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In September, as Joya spoke
with about 20 women from religion and non-profit
organizations, she told us that though the Taliban regime
was toppled three years ago, money, guns and international
connections are still the best way to get into elected
office.
 “People
with guns are the least supportive
of women and democracy,” she said. “The constitution has rights for women
written in it, but it can’t be enforced if the warlords are
in power. Government officials claim that they want women in
power or in school, but they are lying. Many
Afghan women
commit suicide every month due to pressures of a
male-dominated society.”
This October 9, Afghanistan held its first ever presidential
election and interim President Hamid Karzai was confirmed in
mid November as the country’s new president. He was selected
from an ethnically diverse slate of 17, including one woman,
a few warlords, and some of questionable backgrounds in
terms of human rights. According to an October 11
Newsweek article, 41 percent of the country’s 10.5
million registered voters were women, however many husbands
decided whether their wives and daughter could cast ballots.
Fear of Taliban-instigated violence and scorn of being the
first man to allow his wife or daughter to vote might have
kept many away from the polls, Newsweek reported.
When I hear the urgency in the voices of these brave women
seeking peace and women’s rights in their countries, I
wonder what I can do to support their important work. It
never seems enough to just be educated by them and then to
spread my new awareness to others. But that is, at least, a
start.
 Joya told us that current U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan
is contributing to a potentially explosive civil war, and
that, because of warlords and corruption, not even
one-fourth of the aid money flowing into Afghanistan reaches
the people it is intended for. When I asked her if she was
planning to meet with anyone in the U.S. government while in
the U.S., she simply said “no.”
Since she spoke out against the fundamentalists last year,
she has been invited to visit human rights and women’s
groups around the world. She declined for months, not
wanting to be perceived as a spokeswoman for Western
beliefs, giving her enemies more ammunition to use against
her. However, at the invitation of Eve Ensler, author of the
“Vagina Monologues,” Joya finally decided to come to the
U.S. because, she said, Ensler went to Afghanistan when the
women there were still forgotten. Since Ensler visited
Afghanistan, she has launched
V-Day, a worldwide movement to
stop violence against women and girls.
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Women
Braving Peace (continued)
