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This story was featured on our programme, A Good Life. Click to hear the full programme. |
When the Taliban were defeated and President Hamid Karzei came to power, it looked like things would change radically for women. For some it has. But for others, freedom has been slow in coming. Women can now work and get an education but they still face a lot of opposition.
Difficult changes
"Women remain within a system of segregation," explains Esme de Jong, a Dutch anthropologist who has spent the last year living and working in Kabul.
"The changes that you see in Kabul is that more and more women stop wearing the burqa or so it seems. But what we found was that the majority of these women actually come from Pakistan, not the old population that used to live there. It's something that newcomers are bringing into the country, rather than women suddenly taking off their burqas in the street."
No one expected overnight change, instead Afghanistan has returned to its age-old internal conflict, between modern and traditional Afghan culture. "What we see is that education for girls has increased tremendously and that is a very good thing, Afghans were very emotional when that happened," says Esme.
"However, we also received many reports that girls going to school have had acid thrown in their faces, that there are reports of bombs being placed in the yards of schools for girls. So there are still traditional elements who really don't want these changes."
Social problems
Rural areas are more likely to support the more traditional Afghan way of life, with only the major urban areas showing signs of any real great change. The capital, Kabul, naturally leads the way. But shedding the burqa brings its problems too, some women are finding it hard to adapt after years of living behind a veil.
"I think the burqa made women more or less invisible," says Esme. "It locked them up in a certain place where they hardly had any interaction with friends and suddenly they come out and they have to be amongst people again. The very strange thing is that their social skills are actually quite bad because they have been living in an isolated manner for six years, it's like a prisoner coming out of prison and suddenly finding himself in the open and not knowing what to do next. Women are trying to find their place and trying to find a way of dealing with each other and trying not to hurt each other, which they did in the beginning."
Western influence
After the Taliban fell from power early in 2002, more western women came to Afghanistan and started wearing their western clothes. This has provoked something of a backlash among Afghans in many areas, but says Esme, she herself had very mixed reaction when she decided to stop wearing a headscarf.
"Most negative reactions came from expatriate colleagues who said you cannot do this, but the difficulty was that educated Afghan women said please do it because we don't want you to wear that chador, it's not you, you're not Muslim, you're not Afghan, you should not be wearing it. I think that as a western woman you did things wrong anyway. The fact that you were on your own without your husband in a country like Afghanistan already made you a woman that didn't abide by the rules. Some men thought it was not necessary to wear a headscarf but the more traditional Pashtun men definitely did not like you walking around without a headscarf and you could see that, but I didn't get that reaction from everybody."
Rebel
Esme admits that she was being a bit rebellious when she stopped wearing a headscarf, but she says it was not an easy decision to make, first she spoke to her Afghan friends and asked their opinion.
"I found easier to accept wearing the headscarf during Taliban times because that was the law and you abided by [it]. But in this new Afghanistan, it was not the law anymore. I saw all traditional systems continuing and I was disappointed by that. I went to Afghan friends and asked, 'What if I don't wear a headscarf anymore?' I had an Afghan female friend who was a medical doctor and she immediately said, 'Oh, don't wear the thing.' I took it off immediately and just started driving around in Kabul without a headscarf, and just saw how people reacted."
Future concerns
It was relatively easy for Esme to lose her headscarf, but she recognises that it is much more difficult for Afghani 
women to give up wearing the burqa and break with strict traditions.
"If I invite my Afghan friend over to my house, I also invite her husband to make sure that she's not seen travelling alone and visiting on her own, despite the fact that she may have liked to come on her own to my house."
Afghanistan won't change overnight, but Esme sees that many Afghans want change and want to make a difference in their country. However, she's worried they might not get the chance. Like many people she's worried that the future of Afghanistan will be decided, once again, by others who will ignore the real needs of the people.
"I think one of the concerns that some people have is that Afghanistan will continue to receive a lot of money but will perhaps only spend it on military and security issues. Sick people don't build a country, you need healthy people for that. Security doesn't mean that there's a police officer in the street with a gun, security means that people can build up a future and have hope again for a better future."
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Tags: Afhanistan, chador, women