Afghanistan

Citation:

Waylen, Georgina. 2006. “Constitutional Engineering: What Opportunities for the Enhancement of Gender Rights?” Third World Quarterly 27 (7): 1209–21.

Author: Georgina Waylen

Abstract:

The majority of feminist scholars have neglected the impact of constitutional design to date. But it has recently come to the fore, as institutional engineering has been a key part of the efforts to ‘build democracy after conflict’ (or impose it from the outside), most notably in Iraq and Afghanistan. This paper will examine some contrasting experiences of constitutional design (with evidence drawn primarily from some transitions to democracy) and draw out some wider lessons for feminists exploring effective strategies to enhance gender rights. It will also widen the debate from the institutional concerns that have predominated to date, namely quotas as a mechanism to enhance women's descriptive representation and, to a lesser extent, national women's machineries as a mechanism to enhance women's substantive representation. It will focus more broadly on the opportunities that constitutional design can provide to embed women's rights more securely and create an enabling framework that can subsequently be used toenhance all forms of women's rights, not just civil and political ones.

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Governance, Constitutions, Quotas, Post-Conflict Governance, Peacebuilding, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Iraq

Year: 2006

Citation:

Benard, Cheryl. 2008. “Caution Nation-builders: Gender Assumptions Ahead.” The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs 32 (1): 25-37.

Author: Cheryl Benard

Abstract:

The article presents a series of recommendations based on a case study of post-Taliban Afghanistan in order to examine the issue of gender as it relates to post-conflict stabilization and nation-building. The recommendations include: taking the concept of human security seriously; increasing access to nontraditional roles while also strengthening women's capacity to earn a livelihood through the monetization of traditional activities; building reliance on civil society; and improving data collection and assessment strategies for measuring women's baseline situation and for gauging the effectiveness of programs in post-conflict interventions. (ResearchGate)

Topics: Development, Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Security, Human Security Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2008

Citation:

Kouvo, Sari. 2008. “A ‘Quick and Dirty’ Approach to Women’s Emancipation and Human Rights?” Feminist Legal Studies 16 (1): 37–46.

Author: Sari Kouvo

Abstract:

During the past decade, women’s and human rights ‘language’ has moved from the margins to the ‘mainstream’ of international law and politics. In this paper, the author argues that while feminists and human rights activists criticise the ‘mainstream’s interpretation of women’s and human rights, ‘we’ do not question what becoming part of the mainstream and the cosmopolitan classes has meant for us. Drawing on examples of how women’s and human rights arguments have been used in the post-conflict state-building process in Afghanistan, the author attempts to show how international women’s rights and human rights advocacy campaigns planned by well-meaning humanitarians in Western capitals can backfire when implemented in politically complex environments.

Keywords: advocacy, Afghanistan, Afghan women, feminism, human rights, international feminist movement, international law

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, International Law, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2008

Citation:

Kirk, Jackie. 2004. “Promoting a Gender-Just Peace: The Roles of Women Teachers in Peacebuilding and Reconstruction.” Gender & Development 12 (3): 50–9.

Author: Jackie Kirk

Abstract:

Schools - however temporary and improvised they may be - are often among the first community organisations to start functioning after a crisis. It is important that they set a high standard in encouraging the active participation of women in reconstruction and peacebuilding after conflict. This article examines the potential of women teachers for significant participation in building a gender-just peace, and the challenges that exist for women to fulfil this potential. Drawing on examples from a number of different contexts, especially Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and south Sudan, it discusses women teachers' personal and professional development. It identifies some of the challenges faced by women in becoming teachers, and strategies to support women teachers to become agents of change in their societies.

Topics: Development, Education, Gender, Women, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, East Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan

Year: 2004

Citation:

Fluri, Jennifer L. 2011. “Feminist Nation-Building in Afghanistan: An Examination of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).” In The Women, Gender & Development Reader, edited by Nalini Visvanathan, Lynn Duggan, Nan Wiegersma, and Laurie Nisonoff, 425-31. London: Zed Books.

Author: Jennifer L. Fluri

Abstract:

Women-led political organizations that employ feminist and nationalist ideologies and operate as separate from, rather than associated with, male-dominated or patriarchal nationalist groups are both significant and under-explored areas of gender, feminist, and nationalism studies. This article investigates the feminist and nationalist vision of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). RAWA exemplifies an effective political movement that intersects feminist and nationalist politics, where women are active, rather than symbolic, participants within the organization, and help to shape an ideological construction of the Afghan nation. RAWA subsequently links its struggle for women's rights (through feminism) with its nationalist goals for democracy and secularism. This article also analyses RAWA's use of conservative nationalist methods to reproduce the future of the organization and to develop ‘citizens’ for its idealized nation, while countering existing patriarchal social and familial structures through a re-configuration of women's roles in the family, community, and nation. This inquiry is based on geographic and feminist examinations of RAWA's organizational structure, literature, and political goals obtained through content analyses of RAWA's political literature and through interviews with RAWA members and supporters living as refugees in Pakistan in the summer of 2003 and winter of 2004/05. RAWA is an instructive example of counter-patriarchal and nationalist feminist politics that questions patriarchal definitions of the nation and its citizenry by reconfiguring gender norms and redefining gender relations in the family as a mirror of the nation.

Keywords: feminist nationalism, resistance, Afghanistan, counter-patriarchy

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Nationalism, Political Participation, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2011

Citation:

Verdirame, Guglielmo. 2001. "Testing the Effectiveness of International Norms: UN Humanitarian Assistance and Sexual Apartheid in Afghanistan." Human Rights Quarterly 23 (3): 733-68. 

Author: Guglielmo Verdirame

Topics: Governance, Humanitarian Assistance, International Organizations, Sexual Violence Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2001

Citation:

James, Eric. 2003. “Two Steps Back: Relearning the Humanitarian-Military Lessons Learned in Afghanistan and Iraq.” The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, online.

Author: Eric James

Abstract:

This paper sets out to address two questions: What are the previous broad lessons learned in the interactions between the military and humanitarian actors?  And, how were these lessons ‘relearned’ during the recent operations in Afghanistan and Iraq?  This paper does not contribute to theory nor delve deeply into the contentious debate over appropriateness of so-called humanitarian intervention or military humanitarianism.  Rather, this paper makes attempts to add to the discourse that has emerged between humanitarians, the military, and scholars.  The first part of this paper presents background of the recent military and humanitarian operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Given the efforts made to improve civil-military relations during the past decade, the contention is made that this relationship has take ‘two steps back’ because of growing discord between the military and humanitarians, continuing lack of security, and frustration over the lack of progress in what are thought to be “lessons learned.”  Second, five lessons learned in the relationship between the military and humanitarians is presented with a discussion of how each has been were ignored or relearned in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Third, based on experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, at least two emergent issues or ‘lessons’ are discussed.   Finally, the conclusion suggests further steps in improving the way the military and humanitarians interact and presents several questions worth further inquiry.

Keywords: civil-military relations, humanitarian

Topics: Humanitarian Assistance, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Security Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Iraq

Year: 2003

Citation:

Cortright, David, Sarah S. Persinger. 2010. Afghan Women Speak: Enhancing Security and Human Rights in Afghanistan. Notre Dame, IN: Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

Authors: David Cortright, Sarah S. Persinger

Topics: Gender, Women, Rights, Human Rights, Security Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2010

Citation:

Lastarria-Cornhiel, Susana. 2005. "Gender and Property Rights within Postconflict Situations." Working Paper 12, United States Agency for International Development, Washington, DC.

Author: Susana Lastarria-Cornhiel

Abstract:

This paper provides an assessment of the nature of women’s property rights in regions plagued by violent conflict, reviews property rights programs funded by donors in postconflict situations, and attempts to tease out major policy and programmatic lessons. It also examines the importance of land rights and the status of women in societies that have strong customary norms and practices regarding land tenure. After exploring issues around the acquisition of land rights by women, the paper presents case studies of gendered rights to land under different types of postconflict situations, focusing on policies and programs for improving women’s land rights. Policy and programmatic recommendations are offered for improving gender equity in postconflict land tenure systems. 

In many regions of the world, households, communities, and societies are destroyed by civil war, invasions from neighboring countries, and interethnic violence. During periods of violence and conflict, the destruction of material and physical resources is devastating for families and communities, particularly for low-income populations. The destruction, however, goes beyond the material and physical. Community cohesion, governance institutions, community authority structures, and socioeconomic subsistence networks are also destroyed, leaving the most vulnerable—such as women and children—destitute and with minimal recourse for even their daily survival. Often families flee the violence and destruction to other parts of their countries or to other countries, leaving most of their belongings and assets behind.

The process of rebuilding communities’ social structures and institutions is slow and uneven. Nevertheless, the restoration of civil and human rights to all groups—including women—is the basis for rebuilding a democratic postconflict society. Land and housing make up one crucial set of rights. Property rights are recognized as an important factor in the struggle to attain economic development, social equity, and democratic governance (e.g., Herring 1999). As cultural heritage and a productive resource, the value and meaning of land is universally recognized. Its social and psychological values for rural families are also important. The challenge is to improve social equity while working for peace, security, and reconstruction. But peace must be understood as more than the absence of war and violence; reconstruction must be seen as more than bricks, roads, and telephone networks; and security must be defined as more than a strong military force.

The international community has begun to acknowledge the link among women’s lack of rights to landed property and increased levels of poverty among women, particularly in postconflict societies. The UN’s Habitat Centre brought attention to this crucial issue in 1998 by commissioning a number of papers and holding an international conference on Women’s Land and Property Rights under Situations of Conflict (UN Habitat 1999). However, only limited progress has been made in strengthening women’s rights to landed property. Women are consistently excluded from postconflict reconstruction efforts. They are thus unable to ensure that their interests are addressed. Gender-biased laws remain the primary barrier to secure land rights in many countries. Even where women have legal entitlement to ownership, they continue to be denied land rights, primarily for cultural and political reasons. (Executive Summary from original source)

Keywords: Gender, gender equity, post-conflict reconstruction, women's rights, Property Rights

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Land Tenure, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Americas, Central America, Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Guatemala, Rwanda

Year: 2005