relevancy and effectiveness of policies require further research in the Afghan context. Furthermore, the policies should move beyond rhetoric from the policy documents and must translate sound actions to reduce women poverty and gender inequality in rural and urban. Despite all efforts, the current political circumstances in the country (uprising of Taliban) make it hopeless to expect better conditions of living for women in the nearest future. While deteriorating security restricts the nationwide implementation of these policies, women in the southern region, 1.2 million women, is being disfranchised 29

“Human poverty is a concept that captures the many dimensions of poverty that exist in both poor and rich countries—it is the denial of choices and opportunities for living a life one has reason to value. The HPI for developing countries – measures human deprivations in the same three aspects of HDI (longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living) and social exclusion.” http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/faq.html

Nadia Behboodi 52 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------under direct impact of conflict and inaccessibility of government to reach them (CSO, 2006).30 Based on limitation of ANDS/IPRSP, this paper recommends the following in order to enhance efficiency and efficacy in obtaining better and sustainable outcomes for women.

G.RECOMMENDATION Gender inequality and poverty are multifaceted concepts that imply symmetric use of opportunities and participation in the social, political, legal, and economic systems of the country. Therefore, a complete set of macro and micro level approaches are required to achieve it. Whereas many aspects of women’s development have been addressed in the policy level, this paper suggests the following. Education: • The higher education of women should be emphasis and supported by all educational institutions for the long term gains in the status of women and their share of responsibilities toward nation building and development of Afghanistan. •

Opportunities should be created to support women’s higher education in Afghanistan and abroad in order to build intellectual capital based on the updated education systems and technology.

•

Vocational education system should be established for women who are unable to continue their higher education due to their obligation for family formation. This system should be expended beyond Kabul.

•

Life skill program shall be embedded in the curriculum of schools for the whole youth in the secondary school to prepare them for job and employability. The priority should be given to girls’ secondary schools as their share of work force is quite low in the market.31

Economic: • Gaps in gender development between rural and urban and the distinct structure of rural and urban economy necessitate desegregated strategies for the economic empowerment of women. In the rural communities, women’s participation must move beyond simply working on the agricultural field. Paid economic opportunities should be created in the countryside to alter women’s wageless labor status and build their access to the market. •

30

31

The micro-finance programs and micro-credit schemes should target women’s small entrepreneurship in rural and urban areas. They should place women as the direct The data was taken from online databases of Afghanistan census available at www.cso.gov.af

I recommend twelve life skills as expressed by Hahn, Leavitt, and Lanspery: communication, conflict resolutions, contribution, cooperation, creative thinking, critical thinking, decision making, empathy, managing emotions, respect, responsibility, and self confidence (2006, P.14)

Nadia Behboodi 53 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------borrowing groups to support their direct participation in transformation of their lives. These programs can also promote gender sensitive entrepreneurship relevant and flexible to the social structure of each community. Above all, because ANDS/IPRSP implies that the country economy in long-run will be private-sectorled, availability of women entrepreneurship is a must to uphold their access to mark and ensure their sustainable economic participation. •

There is a serious need to address the rights of women to the economic decision making within household and their unpaid work through nationwide campaigns. While other factors count, women’s access to capital can reduce poverty and improve their wellbeing at the household level. Economic empowerment of women will considerably contribute to the economic development and the society’s wellbeing.

•

Given the huge disparities between urban and rural women and different economic settings in urban and rural, a nationwide survey is recommended to discover the economic needs of women and their capabilities to participate in the meaningful economic activities. This research will help develop relevant and communityspecific strategies for women from all walks of life. It will further provide evidence for the gender-based planning at the national and sub-national levels; and will support local and international organizations to channel resources toward a realistic vision for economic empowerment of women.

Politics: • Creation of women social movement can play a formative role in connecting the national and local political entities of women. Establishment of women’s political organizations in both national and sub-national levels can support the political representation of women in the community and their share of power in the local power structure. These organizations can additionally support the establishment of women networks that can contribute to: building social capital in community; supporting creation of civil society and in that connection the process of democratization; giving political voice to women as individuals and groups; and advocating for the women’s needs and rights. Cross-sectoral Themes: • The leadership of women should be addressed by periodic trainings at organization and community levels, not merely improving their decision making abilities, but equipping them with skills to steadily lead the change and manage the process of change in society. •

32

A national level Women Research Center should be established to conduct periodical empirical studies for women in order to provide realistic basis for the policy decision making toward women. This center should apply approaches such as action research, and community research by women and men to increase their participation and control over knowledge.32

“In an action research each of us can do on our own practice, that “we” (any team or family or informal community of practice) can do to improve its practice, or that larger organizations or institutions can conduct on themselves, assisted or guided by professional researchers, with the aim of improving their strategies, practices, and knowledge of the environments within which they practice.” http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/

Nadia Behboodi 54 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------•

Participation to promote women empowerment should be more than a process of consultation over decisions that were already made somewhere else. Developmental programs targeting women’s empowerment should encourage their participation from the process of planning to implementation and evaluation. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) should be used as an instrumental tool connecting rural women to the mainstream development.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Ames, B., Brown, W., Devarajan, S., & Izquierdo. A. (2000). Macroeconomic policy and poverty reduction. PRSP sourcebook, Chapter 6. Retrieved on June 5, 2006 from www.imf.org/external/np/prsp/source/2001/eng/chap6.pdf. Barakat, S. & Wardell, G. (2001), Capitalizing on Capacities of Afghan Women: Women’s role in Afghanistan’s reconstruction and development, ILO working paper 4. Geneva Billon, P. L. (2001). The political ecology of war: natural resources and armed conflicts. Political Geography 20 (2001) 561–584. School of Geography, Mansfield Road. Oxford. United Kingdom. Bradsher, Henry S. (1999). Afghan Communism and Soviet Intervention. Karachi: Oxford University Press. Bradsher,D., Henry S. (1985). Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Nadia Behboodi 55 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------British Counsel in Afghanistan (2004), Afghanistan Culture Profile, retrieved on October 21, 2006 from http://www.culturalprofiles.org.uk/afghanistan/Directories/Afghanistan_Cultural_Profil e/-943.html. Brown, A.W. & Bokhari, F.(2001). Humanity denied: Systematic violations of women’s rights in Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch. Vol. 13, No. 5 (C). Retrieved on 12 June 2006 from http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/afghan3/index.htm#TopOfPage Byrne, B. (1996). Gender, conflict and development. BRIDGE (development-gender). Volume I: Overview. Report No.34. UK. Central Statistics Office of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (CSO). (2006). Population by civil division (urban and rural) and, settled sex 2005 – 2006. URL estimated population English. Retrieved on June 28, 2006 from www.cso.gov.af. Collinson, S., Bhatia, M., Evans, M., Fanthorpe, R., Goodhand, J., & Jackson, S. (2002). Politically informed humanitarian programming: using a political economy approach, Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN) paper. 41. United Kingdom. Duffield, M. (2001). Global governance and the New wars: The merging of development and security. London, Palgrave Macmillan. El Jack, A. (2003). ‘Gender and armed conflict: Overview report. BRIDGE (development – gender), Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom. El Jack, A. (2003). ‘Gender and armed conflict: Overview report. BRIDGE (development – gender), Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom. El-Bushra, J. and Piza-Lopez, E. (eds.) (1993) Development in conflict: The gender dimension. Report of an Oxfam AGRA East workshop held in Pattaga, Thailand, 1-4th February 1993, Oxfam UK/1-ACORD. In (Byrne, B. (1996). Gender, conflict and development. BRIDGE (development-gender). Volume I: Overview. Report No.34. UK). Fisas, V. (2004) Procesos de Paz y Negociación en Conflictos Armados. Barcelona, Buenos Aires, México: Paidós. In (Torres, A.B. (2005). Armed conflict, peace processes and forced migrants. FMO research guide. University of Sussex. Brighton.) Retrieved on July 6, 2006 from http://www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo039/fmo039-2.htm . Goodhand, J. (2001). Violent conflict, poverty and chronic poverty. Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) working paper No.6. Manchester, United Kingdom. Goodhand, J. (2005). Frontier and wars: The opium economy in Afghanistan. Journal of Agrarian Change Vol.5 N0.2, pp. 191-216.

Nadia Behboodi 56 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Goodhand, J. and Hulme, D. (1999) “From wars to complex political emergencies: Understanding conflict and peace-building in the new world disorder”. Third World Quarterly, 20(1): 13-26. Grant, T (1980) Afghanistan: Why the Russian bureaucracy invaded. Retrieved on July 28, 2006 from http://www.marxist.com/Asia/tgrant_on_afghan1980.html Hahn, A., Leavitt, T., Lanspery, S. (2006), The Importance of Polices in Support of Life Skills Training to assist Vulnerable Groups of Youth I n the Latin America and Caribbean Region, The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Center for youth and communities, Waltham. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan & International Agency Report (2004), Securing Afghanistan’s future: Accomplishments and the Strategic Path Forward. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan & United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). (2005). “Best Estimate” of social indicators for children in Afghanistan 1990-2005, published in Kabul. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan & United Nations Development Program (UNDP).(2004) National human development report: Security with a human face: Challenges and responsibilities. Kabul: Armey Press (Islamabad). Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004), Afghanistan National Development Strategy: An Interim Strategy for Security, Governance, Economic Growth & Poverty Reduction. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. (2004). The constitution of Afghanistan. Kabul. Jalazai, M.K.(2003). The political economy of Afghanistan [Review of the book The political economy of Afghanistan by Babar Shah], Sang-e-Meel Publications, P. 304. Retrieved May 20, 2006 from file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/AA/My%20Documents/Brandies/2nd%20yea r%20project/Deocuments/The%20Political%20Economy%20of%20Afghanistan.htm. Keen, D. (1998), The economic functions of violence in civil wars. International Institute of Strategic Studies, London. In (Collinson, S., Bhatia, M., Evans, M., Fanthorpe, R., Goodhand, J., & Jackson, S. (2002). Politically informed humanitarian programming: Using a political economy approach. Humanitarian Practice Network (HPN) paper. 41. United Kingdom. Library of Congress (2006) Country profile: Afghanistan, Washington D.C. M. Tullius Cicero, M.T., (2000). The Political economy of war and peace. In (Afghanistan, (v.ii.5, pp. 260–261) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Mehta, S (2002), Women for Afghan Women: Shattering myths and claiming the future. New York. Melay, W. (2002). The Afghanistan wars. New York: Martin’s Press and Palgrave Machillan Ltd.

Nadia Behboodi 57 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (MRRD). (2003). National risk and vulnerability analysis: NRVA Survey. Kabul. Murray, C.J.L, King, G., Lopez, A.D., Tomijima, N.& E G Krug, E.G. ( Feb 2002), BMJ Vol. 324: PP. 346–9. Nawa, F. (unknown year) A Corpwatch Investigation Report, California, USA Nyrop, R.F. & Seekins, D. M. (1986). Afghanistan: A country study, Chicago: Illinois Institute of Technology Library. Povey, E.R. (2003), Women in Afghanistan: Passive victims of the Borga or active social participants? Development in Practice 13 (2&3): PP. 172-187. Oxaal, Z. & Baden, S. (1997), Gender and Empowerment: Definitions, approaches and implications for policy, BRIDGE (development - gender) Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK Rubin, B.R. (2002) The fragmentation of Afghanistan, Yale University, USA Smadi, S.F. (2001), Education and the Afghan Society in the Twentieth Century. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Paris, France. Swanström, Niklas L.P. & Svante E. Cornell, S.E. (2005). A strategic conflict analysis of Afghanistan. Central Asia-Caucasus institute and Silk Road studies program. Torres, A.B. (2005). Armed conflict, peace processes and forced migrants. FMO research guide. University of Sussex. Brighton, Retrieved on July 6, 2006 from http://www.forcedmigration.org/guides/fmo039/fmo039-2.htm UNDP (2004), Conflict Prevention: NHDR thematic guidance note, National Human Development Report Unit/HDRO, Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Recovery. UNDP (2005), Human Development Report: International cooperation at a crossroad: Aid, trade and security in an unequal world. United Nations Chidren’s Fund (UNICEF) & Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2002). Maternal mortality in Afghanistan: Magnitude, causes, risk factors and preventability. Kabul United Nations Chidren’s Fund (UNICEF) & Central Statistics Office of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. (2003). Afghanistan progress of provinces: Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). Kabul. Uppsala Conflict Database. (2005). Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP). URL Definitions. Retrieved on June 25, 2006 from http://www.pcr.uu.se/database/definitions_all.htm.

Nadia Behboodi 58 April 2007 WAR, POVERTY AND WOMEN in AFGHANISTAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Wideangle (2007), Handbook, Women in Afghanistan retrieved on October 21, 2006 from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/afghanistan2/handbook2.html, Educational Broadcasting Corporation World Bank, (2004), Afghanistan state building, sustaining growth, and reducing poverty: A Country Economic Report, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Sector Unit. South Asia Region. World Bank. (2005). Afghanistan national reconstruction and poverty reduction- The role of women in Afghanistan’s future. Kabul. World Bank. (2005). Afghanistan national reconstruction and poverty reduction- The role of women in Afghanistan’s future. Kabul.