Pul-e-Charkhi

Last week I went to one of the outskirts in Kabul where returning refugees from Pakistan move to. The living circumstances of these internally displaced persons (IDPs) are absolutely appalling and disgraceful. Nevertheless I was welcomed in their tents with hospitality and kindness. Their tents are not much more than pieces of old cloth and fabric with the occasional bit of animal skin. They sleep on dirt floors and have no electricity or water and not even a sewer system. Their children also go to school in tents, run by an NGO, and luckily also receive a small meal of soup and nan (Afghan bread). Some IDPs live, if they are lucky enough, in small huts with clay walls and a roof of reed and straw.

Their children are extremely curious, especially about a foreign woman who comes to ask a lot of questions. Some questions about possible political participation I was not allowed to ask, because their situation is even more strict, meaning with more restrictions, than the situation of any woman I have met these past few weeks.

One bright spot in Pul-e-Charkhi is the ORA clinic. Women receive classes on pregnancies and birth skills and they can take agriculture classes. The goal of the agriculture classes is to teach women how to grow herbs and vegetables in order for them to diversify their food so they can eat other things than bread and rice. Most women are so excited about what they learn, that they go home and teach their sisters and daughters what they were taught.

I was told not to take pictures because of the men. Well, I did take some, but I had to do it very carefully. I realize my pictures don’t have caps yet, but hopefully I will find time to do it soon!

RAWA

Last Saturday I had an interview with someone from the PR department of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). I can tell you that this was quite a special event, because they don’t have a formal office. This does not sound as serious as it actually is, because RAWA needs to do her work undercover due to security reasons (Check out their website for more information and to find out how you can support them)!

RAWA is a political women organization and from my understanding they are the only political one. I am very impressed by their work, both inside and outside of refugee camps. They also have houses where women can live if they cannot endure the violence put on them by their husband and/or in laws anymore. Really quite special! Even though they seem quite black and white, their work is really important. There are not many women here in Afghanistan who have the nerve and the possibilities to do what they do, both on social and economical level. They want to raise awareness amongst women through education and literacy courses, so they will learn about their rights and are ready to “struggle with their husbands” (as they put it) in order to strengthen their position. I spent most of my day working on a short radio documentary of my interview with them. Here’s a link!

Horseback Riding and Luxurious Lunches

This past weekend was without a doubt very interesting. On Thursday morning, the Afghan Saturday, I woke up at six to go horseback riding with Rina and Annefleur, a Dutch mother and daughter. The car ride that took us to the stables was very adventurous already and took us over very bad roads, but the horseback riding was amazing! We rode around the old palace of Zahir Shah. He was one of Afghanistan’s most modern kings and he had to leave the country before the invasion of the Russians in 1979. The palace was quite an amazing building and still is, check the pictures! Anyways, it is pretty special for women to ride horses and it is even more extraordinary for western women to be found on the backs of horses and we definitely drew lots of attention!
The next day I was invited for what I thought was tea time at the house of the brother of an Afghan friend in Holland. Of course there was tea involved and lots of nice Afghan snacks but at some point a tablecloth appeared and all the women of the family came in with bowls and plates full of food! There was fried chicken with fries, home made obviously, meatballs in tomato sauce, rice, coriander pasta, Afghan bread, yoghurt, another kind of meat in some sort of sauce (I didn’t dare to try that one), salad and lots of fruit for dessert. It was really wonderful to experience Afghan hospitality in this way I can tell you! The family is not rich, but not poor either, and I somehow was afraid that all Afghans were living in the poverty I’ve seen with the women I have visited these past few weeks, but that was not the case. Unfortunately, there are not many families like this one, filling the gap between rich and poor here in Afghanistan.

Life from day to day

Yesterday my day started with riots near the best known high school, Habibia High School, the school where President Karzai went to. Teachers and students were rioting because the teachers had not been paid for the last three months. Since our office is right next to the school, we were greeted by 300 Afghan police officers and even more rioting teachers and students. Fortunately no one was hurt.
I visited several groups yesterday. The first group meets in the living room of someone's house and although I managed to avoid going to 'local' toilets for the past two weeks, yesterday I really had to go. A girl guided me to the toilet and it was indeed just a hole in a dirt floor, but not a big hole, it's more of a small open channel. It was quite a challenge to find out how to use it correctly, I can tell you! The girl did wait for me with a jug of water and a towel, so I could wash my hands! Just when I was wondering where the little open canal was leading to, we left the garden and and I saw a little stream coming from the wall leading to a bigger open gutter right in the middle of the street. So I guess that is how their sewer system works!! I'll upload some pictures.
I also visited the women's garden again. They opened only last week and in the garden you can find little shops run by women (called the bazaar), a water pump, a toilet and an office where the Self Help Groups can come together. The garden is only for women and is completely set up by women also. It is quite a special place to visit and a good example of how the position of women is slowly transforming since their membership of a SHG.
Tomorrow I will visit more groups and I wonder what adventures will await me then!

The Streets of Kabul

I believe the streets of Kabul are amongst the most colorful ones I have ever seen. All the different cars that seem to drive on the road without any clear structure. I mean, they obviously have a purpose, but there are no road marks, or lines that show you where to go. But then again, there are not too many real roads here either! There are the main ones that have been restored after the war, but most of the 'roads' consist of sand and rocks. Anyways, next to the roads, on the 'sidewalks' you see lots of little shops as for instance bike repair shops, or shops where you can buy new tires for your car or a soda if you are thirsty. (Coca cola and Nestlé are the big companies that made it out here.) These shops are nothing more than little shacks where the shopkeepers sometimes live in too. You will also find dozens and dozens of pushcarts with bright colored vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, or fruits like bananas, oranges and melons. Behind pushing or dragging them along are husbands of the women who came up with the cash for these carts by becoming part of the Self Help Groups I'm studying here. Now there are opportunities for families to strengthen their economical position.
I know, it is kind of a short cut to go from the streets of Kabul to the Self Help Groups for women. But honestly, it ties all in together. Relief help, or international aid should not be about short term solutions. Quick fixes, as someone I met in Jerusalem used to say, are not the answer, because they don't help in the long run. And that is so true! Meeting women who are the poorest of the poorest, who, seemingly, have absolutely no future, because it all looks so grim and bleak, I want to do nothing more than just give all my money away. I don't even mind if they try to steal my camera or my recorder. But it will not help these women in the long run. It just fosters a hand out mentality and a culture of fatalism. No matter how grim or bleak the future of the oppressed women of Afghanistan seems to be, there is always hope because they are not dead yet. The war has not not destroyed them yet. And when these women come together in groups and learn of the strength and power unity can have, their unity can have, they can really transform their own family, their own community, and therefore their own future.
To some of you this may sound extremely philosophical or idealist, but I see it happening here. I know usually negative news reaches us from Afghanistan, but honestly, there are good things happening too, and not even by 'our' doing, even though we like to see ourselves as the knight in shining armor. (And no, even though it is for sale and for rent, I am not wearing body armor!). Anyways, check my pictures to see Kabul streets and the people walking/driving/riding them!

By the way, this is the link to my article in one of the Dutch national newspapers: ND.

The Women of Kabul

This week I visited my first Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their CLA's (the follow up of SHGs). Researching their impact on the women of Kabul is the purpose of my visit. Well I can tell you, life for them is extremely tough. You can see it on their faces, on the faces of the five children they've given birth to before reaching the age of 25. Did you know that every 29 minutes, a woman dies due to complications with pregnancies and births? There is no country with a higher rate. 85 % of the women has not followed formal education and 79 % is illiterate.
But although their lives are unimaginably tough, some of them have really managed to turn their lives around. One woman makes her daughter-in-law go to literacy classes while she takes care of the grand children. Another girl, after giving birth to five children, is now finally able to go to literacy classes also and she truly believes that with the same training she can be just as good president of Afghanistan as a man can. I doubt whether this would have really happened without the Self Help Groups.
The goal of the SHGs is to empower women on both economical aspects as social aspects of life. They learn how to save and after a few months they can take a loan and invest this in a small family business or a business of their own. On the social side they learn through group exercises about their self worth. And because they are able to bring money home for a small business they learn how to communicate with their husbands. And some husbands give them at some point more freedom to follow literacy classes, visit their families, bring the children to school. Through exercises they also learn to think and discuss about teenage marriages. Most women now see it is really unhealthy for children to marry at a young age and they want to prevent that from happening to their own children.

There is so much more to tell you, but I'll save some for a next blog. I recorded some interviews and I'll try to put little bits and pieces online. For the Dutch people, my article should be published in the ND some day this week, with pictures. I don't know exactly when but between the 6th and the 11th they told me! Als iemand dat artikel voor me zou kunnen bewaren zou dat geweldig zijn!

Well, bye for now!

Life in Kabul

After being sick for a few days, and I mean really really sick, from some sort of tummy bug, I'm finally really experiencing Kabul life! I left the first house I was staying at, to share an annex (a small apartment for guests next to a big house) with a Dutch doctor (Interview). She took me to the bazaar and I bought my first Afghan bread today which tastes delicious!!
My new neighborhood is full with expats and we're close to the police station and parliament buildings. Everywhere is police and other weird looking men with guns. The last ones are most likely private security for rich Afghans. In my street also lives the owner of Afghanistan's largest phone company. It is weird, seeing old demolished houses with every now and then a large Afghan mansion in between.
There is much more to write but so little time at the moment, since I am also working on my article for the Nederlands Dagblad, but I will upload my new pictures. Don't forget, women can't take pictures here when they are walking, so most of them are taken while driving (no, not me, don't worry).

By the way, I tried to post some mp3 files online with interviews, but youtube is also blocked here in Afghanistan so I have to find another way. Other suggestions are most welcome!

I made it!

It was only yesterday that I wrote about Dubai, but I already arrived at Kabul airport 3 hours ago and it all went surprisingly fast. Maybe you heard about the attack (BBC article) on President Karzai only a couple of hours ago here in Kabul. This happened during the military parade, part of the celebrations during revolution day. You can read the article for more details. It is safe where I am right now.

Because of the Wilders movie, the Dutch embassy is evacuated and if the situation worsens, such as attacks on specifically Dutch people then we have to be evacuated to a green zone as well. I think the situation is a bit worse than I expected, but there are very good security plans and measures and there are also Afghan people who guard the house and the offices.

The drive from the airport to the house I'm at was very impressive. You can definitely see all the destruction dating back to the Soviet invasion. But there are also apartment complexes and huge very fancy wedding halls being (re-)build, which is very hopeful.

Just a short update for now!

PS. For everyone who asked me questions about the weather: It doesn't get warmer than 36/37 degrees Celsius, because of the height. When the sun is down it can be very cold.

Dubai!

So I made it to Dubai this morning at 5:30 am. It was quite a hassle to get a visa, the man at the desk thought I didn't look much like my photo and asked me if my passport was really my own!

Anyways, quite a culture shock here! The first people I saw at the Dubai airport are either tourists or other funny people sleeping on chairs and men wearing the traditional white gowns and head scarfs. I did detect a trend though, some men wear there scarf to the left as girls who wear their hair to the left, some to the right and some all the way to the back (hard to explain without the hand movements!). As you can see on the photo's it is a pretty rich country and my Pakistani taxi driver (who took me on a 2-hour tour for only 100 Durham, 15 Euro) told me everything is basically built on sand. One of the towers on my pics is the highest building in Dubai and called the 8th wonder of the earth. We also drove past the King's Palace (Sheikh Mohammed's home, king of Dubai and Prime Minister of UAE) where they feed the birds at 5 pm so I got to see the most beautiful peacocks!
I have never seen so many luxurious hotels, office buildings and residential towers in my life (maybe Manhattan). But I also got to see the creek. Some parts of the creek are set apart by UNESCO to create wildlife there. I wonder if the birds, that are supposed to come and live there are also man-made...
Apparently over 80% of the Dubai population is foreign (according to my taxi driver). People from all over the world, whether already rich or hoping to become rich and see their dreams come true, come to Dubai to make their fortune. This gives Dubai a culturally diverse image. Both the Western oil people in their HUGE SUVs and yellow hummers and my taxi driver who left his family three years ago in Pakistan in order to provide them with a better life are examples.

The place where I'm staying at is next to a mosque. After living next to one on the West Bank I never thought I would like hearing their chanting again, but the singing actually gives me a homey feeling!

Anyways, the long shirt, pants, coat and scarf lie ready for me. Tomorrow at 5 am local time I will leave for the Dubai airport where my flight for Kabul leaves at 7:30 am. As I already wrote before, I happen to arrive on possibly one of the worst days to arrive: Afghan Day of Revolution.

I will keep you updated!

Almost...

Just one quick message before I leave. Tomorrow I'll be catching the 10:30 am train from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf to fly from there (through Schiphol!!!) to Dubai. I'll be spending a little bit over a day there before I leave early Sunday morning to Kabul. Imagine the double culture shock... On top of that, Sunday April 27th 2008, the first day I'll be walking Afghan soil, the Afghans celebrate their day of Revolution. That should be exciting!

Anyways, I just picked up a very fancy flash recorder from work so expect lots of sound bytes and documentaries from me. At least, if I can find a way to post them online! But you can hear them on GrootNieuwsRadio!

Not much more to tell at the moment, but hopefully I can write a little something when I'm in Dubai drinking the most expensive cappuccino, or hopefully latte, ever! (thanks Amy!)

The Preparations...

Many of you have asked me to keep them updated before and after, but mostly during my trip to Kabul, Afghanistan. Well, here I am, writing my first blog for all of you who are interested.

One of the main questions I should answer is probably why I am going to Kabul, Afghanistan. The ones of you who know me, know that I have always been very interested in the position of women and how women can be empowered. I believe women are not always used to their maximum potential and their capabilities are sometimes ignored or simply forgotten. This is most definitely also the case during (post-conflict) reconstruction. During my studies (Conflict Resolution and Governance) these past couple of months, I've become very fascinated with the role women could and should play during the reconstruction of their country after war and conflict. Empowering women will help with the process of rebuilding a country, because there are a lot of good things women can add, because they are women and because they experience things different than men and have different needs. This is also the case for Afghanistan. (I realize for the academics amongst you, this may sound very normative, but you are more than welcome to read my thesis. The goal of this blog is to share my passions and experiences with you.)

For my MA thesis of the program Conflict Resolution and Governance I am going to Kabul to visit women who participate in self help groups. The goals of these groups are to empower women and strengthen their position in society as well as within their family. My goal is to research their effectiveness and how they play a role in rebuilding the civil society of Afghanistan.

My hope and passion is to see a transformation happening from wartime victims to peacebuilding victors (thanks Nahmyo!). I believe women who were victims of terrible atrocities can become active in changing their community, their society, their world. I know it is possible, it has happened before. Think of Rwanda. Strengthening Governance: The Role of Women in Rwanda's Transition

In exactly 18 days I will leave from Amsterdam through Dubai to Kabul. I will record my experiences here. This is the place where you can find my pictures, my stories and hopefully some sound bytes. Will you travel with me?