NEW DELHI, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- In the late 1990s, the world became aware of the dire situation of women living in Afghanistan under the Taliban theocracy. Women were prevented from working, and their daughters were shut out of schools. Women could go out in public only if they were covered, body and face, by the chador.
In the years since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghan women have come out from under the veil, returning to work and schools. However, they still lag behind their sisters in India and Pakistan in terms of being able to exercise their rights and wield economic and political power.
With the idea of mentoring Afghan women, Indian and Pakistani activists invited 10 Afghan women social workers to New Delhi from Jan. 4 to 8 for a conference entitled "Women's Economic Skills Promotion in South Asia."
The primary goal of the conference -- co-sponsored by San Diego University, the San Diego University Foundation and New Delhi's Guild of Service, and funded by The Hansen Foundation for World Peace -- was enabling women in Afghanistan, as well as in India and Pakistan, to participate in the economic growth of their countries and the region.
Conference organizer Dr. Huma Ahmed-Ghosh, an Indian-born women's studies expert at San Diego State University, said, "We wanted to help the Afghan women acquire the tools necessary to bring about the needed change themselves."
An important player on the Afghan side was Orezala Ashraf, founder of a humanitarian organization. When she was 22, living in Pakistan in a refugee camp, she realized that her life was not going to change unless she did something.
"After seeing all the suffering of others and after my personal experience of war, hunger, family insecurity, stress and strong depression as a teenager, I realized that I can only find my identity by helping others," she said.
With that motivation, she and a group of her friends gave birth to the organization Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan. This small group of young Afghan refugees decided the way to improve their own plight was by helping others.
"I've grown the organization like a child," Ashraf said.
When they started in 1999, their first project was teaching Afghan children in the refugee camps to read. Five years later, the organization is working in five Afghan provinces, and its activities include primary schools, emergency aid, health services and income-generating projects.
Ashraf and two of her staff members came to New Delhi to network with other organizations and strengthen their skills through training.
Ahmed-Ghosh met Ashraf on her third trip to Afghanistan. The professor had originally visited Kabul in 1978 when it was an advanced and cosmopolitan city -- "at the height of its glory," in her words -- and she was fascinated by the country and its people. After Sept. 11, 2001, she was inundated with requests to speak about the plight of Afghan women, and she visited the country again to research the situation of women there.
As they got to know each other, Ahmed-Ghosh and Ashraf discussed the concept of a forum for empowering South Asian women. Ahmed-Ghosh knew of similar conferences for Indian and Pakistani women. A new conference would expose Afghan women to successful projects and techniques of Indian and Pakistani women and prepare them to train other Afghan women.
And so the New Delhi conference came into being. Its topics of discussion included cooperatives, self-help groups, leadership training, counseling, conflict resolution, status of widows, micro-credit, influencing society and raising funds.
Mohini Giri, a renowned Indian women's activist, was one of the speakers. She shared her experiences of working with widows and told the group, "We should take advantage of the strong bonding between women."
The issue of women becoming social activists was emphasized throughout the conference. Ahmed-Ghosh said at the closing meeting that the goal of the training was for women to "do something," especially socially or politically.
The chief minister of New Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, welcomed the delegation at her home and told them, "Women have common issues as mothers, wives, daughters. Our ultimate goal is where women can be in the position where we are part of the decision-makers. We have to be in the final decision-making process. With women in these positions, development would have a human face."
She encouraged the women by saying, "The role of the women is to keep the nucleus together. The absence of women in any civilization would be an absolute disaster."
The participants all agreed that they learned a great deal and that the program was useful and informative. "I didn't realize that the Indian women's movement was so strong. India is a good model for Afghanistan," Ashraf commented.
Now the organizers are making plans for the next program in Kabul, where they will include more women leaders from the grassroots movement there.
"Women can create the ambience so that women can find a voice," said the chief minister. This conference was just one step in strengthening the bonds of women, giving them tools and encouraging them to change the ambience in their society and to find that voice.
