1. Interview with Jamila Afghani

    Kabul, Afghanistan

    Noor Education Centre for Development Organisation (NECDO)

    It is very important to work on behalf of Muslim women’s rights within a legal framework. Any female activist in Afghanistan working in this field has to consider the religious entities in place. This is something – a type of work and lifestyle – that I find both very interesting and important.

    Our organization was established in 2000 by a group of friends such as myself who were young and had just graduated from college. Our areas of work are primarily in educational spheres. We work in four provinces – Ghazni, Wardak, Badakhshan and Nangarhar. We have our headquarters in Kabul, and so we invariably do some work here as well.

    We soon realized that we could not take our work forward without the cooperation and understanding of imams (religious leaders) in these areas. We needed to work with them in order to push our own educational initiatives forward. I myself said down with imams and spoke to them about the work we hoped to push forward. It was, for many of them, the first time that a woman could actually sit with them and speak intelligently about hadiths (Islamic legal traditions) and Islamic law. I studied in Peshawar, attaining two Masters’ degrees – in International Relations and Islamic Law and hope to soon get my PhD in the former. We would bring imams together for meetings to explain our work. As you can imagine, we experienced a lot of obstacles. Many of the imams are graduates of madrassas, which implement a very old system that is generally closed to women’s rights. Many of them have issues, remaining unaware of their own subjects, suffering from low educational opportunities. More often than not, they are very close-minded. They remain unaware of Islamic theology and work, such as that which occurs in Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere, which doesn’t often reach Afghanistan’s imams.

    We arranged exposure visits to Iran, Turkey and Indonesia, working through the embassies here to send imams abroad. It was very positive. We give them training for a year or a year-and-a-half, and then we help them go abroad to see how Islam works elsewhere. We also took one male imam to a Muslim women’s conference in Turkey, and this was really wonderful. I just wondered how we would deal with a man at a women’s conference. But it went really well and he gave a speech himself – and he said:, “before I came to this conference, I thought that the most important thing for a Muslim woman was a hijab. Now, what I want for Muslim women in Afghanistan is education and training.”

    In this aspect, we have managed to work well with imams, pushing forward the work we want to for women’s education. We have, in my opinion, reached 150 imams that we have empowered and helped encourage to push forward women’s educational rights. We have also set up a network of imams who are “for peace” in 15 provinces, with 15-20 imam representatives in each of these provinces. We work with them to train them on Islam, focusing on family rights and women’s rights. This allows them to take the knowledge to their own villages and push forward women’s rights. We give them the tools they need – whether on Islam itself on community mobilization – and they disseminate the information. Once a year, we all come to together in Kabul and discuss the past year, work in each province and work together to address issues.

    What are some obstacles you face?

    It was very difficult at some point. I had a lot of issues with my brothers, even cousins, with them believing that I should or should not work a certain way. This was replicated among the imams, who don’t always agree with our interpretation of Islam or what we recommend when it comes to them pushing forward for women’s rights. Thanks to God, we don’t have too many obstacles anymore.

    Afghanistan, as you know, is a country with community leaders, warlords, etc. who all have their own opinions, particularly about women and women’s activists. We have these issues from time to time but we continue our work and do what we can. They often tell us that we are introducing interpretations of Islam to them that their fathers and grandfathers did not practice; others are more open-minded and immediately thank us for our work. My cousins would be upset with my brothers, telling them that it was wrong that I was working with foreigners and traveling abroad. It was very, very difficult to go through all of these obstacles, and sometimes, when I look back, I realize that I sacrificed a lot to do this work. I could never dress a certain way, more fashionably, in order to push my Islamic work forward. I had to protect my family’s reputation as much as I could. I was able to overcome these obstacles because I had to, and because of the support of my family and friends (whether foreign or local). If I was getting beaten – verbally or physically – they always helped me and helped it worked. One person would pick me up from meetings, another would drop me off. They supported me a lot.

    My husband is incredibly supportive of my work thankfully, which has been very helpful, particularly in this society. Now, thankfully, I don’t have so many issues with my brothers or cousins or anyone. My husband is a very religious man, and hails from a highly religious and well-known family, so that has helped quite a lot. He works on women’s issues as well, helping Afghan women as he can. All of this has helped a lot.

    How do you deal with insecurity in these provinces?

    God protects us as needed. We have some safety precautions, analyzing situations on the ground, trying to understand what is more and less risky. We try to approach things from an Islamic perspective, which helps a lot, and, if our employees have to remain in a province in the evening, they will often stay with the imams we work with. These imams were introduced to us by the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs itself, and then they introduced us to other imams. So, because the government introduced them to us, we know that they are safer. Everything we do is culturally-sensitive, and from an Islamic perspective – at the end of the day, this is the most valuable tool for us.

    We had a conference last year, for instance, and, in order to accommodate the imams’ beliefs and approaches, we separated the food and chai tables between men and women.

    We can’t change everything in a day. It will take a hundred years. Every achievement has to build on a previous achievement; it can’t be left without its foundations. Thankfully, we haven’t experienced any particular or large issue as remain open and sensitive as often and as much as possible. This is just something we have to do. So, if I am a woman in a leadership position, they may feel discomfort about this but we try to deal with this in the best way we can, like a family – like brothers and sisters.

    Do you also provide programming for women themselves?

    In ten mosques, we have worked with these imams to establish “female sections” and educational programs, including workshops. In Jalalabad, as you know is relatively conservative as well, for the first time, two mosques now have classes for women in which they can express themselves and their opinions. This type of awareness raising that we do with the imams ends up disseminating itself with imams setting up programs or improving programs and thus asking us for help in these situations.

    If F.I. could assist you in any way, what would you ask for?

    One thing FI did help us with is with the information they provide us about Islam and Islamic law, which we use to inform ourselves. Perhaps, if possible, if FI can assist us with translation and editing. As much as we try in Afghanistan, we are behind compared to other Islamic countries. If there is a way they could help us update our skills, hold seminars or workshops with imams, or something along these lines, it will help us open our minds and teach us. At that conference last year, for instance, we had a woman from Iran who was a scholar of fiqh and it received a lot of positive responses, with individuals shocked to meet this woman and really taking advantage of her knowledge and experience. Women should be in such a positive and, if FI can introduce us to more knowledgeable women like this, that would be very helpful for us to introduce them to imams.

    If you could share one message with the world, what would it be?

    I think that it would be that we should all live together and work together as a matter of our shared humanity. We must forget and let go of all the differences and see what the same things within us all is.

    By Shahla Naimi

     
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