From Lauryn Oates...
In March 2009, news of the Shiite Personal Status Law reached international leaders gathered in London for the G20 conference, which included many donor nations to Afghanistan. A handful of the law’s 249 articles included restrictions on the rights of Afghan Shia women, and the issue exploded in the international press, galvanising heated responses from a variety of stakeholders.
An AREU study has sought to examine another angle of this story: the inception, preparation and parliamentary passage of the law. The aim has been to identify what this experience can illustrate about lawmaking in post-Bonn Afghanistan, and the political culture and capacity surrounding it. Respondents included MPs, Shia academics, civil society representatives, Shia women who demonstration against the law, a Supreme Court judge, and representatives of independent media outlets, the international community, and the Ministry of Justice.
The resulting report, A Closer Look — The Policy and Law-Making Process Behind the Shiite Personal Status Law, identifies a number of important irregularities in procedure, including that the final law was not formally passed by Afghanistan’s lower house of parliament, and notes that public inclusion was missing from the process. It also delivers a number of recommendations for improving procedures and better enforcing parliamentary rules, facilitating a peaceful pluralism in matters of fiqh (jurisprudence), and reforming Afghanistan’s single non transferable vote and political party systems.
The report is available for download at www.areu.org.af and will be available in hardcopy from the AREU office.
The report’s author Lauryn Oates is available for telephone interviews (English), as is a member of the research team (Dari). Representatives of the media seeking more information are encouraged to contact:
Jay Lamey, AREU Communication Editor: jay@areu.org.af or tel. 0795462011
The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) is an independent research organisation based in Kabul. AREU ’ s mission is to conduct high-quality research that informs and influences policy and practice. AREU also actively promotes a culture of research and learning by strengthening analytical capacity in Afghanistan and facilitating reflection and debate. Fundamental to AREU ’ s vision is that its work should improve Afghan lives .
www.areu.org.af / +93 (0) 799 608 548 / areu@areu.org.af
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Beyond the Bike
As we set out yesterday with the rain pounding down on us, the wind in our faces and our shoes filled with water, I had a huge smile.
Everyone arrived at our home in Needham as individuals but we set out as a group. Our community was built as each new rider arrived and tried to cram into the garage. Strangers quickly became friends, “should I wear long pants or shorts? Do you have an extra set of gloves? Have you ever ridden in the rain before?” – we were quickly bonding. After the kids played the Star Spangled Banner (twice), the energy of the room shifted again. Pride. Pride in ourselves. Pride in our country. Pride in knowing that with each rain drop falling on us, we were one step closer to our goal of raising $50,000 for the construction of the Dragon Valley Women’s Community Center in Bamiyan Afghanistan.
As we rolled away from the house with 62 wet miles ahead of us, we stuck together and worked as a group. We helped each other with flat tires, we pointed out sharp turns and Bs along the route and we rode at whatever pace meant that no one had to ride alone. This feeling of community of being a part of something larger than ourselves is the same thing that I hope for for the women in Afghanistan.
The Community Center is nearing completion. In just about 6 weeks, women will have an opportunity to come together in a safe, warm place where they will have access to clean water to do their laundry, a tearoom where they will be able to socialize, classrooms for programs that teach new skills and a community garden where they can grow food. Our hope is that this building will be more than bricks and mortar. We hope that it will be a life changing community with a soul.
So thank you for the energy you brought to the day. Thank you to ALL of the volunteers that helped to make the day go so smoothly. Thank you for the donations you made and for the fundraising dollars you brought in. And thank you for your continued support.
I hope you are excited for 2010 back here in Needham and then 2011 – from NYC back to Boston…
Peace,
Susan
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Hingham Screenig of Beyond Belief - a HUGE success
What a night! Thanks so much to Caitryn, our amazing intern this summer. She did an incredible job putting together a screening of Beyond Belief at the Patriot Cinemas in Hingham, MA. We filled the house and then some. We had to turn away about 100 people and others chose to watch the film on a flat screen TV in the lobby. In addition, we raised over $5500. All of the money is going to the construction of the Dragon Valley Women's Community Center in Bamyan, Afghanistan.
I do plan on going back to Hingham since the interest was so high. If anyone is interested in helping to organize another screening, please let me know. Or, if you are interested in helping to do a screening in another city/town, please contact me.
I do plan on going back to Hingham since the interest was so high. If anyone is interested in helping to organize another screening, please let me know. Or, if you are interested in helping to do a screening in another city/town, please contact me.
Monday, August 17, 2009
The Truth Behind Afghan Insurgency
By Ralph Lopez
Reprinted from the Boston Globe
ON A RECENT TRIP to Kabul for our nonprofit organization, Jobs for Afghans, Najim Dost and I made a startling discovery: There is no true Taliban insurgency.
Yes, there is a Taliban leadership, many of whom are “foreigners,’’ meaning, non-Afghans. Yes, there are many fighting-age men who fight because they are paid to do so, by the small cadre of Taliban and Al Qaeda commanders who have plenty of opium money. They fork out the excellent wage in these parts of $8 per day for “insurgent work.’’
But a die-hard, dedicated army of fighters who pledge allegiance to the Taliban ideology and cause? It’s not there. Even Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged last March, “Roughly 70 percent are involved because of the money.’’ And General Karl Eikenberry, former commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said to Congress in 2007: “Much of the enemy force is drawn from the ranks of unemployed men looking for wages to support their families.’’
The dirty little secret is that the renewed insurgency could have been avoided. The vast majority of Afghans still hate the Taliban. They remember the days of heads and hands getting lopped off in the National Stadium, and men flogged because their beards were not long enough. No one is eager to see them return. But in a nation with 40 percent unemployment, working for the Taliban is the only job in town. As the saying goes, you might not like the work, but that’s who’s hiring.
How did we get to this pass? Fighting a renewed insurgency eight years after the Taliban government was soundly trounced, to the cheers of 90 percent of the population? The first thing that happened was that, out of the relatively small amount of nonmilitary assistance that was sent to rebuild this bombed-out place, almost half wound up as profits for big contractors like Dyncorp, Louis Berger Group, and KBR. They were building substandard schools, roads, and clinics (with no doctors) when what the country needed was jobs, jobs, jobs. Not fancy jobs. Jobs paid in cash by the day or by the week, at less than $10 a day, clearing canals still clogged with debris, digging drainage ditches with shovels along miles of roads, and the countless ways men can be employed to keep their families from semi-starvation.
The UN says 35 percent of Afghans are malnourished. You can’t have business development if you don’t have stability. And you can’t have stability when you have nearly half the work force unemployed. Add to this the Taliban’s willingness to pay $8 a day to those who will pick up a gun, and the renewed insurgency becomes less of a mystery.
There are countless instances of Taliban fighters saying they will trade their guns for a job. What makes this war even more senseless is how little it would cost to provide such jobs, say, for a year, to stabilize the country and allow the free market to flourish. It would cost less than one-tenth of what we are spending now on military operations each year, which is running close to $50 billion. Why is this approach not being talked about in Congress? Call me cynical, but war is profitable. The beauty of cost-plus, no-bid contracting is hard to find in the normal business world.
A widespread, stability-enhancing cash-for-work jobs program, which would save the American taxpayer the hideous cost of war, both human and financial, can work in Afghanistan. We saw such projects on a small scale. Perhaps most telling are stories like Mahmud’s, who told a reporter in Helmand that joining the Taliban gave him a chance to save up enough money to start his own small business, buying goods in Lashkar Gah and selling them in the district “mila’’ or markets. Mahmud said, “Now that I have work, I am not with the Taliban anymore.’’
This situation is the true definition of insanity. Top commander General Stanley McChrystal just said jobs could induce many Taliban to drop their weapons. How many more of our soldiers must die before sense takes hold in the Obama administration?
Ralph Lopez is co-founder of Jobs for Afghans.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
Reprinted from the Boston Globe
ON A RECENT TRIP to Kabul for our nonprofit organization, Jobs for Afghans, Najim Dost and I made a startling discovery: There is no true Taliban insurgency.
Yes, there is a Taliban leadership, many of whom are “foreigners,’’ meaning, non-Afghans. Yes, there are many fighting-age men who fight because they are paid to do so, by the small cadre of Taliban and Al Qaeda commanders who have plenty of opium money. They fork out the excellent wage in these parts of $8 per day for “insurgent work.’’
But a die-hard, dedicated army of fighters who pledge allegiance to the Taliban ideology and cause? It’s not there. Even Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged last March, “Roughly 70 percent are involved because of the money.’’ And General Karl Eikenberry, former commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said to Congress in 2007: “Much of the enemy force is drawn from the ranks of unemployed men looking for wages to support their families.’’
The dirty little secret is that the renewed insurgency could have been avoided. The vast majority of Afghans still hate the Taliban. They remember the days of heads and hands getting lopped off in the National Stadium, and men flogged because their beards were not long enough. No one is eager to see them return. But in a nation with 40 percent unemployment, working for the Taliban is the only job in town. As the saying goes, you might not like the work, but that’s who’s hiring.
How did we get to this pass? Fighting a renewed insurgency eight years after the Taliban government was soundly trounced, to the cheers of 90 percent of the population? The first thing that happened was that, out of the relatively small amount of nonmilitary assistance that was sent to rebuild this bombed-out place, almost half wound up as profits for big contractors like Dyncorp, Louis Berger Group, and KBR. They were building substandard schools, roads, and clinics (with no doctors) when what the country needed was jobs, jobs, jobs. Not fancy jobs. Jobs paid in cash by the day or by the week, at less than $10 a day, clearing canals still clogged with debris, digging drainage ditches with shovels along miles of roads, and the countless ways men can be employed to keep their families from semi-starvation.
The UN says 35 percent of Afghans are malnourished. You can’t have business development if you don’t have stability. And you can’t have stability when you have nearly half the work force unemployed. Add to this the Taliban’s willingness to pay $8 a day to those who will pick up a gun, and the renewed insurgency becomes less of a mystery.
There are countless instances of Taliban fighters saying they will trade their guns for a job. What makes this war even more senseless is how little it would cost to provide such jobs, say, for a year, to stabilize the country and allow the free market to flourish. It would cost less than one-tenth of what we are spending now on military operations each year, which is running close to $50 billion. Why is this approach not being talked about in Congress? Call me cynical, but war is profitable. The beauty of cost-plus, no-bid contracting is hard to find in the normal business world.
A widespread, stability-enhancing cash-for-work jobs program, which would save the American taxpayer the hideous cost of war, both human and financial, can work in Afghanistan. We saw such projects on a small scale. Perhaps most telling are stories like Mahmud’s, who told a reporter in Helmand that joining the Taliban gave him a chance to save up enough money to start his own small business, buying goods in Lashkar Gah and selling them in the district “mila’’ or markets. Mahmud said, “Now that I have work, I am not with the Taliban anymore.’’
This situation is the true definition of insanity. Top commander General Stanley McChrystal just said jobs could induce many Taliban to drop their weapons. How many more of our soldiers must die before sense takes hold in the Obama administration?
Ralph Lopez is co-founder of Jobs for Afghans.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Ice Cream Social at Whole Foods
Thanks to everyone who came to Whole Foods on Wednesday to support Beyond the 11th.
From beginning to end - it was a wonderful evening. From the the ice cream - to the music (thanks to Plugged In) to all the people who stopped by to chat. A special thanks to Whole Foods. I've always been a fan of the store but now even more so.
Not only did we raise money for Beyond the 11th, I think we were able to enlist a few more cyclists for Beyond the Bike...
Monday, July 20, 2009
U.S. Commitment To Afghan Women
VOA, 6 July 2009- “Women in Afghanistan are critical to progress and stability in their war-torn country.” So said U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s issues Melanne Verveer [meh-LAHN ver-VEER]. “We know,” said Ms. Verveer, “that no country can prosper if half its people are left behind.” And as President Barack Obama said in his Cairo speech, “we recognize that our daughters can contribute as much to society as our sons.”
The truth is, said Ambassador Verveer, “that countries that repress women also tend to be backward economically, and are more likely to be failed states.” That’s why United States is intensifying its efforts to help Afghan women participate more fully in society. One example of this is a new twenty-seven million dollar U.S. funded program of small, flexible, rapid response grants targeted to empower Afghan women-led non-governmental organizations at the local level. Programs range from economic development, literacy training, skills training, and healthcare.
Political participation is critical to empowering Afghan women. Currently, Afghanistan is in the midst of an election campaign for both president and provincial councils. There are two women running for president and more than one-hundred running for council seats. The U.S. has called for a campaign that is credible, inclusive, and secure, where men and women candidates can participate with no restrictions on their freedom of movement and be assured of protection.
An ongoing concern for Afghan women is security. Violence against women and girls, said Ambassador Verveer, is endemic and much remains to be done, including access to institutions of justice, civic education, and prosecution of crimes. More girls are in school, but the Taliban have eroded some of the progress. Last year alone, they burned or shut down more than seven-hundred schools, and thousands of girls are now without access to formal education.
As Ambassador Verveer made clear, “Progress in Afghanistan must be measured not just in military terms, but also in terms of social, political, and economic participation of women in rebuilding Afghanistan and in the safeguarding of their human rights.”
Jasteena Dhillon,
jasteenadhillon@yahoo.com + 1 757 215 8231 / skype - jasteenadhillon /
info@zolazen.com/+1 416 8281486 / www.zolazen.org
The truth is, said Ambassador Verveer, “that countries that repress women also tend to be backward economically, and are more likely to be failed states.” That’s why United States is intensifying its efforts to help Afghan women participate more fully in society. One example of this is a new twenty-seven million dollar U.S. funded program of small, flexible, rapid response grants targeted to empower Afghan women-led non-governmental organizations at the local level. Programs range from economic development, literacy training, skills training, and healthcare.
Political participation is critical to empowering Afghan women. Currently, Afghanistan is in the midst of an election campaign for both president and provincial councils. There are two women running for president and more than one-hundred running for council seats. The U.S. has called for a campaign that is credible, inclusive, and secure, where men and women candidates can participate with no restrictions on their freedom of movement and be assured of protection.
An ongoing concern for Afghan women is security. Violence against women and girls, said Ambassador Verveer, is endemic and much remains to be done, including access to institutions of justice, civic education, and prosecution of crimes. More girls are in school, but the Taliban have eroded some of the progress. Last year alone, they burned or shut down more than seven-hundred schools, and thousands of girls are now without access to formal education.
As Ambassador Verveer made clear, “Progress in Afghanistan must be measured not just in military terms, but also in terms of social, political, and economic participation of women in rebuilding Afghanistan and in the safeguarding of their human rights.”
Jasteena Dhillon,
jasteenadhillon@yahoo.com + 1 757 215 8231 / skype - jasteenadhillon /
info@zolazen.com
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Register for Beyond the Bike
Oops. I forgot to put a link to register for Beyond the Bike
To register, please go to: http://www.firstgiving.com/beyondthe11th
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
About Me
- Susan
- MA, United States
- My husband, David, was killed on September 11th. At the time, we had two small children and I was pregnant with our third. Learning about the plight of widows in Afghanistan, I felt that I needed to reach out to them the way so many had reached out to me and my family. Decades of conflict and strife ravaged Afghanistan, leaving tens of thousands of women without husbands to provide for them, a cultural necessity in Afghanistan. In the fall of 2003, I co-founded Beyond the 11th. Our mission is to help provide financial and emotional support to Afghan widows and their children and to give them hope for a better future. Beyond the 11th’s grants are geared toward programs that help widows gain the skills necessary to generate their own income. We believe strongly that this is the best way to create lasting social change.