InBrief

Last week the women silks hosted a function to welcome to Australia two young Afghan women lawyers, to increase awareness about the situation in Afghanistan and, most importantly, to raise money to support the women during their 18 month stay in this country.�The women are two of three women lawyers who are sponsored by UNIFEM to study here this year.�Their object is to use what they learn here for the betterment of their own people.� They are enthusiastic and optimistic.� They deserve our support and encouragement.

UNIFEM is the United Nations Fund for Women. UNIFEM Australia works with the IDP Peace Scholarship Trust of IDP Education to provide opportunities for young women to study at Australian Universities who have already contributed to peace and gender equality in their own country, and who have pledged to continue that commitment on their return.� Afghan women lawyers wishing to further their studies are amongst them.� Regrettably UNIFEM receives no government funding for this particular project.

Many of us complain about injustice and inequality in our own society.� We cannot begin to understand what life must be like as a woman in Afghanistan.

Most of us know little about Afghanistan.� What we know tends to be drawn from the mass media and the novels of Khaled Hosseini.�

Afghanistan’s official web site tells us that when you think Afghanistan you should imagine this:

Where 20 years of war has totally crippled the economy, and you must try to somehow survive day-by-day by scrounging enough food to feed your children.� Where people do not have the facilities to receive an education.� Where people do not have the facilities to receive treatment at hospitals.� Where, on average, men die at 40 years of age and women at 43.� Where hundreds of thousands of people are maimed, disabled, or blind because of war and land mines.� Where you face a high chance of becoming blind or crippled because of the lack of fresh fruit and vegetables, causing vitamin deficiency. If you are blind or crippled, no one can help you because those that are not blind or crippled need help as well.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:

• 87% of Afghan women are illiterate and only 30% of girls have access to education.
• one�in every�three Afghan women experiences physical, psychological or sexual violence.
• every 30 minutes a woman dies in childbirth in Afghanistan.�
• the average life expectancy for women is 44.
• 70-80% of women are forced into marriage.

Our connection with Afghanistan began when UNIFEM Australia arranged for Kate Eastman and Michelle Hannon, now pro bono partner at Gilbert + Tobin, to contribute to a workshop of women lawyers and judges in Afghanistan who were providing input about women’s rights to the new Afghan constitution.� Kate and Michelle encouraged UNIFEM Australia to find ways to continue to build relationships with Afghan women lawyers.� The Peace Scholarship then came into being.� UNIFEM Australia aims to bring a total of ten women law students to study here.

For those who have not already made a donation I urge you to give as much as you can.� The project requires at least $21,500 per student.� That covers air fares and living expenses only.� They have been granted a scholarship to cover their accommodation and tuition fees�from Macquarie University.

Last year I met the 2006 scholarship winners, Marina Nawabi and Nasima Rahmani.� Marina was an undergraduate when she came and completed her law degree here.� Immediately on her return to Kabul she successfully secured funding through contacts she made here for a project she initiated to assist some of the many war widows. Nasima Rahmani is a young lawyer who graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Science in Kabul University in December 2003.� It took Nasima 12 years to complete her law degree.� During the Islamic revolution the university was shut down for�three years.� When it reopened in 1995, most families did not send their girls back for fear that they would be kidnapped.�Human rights violations the like of which we never see in this country were commonplace.� Nasima rejoined the faculty in 1996 but later that year the Taliban came to power and for the next five years until they were overthrown women and girls were obliged to stay behind closed doors.

This isn’t just Nasima’s story, but the story of thousands of Afghan women. During the period of her deferred study Nasima taught in the women’s literacy campaign and also worked as a volunteer activist with the Afghan Women Lawyer’s Council, and as legal counsellor for women in conflict with the law in 3 provinces for the Afghan Women Judges’ Association.�

I was touched by their lives, their strength and their courage and their commitment to rebuilding their country.

The�two young women we met this year are Zohra and Haseena Akseer, aged respectively 23 and 24.� They are both studying for a masters degree in international trade law at Macquarie University.� They happen to be sisters.� They had the good fortune to be raised by enlightened and educated parents who during the rule of the Taliban sent them to live with a cousin in Pakistan so that they could receive a secondary education. They finished high school in 2000 and completed their undergraduate degree in 2005.� As Zohra herself has observed, living in a dominant male society like Afghanistan where women’s rights are frequently violated and nothing much has been done about that, thanks to the Peace Scholarship programme they have a chance to study – again in Zohra’s words – “in a place where both male and female have equal rights”.

These women are impressive.� They appear undaunted by obstacles we would regard as overwhelming.� Yet they need our financial help.� I encourage you to support them.� Donations are tax deductible.�

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30 June 2008