Why international aid may be contributing to violence against women in Afghanistan
June 2012, Maidan Shah, Wardak province, Afghanistan. Around 30 women-entrepreneurs, participants of “gender responsive governance project” funded by a large Western donor, are busy selling handicrafts, clothes and food during a fair in the municipality building. This fair was a part of a project that featured as a success story in the donor’s report on gender programming in Afghanistan*. What the report did not mention however, was the fact that two female managers of this project were threatened by some quasi-criminals-quasi-Talibans for ‘propagating western ideas to Afghan women’.
Gender equality and gender empowerment are powerful buzzwords in the international aid jargon. To the extent that in 2013/14 around 32% of the total aid of Development Assistance Committee by OECD included gender component. In particular, ending violence against women has emerged as a priority in the post-2015 development agenda.
Yet, the recent years in Afghanistan saw an increase in reported cases of violence against women[i]. The case of Farkhunda, who has been lynched alive in 2015 by mob for alleged blasphemy, has shocked the public opinion worldwide. But cases of violence in even less dramatic forms are a daily bread for many Afghan women. Ironically, on the same year, almost 43 pence for each dollar of total aid in Afghanistan (amounting to USD 4.3bn in 2015 only[ii]) was dedicated to gender-related causes[iii]. While empowering women in a poverty and war stricken country such as Afghanistan is a truly noble goal, it can contribute to more violence perpetrated against women if it is implemented with no regard and understanding of the cultural, societal and security context.
The aid in Afghanistan is symptomatic of lacking understanding of the gender relations. It failed to acknowledge that traditionally, Afghan men are considered as responsible for bringing home bread and butter while the women’s job is to look after the household. The policy of ‘positive discrimination’ towards women, often embedded in gender empowerment aid programs, had significant impact on increasing the job opportunities of women in aid sector while neglecting male employment. Over 15 years, the international aid given to Afghanistan was not able to create meaningful and sustainable employment for both men and women, without creating backlash. The aid donors failed to understand that resentments felt by unemployed men, mixed with increasing competition on the labour market between men and women resulted in men reestablishing their power through domestic violence[iv] and harassment at work[v].
The aid in Afghanistan failed to realise that, while women may be seen as victims to males, so do men fall victims to frustrations with lack of economic opportunities. Many of them bear scars of decades’ long conflict that established patterns of proving ones power and self-esteem through violence. In such context, resolving conflicts through constructive, non-violent dialogue turns out to be a real challenge. Perception of men as perpetrators from whom women should be saved certainly does not help in opening up such a dialogue. Nor does help the perception of equality between men and women as a foreign imposition on good, old values that should be preserved.
Before it is too late, the international community should rethink the way gender mainstreaming is promoted in conflict states such as Afghanistan. If donors are really serious about the well-being of women in Afghanistan, first of all they should understand better the social, cultural and religious context in which they want to bring about the change – and find leverage in these local factors. Both Islamic religious laws as well as informal, tribal legal systems contain certain mechanisms to ensure protection of women rights in the society. They could be treated as a good start for policies on gender equality in Afghanistan. Moreover, it is necessary that both men and women are equally engaged and have ownership of shaping better social and economic opportunities for all. Last but not least, such changes do not happen overnight, particularly in a highly patriarchal, conflict-torn country as Afghanistan. Aid agencies and international organizations should promote slow but sustainable poverty eradication and awareness raising, rather than advocate for radical shift in gender balance.
Or else, when the international aid to Afghanistan dries up year by year, resurging Talibans will reclaim “the good, old order” even more forcefully and will bring all efforts in women empowerment back to square one.
*Marta Matosek, the author of this article worked in her capacities as a Project Manager at Bureau for Reconstruction and Development (now Bureau for Right-Based Development). In 2012 she lead on a USAID-funded project on Gender Responsive Governance. The project aimed at providing training and raising awareness of Afghan women and men on the gender mainstreaming in the workplace and in public governance. This was achieved through: 1) providing fellowship program both young women and men on management, leadership and governance; 2) awareness raising workshops to the CSOs on gender and civic education, management and leadership; 3) trainings for women entrepreneurs on business development and later – organizing fairs in the municipalities for their products.
[i] https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage_en/15695/EU:%20THE%20AFGHAN%20GOVERNMENT%20MUST%20ACT%20NOW%20TO%20STOP%20VIOLENCE%20AGAINST%20WOMEN
[ii] https://public.tableau.com/views/OECDDACAidataglancebyrecipient_new/Recipients?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&:showTabs=y&:toolbar=no?&:showVizHome=no
[iii] http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=GENDER#
iv Abirafeh Lina. Gender and International aid in Afghanistan. The Politics and Effects of Intervention. MacFarland and Co Publishing. 2009.
v Inter Press Service. 2013. Afghan Women Harassed into Unemployment: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/afghan-women-harassed-into-unemployment/
