Women Still Silenced

Several female delegates said they feel silenced by the atmosphere in the assembly, where conservatives have power. They were particularly unhappy about the treatment of Malalai Joya, a young female delegate who was called a communist when she spoke out against the jihadi leaders and was nearly thrown out of the jirga on Wednesday.

In spite of this, the female delegates are determined to keep conferring with each other and continue to try to influence the process.

In the Emergency Loya Jirga of June 2002, women had 200 delegates out of the 1,650 total. For this assembly, they have 100 out of 502: two elected from each of the 32 provinces, 25 appointed by Karzai, and six from among special groups – Kuchis, domestic refugees and Afghans living in Iran and Pakistan.

Five other women were among the 344 directly elected delegates. So the proportion has increased from about 12 per cent of the jirga to about 20 per cent.

One woman, Safia Sediqi, was chosen as a fourth deputy chair of the Loya Jirga, and half of the four secretaries are women.

But Sima Samar, head of the independent human rights commission and former minister of women's affairs, argued that since women make up more than half of the population of Afghanistan, “there should have been at least 200 women taking part”.

One of the secretaries of the Loya Jirga, Jamila Mujahed, told IWPR, “Compared to the [Emergency] Loya Jirga, generally the atmosphere has improved."

But it still isn't conducive for women to feel comfortable, she said. “The number of women is few and the fundamentalists are in the majority. If the environment remains in the hands of such people, the chances for women [to have influence] are slight,” she added.

A delegate from Kandahar, Rangina Hamidi, said there are plenty of men in the assembly who also disagreed with the way the conservative elements are acting, but "they don’t have the courage to say so”.

She expressed sympathy for Joya. “If we're not saddened [by this], we wouldn’t be human," she said. "We should have left the hall.”

Hamidi said a group of women delegates met with United States ambassador Zalmai Khalilzad on Wednesday evening and told him, “Talk of our people’s freedom and democracy is futile until the warlords disappear.”

One woman delegate, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the mujahedin faction leaders and commanders who form the majority of the Loya Jirga are a hurdle to women and pro democratic men – because they are afraid they'll be killed if they speak up.

She said, “When a delegate offers his or her opinion and someone stops them and the microphone is cut, and they hears insulting words from every side - what type of democracy and freedom is that?”

She and several other female delegates complained that the Loya Jirga's work wasn't well -organised, and that all the long-winded speeches made them very tired.

However, Palwasha Hasan, chief editor for Mursal Weekly and a delegate from Kabul, said that woman can defend their rights in the Loya Jirga.

She said women are consulting amongst themselves about ways to win rights for women, where they have unanimity. However, some approve of the presidential system as in the draft constitution, while others prefer a parliamentary system.

Hasina Sulaiman and Hasina Rasuli are participating in IWPR's Loya Jirga reporting project. Danish Karokhel, an editor and staff reporter for IWPR, also contributed to this report.