myMADRE

Visiting Bibi Aisha

Last week, I visited the organization Women for Afghan Women to meet Bibi Aisha. Bibi is a 20-year old Afghan woman, who was married off at the age of 12 to an abusive Taliban fighter. MADRE first told Bibi's story in May of 2010, as one of several Afghan women whose stories tell of terrible brutality...but also of survival. Bibi was one of the women for whom MADRE activated our Afghan Women's Survival Fund to help her receive emergency shelter.

Today, Bibi is in the United States, working with Women for Afghan Women, learning English and making plans to start her own small business to generate income.

We had heard that Bibi excels at making bead jewelry. We also know that she loves to sew. With materials donated to MADRE’s Helping Hands program, I brought Bibi fabric, spools of thread, and beads. Bibi’s face immediately lit up when I handed her the gifts. It was wonderful to see what a powerful impact our Helping Hands program makes in the lives of the women we reach.

Thank you to our donors, who make this extremely valuable work possible.

Bibi Aisha is an amazingly courageous and resilient woman. She is an inspiration for women worldwide, and we wish her a speedy recovery and the best of health.

Turning the World INSIDE OUT

The undercover photographer who goes by the name JR uses his camera to fight prejudice by transforming streets into art galleries. JR pastes large black and white photographs of people with dramatic facial expressions to challenge widely held preconceptions. His commitment to use art as a tool for change has been widely noted. The New York Times named JR the artist  “Who Gives Slums a Human Face" and he has also been the recipient of the 2011 TED Prize. The photo above captures the portraits of women in Kibera, Nairobi pasted on the roofs of local huts.

JR views everyday people as his curators, and his project “Women Are Heroes” emphasizes women as the pillars of their communities. JR captured the faces of women in Kenya, Brazil, India, and Cambodia and pasted their pictures on the walls of their streets. “Women Are Heroes” brought together a team of volunteers in various urban environments. The photo below captures the portraits of women in Rio, Brazil pasted on the walls of slums in Rio.

"The women all wanted to share their stories so that their stories would travel" said JR in his TED acceptance speech.  JR will use his recognition to encourage others to use art as a way to unmask human authenticy. His wish: “I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project, and together we’ll turn the world…INSIDE OUT.”

On Militarism and Violence against Women in Afghanistan

Every year between November 25 and December 10, the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) launches their 16 Days Against Gender Violence campaign. As part of this campaign, MADRE Communications Director Diana Duarte spoke at the Church Center for the United Nations in New York City. She spoke on the campaign's theme, Militarism and Violence against Women, focusing on the US war in Afghanistan. Yanar Mohammed, Director of MADRE's Iraqi partner organization, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), also spoke at the event. To hear what they had to say, watch CWGL's video below:

 

Letter to the New York Times on Afghan Women's Shelters

A few days ago, in response to an article about an escalating danger to Afghan women's shelters, I wrote the following letter which was published in the New York Times:

To the Editor:

Re “Law and Custom Press Afghan Women’s Shelters” (front page, Feb. 11):

Afghan women’s shelters are a crucial refuge for women escaping brutal violence — and these shelters are under siege.

Proposed legal changes would place shelters under government authority and make a woman’s access contingent on discriminatory social mores, including virginity and marital status.

Today, an Afghan woman facing violence can turn — with no questions asked — to one of the few shelters run by women’s organizations. If this proposal passes, she will not even have that option.

These sanctuaries exist now because of the brave efforts of women’s rights activists. The state panel that seeks to regulate women’s access to shelters is part of a government riddled with women’s human rights abusers.

Nongovernmental shelters, like those supported by MADRE, represent the one hope of women desperate to save their own lives. This hope cannot be taken away.

Yifat Susskind
Executive Director
MADRE: Demanding Rights, Resources
and Results for Women Worldwide
New York, Feb. 11, 2011

Pressing Reset on the Afghanistan Debate: Toward Ending the War and Upholding Women's Rights

This week, policy circles have been buzzing with the news of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appointment of Marc Grossman, a career diplomat and former US Ambassador to Turkey, as the new special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Coupled with speculation of General Petraeus’ impending departure, you might think that this leadership re-shuffling creates the opening to re-evaluate the course of US policy on Afghanistan.

But progressives may not be able to seize this opportunity. 

Of all of George Bush’s discredited utterances, there is one that continues to constrain progressive debate on Afghanistan today. “You’re either with us or with the terrorists,” Bush told the world on September 11, 2001. That November, as the US was making final preparations to bomb Afghanistan, Laura Bush was dispatched to assure us that “The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women.”

Nine years later, as the human rights crisis of Afghan women rages on, most progressives seem to have accepted the Bushes’ claim that there are only two viable positions on the war: either you care about the women of Afghanistan and support the war as a “humanitarian intervention,” or you oppose the war and are willing to “abandon” Afghan women.

This either/or debate has provided rich justification for US policies in the “war on terror.”  It has also driven a wedge among progressives grappling in good faith to promote women’s rights and kept us from organizing to take advantage of opportunities, like this shifting leadership, to advance our goals with US policy-makers.

Below are six reasons to reset the terms of progressive debate on Afghanistan. 

1. The US has not prevented massive human rights violations against Afghan women 

• Deposing the Taliban in 2001 did open new spaces for women’s freedom, mainly in the capital city of Kabul. But securing women’s rights was never the primary objective.
• This became clear when women began exercising limited, new-found freedoms to work, travel, study and participate in public life. 
• They quickly became the targets of deadly attacks by the Taliban and other ultra-conservatives. For all their bravery, Afghan women found little support from the US or the Karzai government it installed. In fact, the Afghan government is packed with warlords whose track record on women’s rights is hardly better than the Taliban’s. 
• Years after the US invasion, the United Nations continues to characterize Afghanistan as “the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman.”

2. The US military presence threatens Afghan women and their families 

• Women in Afghanistan are regularly killed, injured, traumatized, bereaved and displaced by the war. And women suffer disproportionately as those who are responsible for taking care of society’s most vulnerable members in a time of war.  Last year was the most violent in Afghanistan since 2001, and the United Nations recently released a report warning that the humanitarian situation is likely to worsen in 2011.  Estimates show that some 7000 people have been killed just since 2006.
• Moreover, because US troops are viewed by many Afghans as foreign occupiers, their presence allows the Taliban to claim legitimacy as they fight the invader. Paradoxically, the war is fueling the very ultra-conservatives whose vision for Afghanistan rests of denying women basic rights.

3. The US has set the bar low on women’s rights

• The Obama Administration is using allegiance to the 2003 Afghan Constitution as a litmus test for Taliban participation in future peace talks. It’s an easy test to pass since the constitution—brokered by the US—has no meaningful guarantees of women’s rights or any enforceable prohibition on gender discrimination.
• You’ve probably heard Hillary Clinton and other US officials praising the constitution for its provision that women and men are equal before Afghan law. But like any law, the constitution is only as good as its interpretation. 
• Here is how the Chief Justice of the Afghan Supreme Court interprets women’s equality: “Women have two equal rights under the constitution, number one every woman has the right to obey her husband and two, every woman has the right to pray, though not in the mosque, which is reserved to men.”

4. The US has traded women’s rights in the search for “stability” in Afghanistan

• Unlike the Taliban, Hamid Karzai and his US sponsors are not hell-bent on denying women’s human rights: they just don’t care much either way. For them, the main value of women’s rights is that they can be traded in exchange for allegiance from fundamentalist leaders whose social vision does depend on the subjugation of women.
• That kind of horse-trading brought about the 2009 Afghan law that allows a husband to deny his wife food and shelter if she refuses sex.  Karzai signed the law in exchange for political support from fundamentalist politicians in the August 2009 elections. 
• The soon-to-be special envoy, Marc Grossman, has been commended for being a “discreet and reliable” diplomat, known as a “low-key backroom dealer.” We already know that, in the circles he will be negotiating, these “backroom deals” often spell danger for women’s rights.
• To the extent that promoting women’s rights is cost-free, a lucky side effect of other priorities, the US is happy to take credit.  But just as easily, women’s rights become an inconvenience, brushed aside to smooth the way for the next warlord’s election. 

5. The US has stopped talking about Afghanistan as a “humanitarian war”

• While progressives continue to argue about whether the US is upholding women’s rights in Afghanistan, the Obama Administration itself has dropped Bush’s neo-conservative rhetoric of “saving” Afghan women.
• As President Obama has said, “while improving conditions in Afghanistan is a commendable goal, people need to remember that the primary reason that US troops are fighting there is to protect Americans from terrorist attacks.”

6. The US is advancing policies based on military and political priorities, not human rights

• Progressives can continue to argue about whether the Taliban, with their misogynist ideology, should be allowed to participate in peace talks. And we can debate whether US troops should remain in Afghanistan as a bulwark against a new Taliban government. But without a powerful peace movement, we have little influence either way.
• Meanwhile, NATO and the US military are holding closed-door sessions on enticing “moderate Taliban” into negotiations.  The oxymoron demonstrates that the biggest difference between US allies and enemies is not their position on women’s rights, but their willingness to cooperate with the US. 
• The planned “phased withdrawal” from Afghanistan also inspires little confidence that the demands of the peace movement for an end to the war have been heard. 

For all of these reasons, it’s time to transcend the false debate that divides progressives between those who are “pro-war and pro-women” and those who are “anti-war and anti-women.” Instead, we need a new progressive position on Afghanistan: one that is pro-peace and pro-women’s rights.

That position embodies rather than contradicts our progressive vision. There are no easy answers for how to realize this vision of an Afghanistan where all women and men have full human rights. But that doesn’t change our vision. Rather it means that now is the time to draw on our shared progressive commitment to peace and women’s rights and use those principles to fuel a longer-term discussion about US policy on Afghanistan.

We need to engage in that discussion with one another and with those in Afghanistan who believe in the imperatives of peace and women’s rights. The more vibrant that discussion becomes, the more we build the movement to influence US policy and generate proposals that can move us toward our vision. In the meantime, we should work through MADRE and other organizations to support Afghan women who are risking their lives to stand up for their rights. And we must continue to hold the US and NATO accountable for their actions in Afghanistan and the region.

Instead of allowing ourselves to be herded into opposing camps based on false premises, we need to change the terms of progressive debate on Afghanistan and begin to develop proposals that can end the war and uphold women’s human rights.

Pakistani Women Giving Birth in Displacement Camps

While the water levels along the Swat River have returned to normal, the evidence of the devastation from the floods remains widespread. Roads, bridges, schools, water supply and sanitation systems are still affected. Recent reports by the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) highlight the various diseases that have begun to spread since the floods: approximately 300,000 suspected malaria cases have been reported since the end of July, three flood-affected provinces have reported 99 cases of cholera, and an increase in dengue fever and a tick-borne viral disease have also been reported.

The Asian Development Bank and the World Bank are estimating that the floods caused $9.5 billion in damage to Pakistan’s infrastructure. The floods severely damaged property, roads, buildings, irrigation systems and crops.  However, the damage the floods caused in Pakistan extend far beyond structural and material losses; they have created massive human suffering.  Some 20 million people have been displaced, many of whom are still residing in makeshift shelters.

Of those displaced, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that 70 percent are women, half a million of whom are now pregnant and facing giving birth in a country still recovering from the floods. While media coverage of the Pakistan floods has faded, the situation remains much the same for pregnant Pakistani women; in all likelihood these women will give birth in unsanitary conditions without the help of a skilled health professional.  Their children will be born to a country where the floods have made an already existing food and water crisis even worse.

MADRE maintains our commitment to the safety of these women and their children through work with our Pakistani ally organization, Shirkat Gah. Together we are providing women with clinics, women doctors, safe spaces, family planning education and relief supplies. Pakistani women still suffer from the aftermath of the floods, and you can still support local women’s relief efforts.

"Wars don't end, they live on."

Yesterday, Laura Flanders, a MADRE board member and the host of GRITtv, made a commentary about the cycle of war, as a NATO attack in Afghanistan took more civilian lives this week.  She wonders about what path we are forging, as violence leads to more violence.  Watch the video on her site or below:

More GRITtv

Women's Labor Rights in Cambodia's Informal Economy

For more information on MDG 1, watch UNIFEM's video about women and employment in the informal sector in Cambodia:

 

Pakistani Women Disproportionately Affected By The Floods

The Pakistan floods have placed approximately 20 percent of Pakistani territory underwater. According to the United Nations, the death toll is currently at 1,600, with a colossal 18 million people displaced and affected by the disaster. Unfortunately, the Pakistan floods and its most vulnerable victims, women and children, have largely fallen out of the media spotlight.

(Click here for recent photos of the flood's impact.)

That the overwhelming impact of the floods on Pakistani women is largely invisible in the media, however, is no claim to its nonexistence. So far,  According to the Reproductive Health Response in Crises Consortium (RHRC), 85 percent of those displaced by the flood are women and children. In the aftermath of the floods, Pakistani women and children continue to face monumental hardships in an already conservative society. Overcrowding and flimsy tents force women and girls to bathe and sleep in close proximity to unrelated males. For women who have lost sons and husbands in the floods, they are offered little protection under conditions that already constrain women's freedoms.

An added element to the hardships Pakistani women are now facing? An estimated 500,000 pregnant women are currently in their second or third trimesters. Of these, 100,000 women are due to give birth in the next month - most of them in crowded shelters unfit for childbirth, not far from stagnant and disease-ridden waters. As UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan Martin Mogwanja aptly stated, "This disaster has affected almost 18 million people. We don't want it to also affect half a million babies who are not born yet".

Unfortunately, that the Pakistan floods hit women and children hardest is no surprise. As MADRE, our sister organizations and many other women's rights advocates have shown, it is irrefutable that women are disproportionately affected by disasters. Disaster trends show that women are not only more likely to die in the disaster than men, but are at increased risk of violence and do not receive necessary health care and relief aid after the disaster. We continue to see this in Haiti as well, where women and girls continue to combat sexual violence, disease and neglect. 

It is also well known that involving women in the relief and reconstruction efforts is the best way to ensure their care and safety and to rebuild communities on a stronger foundation. MADRE's sister organization KOFAVIV in Haiti has made great strides in fighting sexual violence and meeting women-specific needs. In Pakistan, MADRE's sister organization Shirkat Gah is working with local communities to distribute food and water, establish women friendly spaces and provide medical services, including gynecological services and contraceptives. The efforts of Shirkat Gah demonstrate how involving women in relief efforts and policy can positively impact the lives of those most affected by natural disasters. 

For more information on MADRE's role in Pakistan flood relief, and for information on how to help, click here.

Photo Credit: United Nations Photo

Floods In Pakistan Cause Widescale Devastation and Displacement

As a result of continuous monsoon rains, a flood surge has swept south along the Indus River displacing millions and spreading devastation.

Latest data from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) estimates that the floods have led to the displacement of a population of 14 million with 1,392 deaths and 1,985 injuries. Of course, these numbers will continue to rise as efforts to provide relief have not even begun to fully address the widescale devastation caused by flooding.   

Current conditions in Pakistan demand an immediate response. MADRE is partnering with Shirkat Gah, a women's organization based in Pakistan. This organization will be supported through MADRE Emergency Disaster and Relief Fund: Pakistan. Your donations will go towards providing basic necessities such as water, food, clothing and shoes and will aid Shirkat Gah's efforts to distribute medicines and relief on the ground. 

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