DUSHANBE CONFERENCE
Conference in Dushanbe for Women of Afghanistan by Nasrine Gross
On June 27 and 28, 2000, the "Conference for Women of Afghanistan" was held in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan, to defend the Afghan women’s rights. Organized by NEGAR-Support of Women of Afghanistan, a Paris-based Afghan organization, the conference was the culmination of its project called ‘Women on the Road for Afghanistan’. The participants were composed of a number of Afghan women from the United States and Europe, more than 250 Afghan refugee women from Tajikistan and Iran, women from inside Afghanistan, and by 45 non-Afghans (including two men), from five continents, including Algeria, France, Spain and the USA.
The Afghans from the west consisted of Shoukria Haidar, president of NEGAR, Shekeba Hashemi (humanitarian activist), Manila Khaled (humanitarian activist), Maliha Zulfacar (professor of sociology), Hassina Sherjan Samad (journalist) and Nasrine Gross (writer). Some of the non-Afghans were Patricia Lalonde (NEGAR member and wife of Brice Lalonde, former member of the French Parliament and leader of the Generation Ecologiste Party), Constance Borde (head of the American Democrats in Europe), Mary Quin (physicist and Feminist Majority representative), Juliette Minces (author and researcher on women in Islam), Annie Sugier (feminist), Francoise Causse (independent journalist), Gerard Cardonne (writer), Chantale Veron (NEGAR member and professor), Lucette and Roland Fremont (NEGAR members and feminists), Diane LeBow (professor of Feminism), Khalida Messaoudi (member of the Algerian Parliament and world-famous feminist), Nadjia Bouzeghrane (journalist), Ellen Grandsard Hirsh (psychologist), Sofie Marsaudan (journalist) and others.
Except for NEGAR members, many were representing women’s organizations that had formally declared their solidarity with this effort, such as the Feminist Caucus, Femmes Solidaires, International Women’s Rights, Iranian Women’s League, RACHDA from Algeria, RTV from Prishtina in Cossovo, Women’s Network Angola, Feminist Majority, etc. As well, to further bolster the project’s standing and recognition, NEGAR had applied and paid its dues, to the Worldwide March of Women, an organization promoting the recommendations and spirit of the international women’s conference held in Beijing in 1995.*
The conference and its Women on the Road for Afghanistan initiative, some of whose main leaders and untiring organizers, from the inception, were Patricia Lalonde, Constance Borde, Ellie Shaeffer, Mary Quin, Chantale Veron and Shekeba Hashemi, were advertized, through the internet and other media, for about five months and admission was open. Each attendee was personally responsible for all her/his expenses.
NEGAR is a five-year old association working for the defense of Afghan women's rights. To date, it has taken several political actions in France, such as testimonials in front of the French Senate, trips to Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, preparation of reports on the situation of new internal refugees and participation in the Feminist Majority's Expo 2000 in Baltimore, MD. Shoukria Haidar, the founder of NEGAR, left Afghanistan in 1980, finished her Master's degree and Ph.D. coursework in France, and is now a teacher.
The first day of the conference was chaired by Shekeba Hashemi and opened by Shoukria Haidar. Haidar spoke of the need for such a conference at this moment in time when the Afghan woman inside Afghanistan is denied the right to exercise her basic rights and her voice is totally silenced. She also elaborated on the political mission of the Afghan woman. She described the two major objectives of the conference as: 1) for the Afghan attendees to stand up and proclaim their rights and thus affirm the rights of their sisters inside; and 2) for the non-Afghan members of the Women on the Road for Afghanistan to declare their denunciation of the Taliban and to condemn the indifference of the rest of the world towards the tragedy of Afghanistan.
The keynote speaker was Khalida Messaoudi, who spoke twice, morning and afternoon and was received with long standing ovations. Messaoudi talked about how women in both Algeria and Afghanistan have become a tool of political Islam and international petrodollar power politics. She also described the struggles of the Algerian women to combat this situation.
Several other participants, including Patricia Lalonde, Constance Borde, Mary Quin, Maliha Zulfacar, Hassina Sherjan Samad, Nasrine Gross, and women from the refugee community, such as principals of Afghan schools and directors of women's associations also spoke on the first day.
On the second day of the conference, the task of the day was for the Afghan women to draft a charter of the fundamental rights of Afghan women and for the non-Afghans to draw up a communique of their stand. The first draft of the charter had earlier been researched in Paris and then prepared in Dushanbe, by Shoukria Haidar and Nasrine Gross, mostly from UN documents and Afghan constitutions of 1964 and 1977. The charter, fashioned in four sections, followed the format of UN declarations. Consultation of two of the non-Afghans was also sought, Annie Sugier who has a lot of experience, having worked with Simone de Beauvoir, mother of Feminism, and Mary Quin, a representative of Feminist Majority and founder of the 100 Heroines Project(these two along with Constance Borde also translated the draft into French and English). Then, in a closed session, the charter was reviewed, discussed, edited and amended word by word and sentence by sentence, by a solely Afghan group composed of all those from the United States and Europe and about 25 women representing major groups of the other Afghan women attendees. Finally, the resulting document, "Declaration of the Essential Rights of Afghan Women" was presented to the general assembly of the conference consisting of all the participants, about 250 - 300 persons. The long standing ovation that followed the reading of the Declaration, filled with cheers, tears streaming down every cheek, hugs, jubilation, applause and in some cases dancing, represented the resounding ratification of this Declaration. At the end of the session, NEGAR also collected signatures of all Afghan women in attendance.
The non-Afghan group of the Women on the Road for Afghanistan, then read their communique, condemning the practices of the Taliban and its main supporter, Pakistan, and the silence of the world about it. This ‘Call for Action’ talks about this silence as an accomplice in the tragedy and points to ways that advocacy could be shown. After this, for about two hours, more than 20 persons from the refugees and other participants gave testimonials in support of the Declaration and the Afghan woman -- and of course the tragedy of Afghanistan. Several of the non-Afghans' speeches spoke of specific political actions that can demonstrate active advocacy. The conference officially ended late in the afternoon. That evening all the participants were treated to a sumptuous Afghan dinner and concert given by the group ‘Barana’.
Aside from the creation of these documents, one of the most important accomplishments of the conference was the distribution, by NEGAR, of the Declaration along with some important United Nations documents, such as the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to each participating family.
The feedback received in the subsequent days about the conference and concerning these documents was overwhelming. People told us that with this event we had created a true movement; that every refugee family was now reading and talking about these documents; that they had no idea such documents existed; that they were surprised to find out that such rights were universally accepted; that they now felt they were part of humanity; that they now knew they were alive; that they now had hope.
After the conference, a delegation of nine people (4 journalists, one physicist activist, one sociologist and two humanitarians consisting of 1 American, 1 Algerian, 2 Frenchwomen, 1 Frenchman, and 4 Afghan women) went to Panjshir to see Afghanistan up close and observe its social traditions at work. The remainder spent five days visiting all the Afghan refugee schools and Afghan women's and men's associations. We also visited the Institute of Peace of Asia, a think-tank associated with the government of Tajikistan that has an emphasis on peace in Afghanistan. These visits not only helped us assess the problems and successes of the refugees. They were also an opportune moment, albeit too brief and cursory, to observe a little the evolution of the Afghan personality and society and learn of their current values and visions. The comments we received from these contacts were very helpful in our own evaluation of the conference. Several groups told us they had watched the conference proceedings closely for the manner we achieved our goals so quickly (producing the two documents) and they learned things as to how to conduct their own meetings. They had especially learned from how we had gone about building consensus. Others told us that attending the conference had also helped promote more understanding and reconciliation among their own refugee groups.
The insights we learned from meeting all of the refugees is beyond measure. It proved, to at least this writer, that even a little goes a long way if it is well-thought out. The educational and intellectual level of the refugee women was very impressive and their participation very active. How all of them have kept their dignity and zest for life in the face of this enormous adversity is a lesson that once again made me proud to be an Afghan -- and reaffirmed beautifully to me that this country and its people are worth fighting for.
It was also important to have the non-Afghan attendees. Their focussed interest, attentive respect, keen observation, and cool professionalism served to cushion the unavoidable emotionalism that we Afghans develop when seeing so much tragedy among our people. I am convinced that non-Afghans helping activist Afghans is one of the great promises that can more effectively bring results, such as this conference. Personally, it was also refreshing to see non-Afghan organizations and individuals actually interested in Afghanistan itself and the ‘ethically right’ thing, and not working for some ulterior motives. I will long remember the association and the lessons.
The delegation that went to Panjshir stayed there four terribly emotional days; met with Ahmad Shah Massoud; gave him the Declaration and the Call for Action; and visited schools, hospitals, refugee camps and POW prisons. They also ran into newly displaced refugees as a result of the fresh fighting raging those days and nights. Seeing Panjshir and its war-ravaged people was emotionally draining enough but meeting people running literally for their lives, with fear of death in their eyes, blisters of hours of running on their feet, and holding on to children who had seen no food or drink for 48 hours, was an experience that apparently shook each one of the group to the very core. Several were traumatized on the spot and showed signs of deep stress, and all carried the scars even when they returned to the relative safety of Dushanbe. Their observations as regards the situation of women can be summed up in the answer Francoise Causse, a French journalist and a member of the delegation, later gave to a Dushanbe television reporter's question. Asked if she thought the plight of the Afghan woman was the result of a prolonged war, she responded: "in Panjshir she saw women in chadari, women in scarves, women without any head covering, girls studying in schools, women as teachers in boys' schools, women as nurses in hospitals, and women walking alone in the bazaars; and Panjshir is a war zone. No, war has not created the plight of the Afghan woman. Just look at Panjshir."
To close, this conference was a profound realization of how much of Afghanistan’s human potential and dignity today lay in waste. It was also the dawn of not only many a newfound friendship, but also of possibilities. How this beginning is translated into a next step by each attendee individually and by NEGAR collectively, is a promise and an obligation that can reverberate deep inside Afghanistan. It can awaken each Afghan woman, wherever she may be, to her true worth and to the political mission she is capable of rendering, for herself and for Afghanistan. My cherished sister, until the bright morning of our promise, I am with you -- step by step.
(*) A full list of the non-Afghan participants and
supporting organizations may be found in the original internet
announcement.
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