A New Kind of Feminism Takes Hold in Afghanistan ‘People Need to be Educated in Values’ of Islam
One thing I find really interesting about the women’s statements is that they challenge the Taliban notion that women cannot be educated by pointing to other Muslim nations where neither women nor men are denied the right to education. So why then, in Afghanistan, a nation that used to produce female professionals before the endless war and death of the last thirty years, is it illegal for girls to be educated?
Why is it that we, as a nation that has endured thirty years of war, massive emigration, and destruction, are held to a different standard than much of the rest of the Muslim world?
But the Afghan women I met take a different approach. Uniformly they argue that “education” is the most important response. By education, they do not mean only literacy. “People need to be educated in the values of our own religion,” says Rahela Hashim Sidiqi, a senior adviser at Afghanistan’s civil service commission. “They need to learn from other Islamic countries, such as Indonesia and Bangladesh. Even in Arab countries, education is not denied.”
The main challenge, says Sidiqi, is “the lack of education about Islam itself, particularly in rural areas where culture and Islam are mixed. People don‘t see the difference between tradition and religion.” These women talk of the Quran’s teaching on property rights and respect for women as a source of progressive reform within Afghan culture. And they identify a number of prominent Afghan imams who defend these views. “They are the key,” says Sidiqi. “We need a positive approach.”
Clearly, this is a different kind of feminism. Rather than asserting an individualistic conception of rights, these women are arguing for respect and legal protection from within their religious tradition. They do not seek to overturn a cultural order, but to expand and humanize it. “If it shows respect to wear a scarf,” says Sidiqi, “I wear a scarf.” “We respect other people – and we expect respect.”
The rights of Afghan women are not always seen at the forefront of American interests.
These women offer a practical rebuttal. They point out that the reconstruction of Afghanistan will not take place without the knowledge and skills of 52 percent of its population. They believe that women in Afghanistan possess the political advantage of being untainted by past warfare and corruption; that they represent a chance for Afghan politics to start anew.
Why should America, in the midst of a costly war, care about the rights of Afghan women? Because Afghanistan, without the participation of women, will remain a failed and dangerous state.
And there is another reason – because the betrayal of courage always matters, and always dishonors those who commit it. The dignity of women is not the only reason America fights in Afghanistan – but it is a good one.
One reason we fight in Afghanistan [SF Gate]
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