School bells from bombshells - women in Afghanistan

UN Chronicle, March-May, 2002 by Maha Muna

While the emphasis is increasingly being placed on reconstruction and development in Afghanistan, the fate of over 5 million refugees, living mainly in Pakistan and Iran, must not be ignored. Council resolution 1325 (2000) recalls and reinforces refugee protection mechanisms and highlights women's particular concerns in the refugee context. In Jalosai, a camp in northern Pakistan outside Peshawar, women and their families are enduring winter weather in tattered makeshift tents, many sharing communal fires and exchanging pots and utensils for cooking meager meals. They spin wool, barter and exchange, and care for their children, often alone, while their husbands and older children eke out a living in Peshawar's marketplace. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) does not have government permission to register the refugees and can offer them assistance only if they relocate to new camps set up in the tribal areas on the Afghan-Pakistan border. Only a few thousand refugees have elected to mo ve to these camps. Why? Many have used up their resources to travel to Jalosai, and depend on the camp's proximity to Peshawar markets for household income.

Meet with the women in their tents and they would say that they do not want to remain in Pakistan. They long to return to their land and homes, but they want to remain in Jalosai until it is safe to return directly to their villages in Afghanistan and do not want to suffer the risks and difficulties associated with moving again. Women are concerned that the new border camps are far from town and are situated in insecure areas-the local governor agreed to the camps on condition that UNHCR install fences, which some Agency staff are now supporting for the refugees' protection.

Meanwhile, Afghan women NGOs have been funded to establish education and other community service programmes in the border camps. However, their access to the camps-and that of the international NGOs working there--is often impeded by security concerns and no agency is able to maintain an overnight presence there. Assistance and services in the border camps are still not at full capacity. Recently, an NGO of Afghan women sent out a plea for clothing for infants born in the harsh winter cold of the border area since the families simply do not have resources to buy clothing, which is one of the many items not included in assistance packages being distributed.

After decades of war, Afghanistan is still a country where one can find a school bell made of an exploded bombshell. An end to the conflict, and any hope for peaceful reconstruction in the country, will depend on mobilizing all its resources for peace. Women and girls represent 50 per cent of the workforce and citizenry. A peaceful Afghanistan will be one where human rights for all are ensured and where women will be afforded opportunities to determine their future.

Maha Muna is Deputy Director of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, a non-profit New York-based advocacy and public education organization dedicated to speaking out on behalf of refugee and displaced women and children around the world.