AFGHANISTAN: Women Bearing the Brunt of the Conflict

The photo of Bibi Aisha, a 19-year-old Afghan woman, on the cover of Time magazine last week is unforgettable. Her eyes are betrayed and defiant. Her mouth is curled in a frown. Her nose isn't there, a scarred gap in its place.

It was hacked off by a Taliban fighter who married her at the age of 12, when she reached puberty, then punished her for fleeing his abuse.

She and her younger sister were housed with her in-laws' livestock and used as slaves, Time reports.

Her husband found her in Kandahar after she fled a year ago and took her back to the southern province of Oruzgan. There, he cut off her nose and ears, leaving her bleeding on a mountain.

The magazine saw Aisha's story as an example of "the price Afghan women have had to pay for the repressive ideology of the Taliban," said Richard Stengel, the managing editor. The Taliban denounced its coverage as unethical, and "desperate propaganda." Soon after the article was published, the hardline Islamists executed a pregnant widow in Qadis, a district in Badghis, a rural western province.

Bibi Sanubar, 35, was kept in captivity for three days before the sentence was carried out. She was accused of having an illicit affair that left her pregnant. She received 200 lashes in public and was shot in the head three times. (Her male partner was not punished.)

Activists say stories such as these show the country is returning to the Taliban's ultra-conservative values. The move is raising fears among women in Afghanistan, fears that are heightened by reconciliation talks between the Islamists and the government of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President.

Nine years after the fall of the Taliban raised women's hopes for change, many are losing heart, especially in rural areas.

Although progress has been made in education, health and political representation, this is primarily in cities. For women in the rural south, where the Taliban is strongest, and in the east and near Kabul, where smaller insurgent groups are in control, little has changed.

"Our President wants to remain in the palace, no matter if this whole country turns into a graveyard," said Wazhma Forgh, a women's rights activist and former Afghanistan director for Global Rights.

Last week, she travelled from her office in Kabul to Kandahar's District 5, where she met about 50 local women. They are filled with foreboding, she says, about what could happen if the Taliban become more involved in the government.

The women told of the horrors they faced under Taliban rule. One related how she was beaten with a stick on the street. Another described how she gave birth on the ground in a courtyard after Taliban soldiers turned her away from the hospital, saying it was closed because it was night.

But what surprised Ms. Forgh most wasn't the tales of violence and abuse. It was the women's response to the question: "Who are your parliamentary candidates?"

No one knew the answer.

Their response is in stark contrast to women living in Kabul and Kandahar City, where posters of elected officials' faces plaster the sides of buildings and women are far more politically engaged than they once were.

In urban areas, politics is an arena of progress for women, Ms. Forgh says. Rural areas, for the most part, remain in the dark.

"I think the progress is very symbolic. You can see it on the surface," she said.

"When you get into fundamental issues, you don't see those national-level changes. They have not penetrated those social barriers that women in the provinces have."

Ms. Forgh said although the Taliban is an obvious enemy, the emergence of smaller insurgent groups and criminal gangs through the country makes the general lawlessness her biggest concern.

"Five years ago, I was the one travelling ... by car. Now, I cannot even travel with the airplanes. I cannot even go around the city in Kandahar. I will be killed," she said.

"The stability of this country, even our lives and the social development of this country [have been affected.]"

More importantly, women can no longer count on support from the highest levels of the Afghan government.

After a meeting with Mr. Karzai last month, Rachel Reid, an analyst for worldwide advocacy group Human Rights Watch, said she was taken aback by his response to a question.

"When asked, will there be some kind of vetting to exclude people from power if they have a track record in abusing women or girls, including attacks on schools, he basically said, 'What would you choose? You could choose to save a child's life, or you could choose to keep a child in school.' "

"In my view, it's not that binary a choice."

The Afghan President, who was once lauded for his stance on women's rights, is now preparing to negotiate with the Taliban under his reconciliation and reintegration plan.

Ms. Reid fears senior Taliban commanders will be given positions of authority, particularly in the justice system.

"The Afghan government and their international allies are not in a particularly strong position at the moment to be making the demands in the peace field," she said.

"If hasty deals are done with the Taliban, that's when women's rights are really at risk."

This week, a United Nations' report painted a grim picture of soaring civilian deaths, up 30% in the first seven months of this year from the same period in 2009.

"Afghan children and women are increasingly bearing the brunt of this conflict," said Staffan de Mistura, special representative of the UN secretary-general.

"They are being killed and injured in their homes and communities in greater numbers than ever before."

Some progress has been made. Before the 2001 invasion, the number of girls enrolled in schools was essentially zero. Now, according to UNICEF, that number has increased to 2.5 million, from grades one to 12.

Although literacy rates remain abysmal -- only 13% of women are literate -- there's now a 25% quota reserved for women in the Afghan parliament. More than 20% of the members of Mr. Karzai's peace jirga, his 1,000-member national council held in June, were women.

Samina Hamidi, executive director of the country's largest umbrella advocacy group in Afghanistan, the Afghan Women's Network, says Mr. Karzai has promised to involve women in the peace jirga in negotiations with the insurgents, but he has not told her how many will be representatives.

Meanwhile, child marriage is still widespread, the maternity death rate is one of the highest in the world and increasing violence makes it hard to reach women living in isolated communities.

Ms. Forgh and Ms. Hamidi say media coverage such as the Time magazine cover story only makes things harder for women in the country by framing the war as a women's rights issue.

"I don't think it was the right approach," Ms. Hamidi said.

"The girl, Aisha, I don't know if she'll ever be able to return back to Afghanistan." (The woman has been flown to the United States for reconstructive surgery.)

The most straightforward message both women hear from their Afghanistan peers is a desire for peace, even amid the foreboding prospect of talks with the Taliban.

"Women want peace. We have to find peaceful means. Reintegration and reconciliation are the only means," Ms. Forgh said.

"But the way the government is pursuing it, they're linking it with their negotiations with the Taliban. It has to move beyond that."

"Nine years ago, women did have hope for a change," Ms. Hamidi said. "The advocacy that we have done since then, the changes we have seen, that will carry on. We're not going to sit down and just watch."