This article I wrote as part of my work as a deputy head of the Press and Public Information Office of the EU mission for police and rule of law in Afghanistan. I thought it would also be of interest to you.

 

Edith Lommerse, Uwe president

Kabul, December 2012. Early in the morning in the province of Kunduz a gunshot is heard. It kills the 18-year-old Nasrin, leaving her family to cry for the loss of her young life. All they can do is grieve for her and with them thousands of women in Afghanistan, as almost 90 percent of them are potential victims of discrimination and violence ranging from child marriage, forced marriage, rape or polygamy. Only a month later, 15-year-old Tamara is brutally murdered by a relative in a so-called “honour killing”. In October, a 25-year-old-woman is beheaded in Herat province, another 30-year-old is mutilated and murdered.
Nasrin, Tamara – the violent deaths of women in Afghanistan are hardly rare events. Women are frequently victims because of a perceived violation of family’s honour. Cases of "extreme or brutal violence against women" have increased in recent months, Women's Affairs Minister Husn Banu Ghazanfar said last month at an event to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. She cited more than 3,500 reported cases in the first six months of the Afghan year. While the official statistics are alarming, reports such as the “Survey of the Afghan people 2012” from the US based Asia Foundation say that there are many cases of violence which go unreported. Many families in Afghanistan do not want to reveal such incidents because they feel it will tarnish their honour and dignity in society.
President Hamid Karzai has realised the gravity of the matter. He expressed serious concern over the increase in violence against women in his recent radio message to the nation. He said domestic violence in any way or any form stands in complete negation of all Islamic instructions and human rights values that women are entitled. “Both our religion and our culture give tremendous respect to women. Women are mothers and enjoy a valuable respect in Islam”, said the President. He also stated that domestic violence can rip apart the very fabric of a family life and badly affect the way its members including the children behave. “It destroys love, passion and respect.”
To raise more awareness against (domestic) abuse, the Afghan government, the country’s rights organisations and the international community were celebrating the international ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence’ campaign from 25 November until 10 December. The days started with commenting on the current status of women: “Afghanistan still is – despite improvements in the last 11 years - one of the most insecure places on earth for a woman to live”, comments EU Special Representative, Vygaudas Usackas, and EUPOL Afghanistan’s Head of Mission, Karl Ake Roghe, in a joint open letter published in Afghan media. “Women and girls are still disproportionately affected by violence that is rooted in distorted and harmful traditional customs and practices supplemented by weak governance and rule of law.”
Whilst the Afghan Independent Rights Commission (AIRC) calls upon the government and all responsible organs to seriously follow up and make sure that those responsible for such violations like Nasrin and Tamara, are held accountable, it will remain a long fight against traditional values. To find justice in these cases is not easy in Afghanistan. In many cases of domestic violence, neither the perpetrator nor the victim realises that a crime is even being committed. Moreover, there are cases where women victims themselves are being accused of moral crimes (See fact box Moral Crimes). “Therefore” – the open letter states- “awareness raising on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law and other legal instruments remains an important and necessary weapon in the battle to end gender based violence”.
In theory, the Elimination of Violence Against Women Law (EVAW), passed in 2009, should offer the women protection and redress. It covers various things, outlawing a range of abuses from assault and rape to marriages that are coercive, involve minors or amount to a transaction between the families concerned (see fact box EVAW). The challenge is to put the legislation into practice which needs coordination between all government agencies.
In practice, currently this coordination is hardly existent. This became very clear after is a workshop organised by EUPOL’s Human Right and Gender unit (HRG) to mark the International Day to combat violence against women. Challenges and possibilities were discussed by several representatives of the Afghan governments and units of the Afghan National Police. And there are many to overcome.
For the victims it starts with the challenge reporting a crime, especially if the mahram (male guardian) of the victim is also the perpetrator. When a woman arrives at a police station, she often faces police officers who lack the knowledge, the capacity and even the will to deal with domestic violence professionally. Only a third of the cases make it to court to be investigated.
Surprisingly, the majority of the cases are settled outside of court through mediation by the Family Response Unit (FRU) which is part of the Ministry of Interior. Its Head, Lieutenant Fazila, is rather unhappy about the position of her unit. She lacks recognition from other departments, and most of all, personnel. “My unit consists only of 347 police officers in a police force of 150.000.”
Given the amount of cases they have to handle, this is only a drop in the ocean. Deputy Minister of Women Affairs, Mojgan Mostavafi, also asks for more support and wonders why the Ministry of the Interior is absent in most meetings concerning the implementation of the law EVAW. He also wants to invest much more in education of the public and the justice system.
“Through public awareness campaigns, women and men should know that violence against women is a crime and it has to be reported”, he emphasizes. Part of the problem, emphasizes Lieutenant Fazila, “is that people don’t know that violence against women is a crime.’’ Colonel Hekmat Shahi Rasuli of Human Rights and Gender fully agrees: “Law is not only knowledge you can learn in a book, its implementation matters. We need more training and education for those who implement the law such as police and prosecutors.”
That there is a dire need for more training in human rights, demonstrates a snapshot of the EUPOL courses for police officers at the Central Training Centre in Kabul. Eleven students started there their two week course on the Elimination of Violence against women. EUPOL Trainer Alan Skurbaty starts of with basic questions to enhance a discussion: “Is it legal when women are leaving their homes? Is it against the law?” An inspector from Herat tries an answer: “Traditional rules in Afghanistan say that it isn’t allowed. In itself it is not a crime, but when a woman leaves her family, she will very likely commit a crime.” He says that he filed a case against a woman who ran away from home because she was beaten, but the prosecutor wouldn’t accept his claim”. Trainer Alan holds up the Afghan constitution, reads the paragraph on the EVAW law and asks again: “Is it lawful to go wherever you want?” Most of the students realize by now that the answer should be yes, every person has freedom of movement and residence. Trainer Allen won’t accept the ongoing discussion of traditional rules and moral crimes: “As police officers you are here to uphold and protect the law of Afghanistan. The questions of all your action is always is it lawful or not”. Despite the controversial discussions, EUPOL trainers such as Alan remain positive. “ I am aware that I challenge my students but I try to make all exercises personal, let them talk about their daughters and children to make them experience how it would feel if moral crimes would be applied for their own family members. Then, I often see a shift of opinion.”
Despite the obvious needs to educate policemen, it is hard to find enough students to fill the classrooms although the EVAW course was put on as a special request from the Afghan Ministry of Interior. That same ministry has set an ambitious goal to employ 5000 female police officers by the end of 2014. Currently, there are only around 1.500 in the Afghan Police – a mere one percent of the overall police force. They are desperately needed, though, for investigating crimes where women are the suspects or victims of domestic violence, to search or pat down women at checkpoints, at airports or at crime scenes. According to the latest UNDP Police Perception Survey, seven in ten Afghans say “they are more likely to report a crime if the police officer is female” and two thirds say “female police fulfill a need in society.” The majority tend to trust females more to investigate a crime fairer than their male counterparts. Yet, you must be brave as a woman to be a policewoman in Afghanistan: they are facing threats and discrimination.
Most of the complaints, though, are about misconduct, sexual harassment, unequal treatment and even violence by their male colleagues at the workplace. This is unacceptable behavior, says Hekmat Shahi Rasuli, the Deputy General of Human Rights and Gender at the Minister of Interior: “There should be respect for Afghan policewomen, especially at their working place. They should be protected”. The question remains how.
Not an easy task: Yet, EUPOL is addressing this issue and is currently developing a programmatic approach to support the Minister of Interior to recruit more policewomen.
The problem to tackle is not the low recruitment but problems to retain female police. Women are eager to join but need to be given better work conditions to entice them to stay in the police force.
More gender equality policies must be developed, with a fair and equal deployment within all units of the ANP, with the equal opportunities for training and career development and a higher public awareness and understanding of women’s rights. But even if the aim of recruiting 5.000 female police officers was fulfilled, the police force would remain dominated by men.
Still, it is not only about gender but rather about the professional commitment of both male and female policemen and prosecutors to abide by the law. This is also what the EU Special Representative and EUPOL’s Head of Mission conclude: “Gender does not prevent a female police officer from treating a rape as a case of adultery, or the act of running away from an abusive husband as a moral crime.”
They say that only “awareness combined with capacity and will by all members of the Afghan National Police and justice institutions to address gender based violence, is the ultimate guarantee of the implementation of EVAW- law.”

Karzai’s speech expressing his concern on the increasing violence against women got a sinister follow up on 21 November when eight prisoners were hanged. The eight had been convicted of crimes including murder, kidnapping and rape.