A Huge Responsibility
She is obviously an exceptional woman of extraordinary will and capable talents. There are many such women around the world, and generally, these are women whose spheres of influence owe much to their exposure to higher education in advanced societies where their families live with some semblance of wealth. That would not apply to women born in backward societies where women are scorned as inferior beings.
Fawzia Koofi is the first female ever elected to parliament in Afghanistan. She has stubbornly stood up to other parliamentarians who were better known as warlords and drug kingpins. Her own brothers are involved with some of these warlords in the proliferating and profitable drug trade in her country. And she has been the recipient of quite a number of death threats, some attempts close enough to be quite concerning.
She is the widowed 36-year-old mother of an 12- and a 11-year-old girl. She is concerned for her children, but she is also concerned for the future of Afghanistan's women and children. Afghanistan is one of the worst countries of the world for women to live in, where women are degraded and oppressed, denied equal status with men, and live in squalid poverty.
Women are held to be of such little value that when she was born, her mother despaired, wanting to bear a son, having already given birth to 7 children, but fearful that her husband who had taken his 7th wife, a 14-year-old girl who had just borne a son, might prefer his latest wife to her. So she left the newborn out in the sun until the following day, hoping it would die.
She lived to become a member of the country's parliament. Defiant against all odds, determined to forge ahead with her plan to represent her countrywomen's needs, and their children's futures through education and opportunities to be opened to them, she persists. There are now, with the absence of the Taliban, 2.7 million girls attending school.
The Afghan parliament has an astounding 27% female members of parliament. But dreadful brutality toward women and girls, forced early marriages, literal bondage, is the fate of many women and girls. Although much has improved for Afghan women in the urban areas, little has changed in the countryside of which there are vast stretches.
"A month ago, I met a girl who had been locked underground by her husband because she refused to go into prostitution. She was just 15, and had never even had a period. Her nails had been pulled out. There was no part of her skin that hadn't been bruised or marked in some way. They fed her only every other day. In Afghanistan, these things still happen", Ms. Koofi explained.
"Life does become heavy for me. There is a huge responsibility on my shoulders. But they [the Taliban] could get me anywhere. And I know that if they want to kill me, then it is only because I am a threat to them. That means I am succeeding." The trouble here, of course, is that it is almost inevitable that as soon as the NATO (ISAF) forces leave, as they will by 2014, the Taliban will return.
"Women have not been involved in the country's destruction. We do not have blood on our hands. We have been agents of peace, and if anyone tries not to include us in the process of peace, then it will not be easy for them."
Fawzia Koofi is the first female ever elected to parliament in Afghanistan. She has stubbornly stood up to other parliamentarians who were better known as warlords and drug kingpins. Her own brothers are involved with some of these warlords in the proliferating and profitable drug trade in her country. And she has been the recipient of quite a number of death threats, some attempts close enough to be quite concerning.
She is the widowed 36-year-old mother of an 12- and a 11-year-old girl. She is concerned for her children, but she is also concerned for the future of Afghanistan's women and children. Afghanistan is one of the worst countries of the world for women to live in, where women are degraded and oppressed, denied equal status with men, and live in squalid poverty.
Women are held to be of such little value that when she was born, her mother despaired, wanting to bear a son, having already given birth to 7 children, but fearful that her husband who had taken his 7th wife, a 14-year-old girl who had just borne a son, might prefer his latest wife to her. So she left the newborn out in the sun until the following day, hoping it would die.
She lived to become a member of the country's parliament. Defiant against all odds, determined to forge ahead with her plan to represent her countrywomen's needs, and their children's futures through education and opportunities to be opened to them, she persists. There are now, with the absence of the Taliban, 2.7 million girls attending school.
The Afghan parliament has an astounding 27% female members of parliament. But dreadful brutality toward women and girls, forced early marriages, literal bondage, is the fate of many women and girls. Although much has improved for Afghan women in the urban areas, little has changed in the countryside of which there are vast stretches.
"A month ago, I met a girl who had been locked underground by her husband because she refused to go into prostitution. She was just 15, and had never even had a period. Her nails had been pulled out. There was no part of her skin that hadn't been bruised or marked in some way. They fed her only every other day. In Afghanistan, these things still happen", Ms. Koofi explained.
"Life does become heavy for me. There is a huge responsibility on my shoulders. But they [the Taliban] could get me anywhere. And I know that if they want to kill me, then it is only because I am a threat to them. That means I am succeeding." The trouble here, of course, is that it is almost inevitable that as soon as the NATO (ISAF) forces leave, as they will by 2014, the Taliban will return.
"Women have not been involved in the country's destruction. We do not have blood on our hands. We have been agents of peace, and if anyone tries not to include us in the process of peace, then it will not be easy for them."
Labels: Sexism, societal failures
posted by Pieface @ 6:35 PM
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