Safia Ama Jan Bits & Pieces
Post
26/09/2006, Kim Sengupta, The woman who defied the Taliban, and paid with her life, (Source).
26/09/2006, Afghana.org, Les femmes du sud afghan devront voter contre leurs peurs, (Source).
26/09/2006, Kansas City Star, Women’s affairs director slain in Kandahar attack, (Source).
26/09/2006, Noor Khan, Educator shot dead by militants in Kandahar, (Source).
25/09/2006, Aljazeera, Afghan woman activist shot dead, (Source).
25/09/2006, USA Today, Gunmen kill director of women's affairs in southern Afghanistan, (Source).
25/09/2006, Carlotta Gall, Gunmen Kill Afghan Women’s Advocate, (Source).
25/09/2006, BBC, Afghan women's official shot dead, (Source).
25/09/2006, Herald Tribune, Gunmen kill director of women's affairs for southern Afghanistan, (Source).
18/07/2005, Waheed, 23 Girls Graduate After 11 years, (Source).
05/07/2005, Saeed Zabuli, 23 girls complete school education after 11 years, (Source).
27/09/2004, Sabawoon, Southern Afghan women urged to vote despite threats, (Source).
26/09/06, Kim Sengupta, The woman who defied the Taliban, and paid with her life, (Back).
Women's rights campaigner in Afghanistan shot dead. One in two Afghan women a victim of violence. Suicide on the rise as Taliban's power increases.
Safia Amajan promoted women's education and work - a fairly ordinary job in most places - but in the Afghanistan of a resurgent Taliban it was a dangerous path to follow. She was a target, and yesterday she was gunned down outside her home.
Five years after the "liberation" of Afghanistan by the US and Britain, with promises of a new dawn for its downtrodden women, her murder was a bloody reminder of just how far the country is slipping back into a land of darkness.
Public figures, including the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, lined up to praise Ms Amajan.
Yet this support was signally lacking while she lived. The former teacher worked in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, and also the place where women have faced the most virulent discrimination and mistreatment. It is also where Nato forces are fighting a ferocious insurgency. Ms Amajan had asked for, and been refused, a protective vehicle, or bodyguards, despite repeated death threats.
She was in a battered taxi when two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire with automatic rifles. Her nephew, Farhad Jan, said: "She died on the spot. There was no time to give her treatment." In a place of fear where one can sign one's death warrant with the wrong choice of words, Farhad was careful not to blame anyone for the killing. All he would say was: "We had no personal enmity with anyone."
A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayat Khan, declared that Ms Amajan had been "executed". He said: "We have told people again and again that anyone working for the government, and that includes women, will be killed."
Ms Amajan had taken over the post of women's welfare officer soon after Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, fled with the fall of his regime. With the return of the Taliban, as the "war on terror" moved on to Iraq, aid workers - foreign and Afghan, men and women - were intimidated into leaving the region.
Ms Amajan was one of the few who refused to flee. Her secretary, Abdullah Khan, said: "She was very brave. She was also very hard-working. She was always trying her best to improve education for women."
As well as defying the Taliban, Ms Amajan made the mistake of being successful in what she was doing. In Kandahar alone she had opened six schools where a thousand women had learnt how to make and then sell their goods at the market. She was also instrumental in setting up tailoring schools for women, with some of the products making their way to markets in the West.
At the official end of the Afghan war, America's first lady, Laura Bush, was among those who declared that one of the most important achievements of overthrowing the Taliban was emancipation of women. However, since then female social workers and teachers have been maimed and killed, girls' schools shut down and female workers forced to give up their jobs. The few women out in the streets in Kandahar and other places in the south are covered in burqas. A report by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission spoke of the "systematic and violent campaign" directed against women.
Statistics paint a bleak picture of women's lives with 35 female suicides in Kandahar alone and nearly 200 attempted suicides in the Herat region - one third of which were successful. Rights groups estimate that between 60 and 80 per cent of marriages in the country are forced. And the majority of those marriages involve girls under the age of 16.
Ms Amajan's funeral yesterday, in a Shia ceremony, was attended by the provincial governor and hundreds of mourners, including tribal elders. In Kabul, President Karzai said: "The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan. The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that we have millions of people like Amajan."
Fariba Ahmedi, a female member of parliament, who attended the burial, said: "Those enemies who have killed her should know it will not derail women from the path we are on. We will continue on our way."
Human rights groups point out, however, that the battle for women's rights is in serious danger of being lost. There are now entire provinces where there is no girls' education; of the 300 schools shut or burnt down, the majority were for girls. The death rate at childbirth is the second highest in the world, and the number of women who have committed suicide, mainly through self-immolation, has risen by 30 per cent in two years.
Life gets worse for Afghan women
Violence
* 50 per cent of Afghan women say they have been beaten, while 200 women in Kandahar ran away from domestic violence this year.
* In the past year, 150 cases of women resorting to self-immolation have been reported in western Afghanistan, 34 cases in the south-east.
* 197 women in Herat were reported to have attempted suicide last year, 69 successfully.
* 57 per cent of girls are married before the legal age of 16.
Education
* 85 per cent of women in Afghanistan are illiterate.
* The number of girls going to school in Afghanistan is half that of boys.
* 300 schools were set on fire across the country this year.
Health
* 70 per cent of tuberculosis deaths are among women.
* Death rate of mothers in labour is 60 in 1000 - (60 per cent higher than developed world).
* Only 5-7 per cent of women in Zabul and Helmand province have access to health care.
Voting
* 41 per cent of the 10.5 million registered voters are women. Women's registration rates in southern provinces were much lower than the national average: Zabul (9 per cent), Uruzgan (10 per cent) Helmand (16 per cent), and Kandahar (27 per cent)
Source: AIHRC, UNICEF, HRW
26/09/06, Afghana.org, Les femmes du sud afghan devront voter contre leurs peurs, (Back).
KANDAHAR (Afghanistan), 26 sept (AFP)
Les femmes du sud afghan devront voter contre leurs peurs
Les éducatrices de la commission électorale de Kandahar (sud de l'Afghanistan) sont obstinées: chaque jour, elles sillonnent la ville, bravant les menaces, pour convaincre les femmes de voter contre leurs peurs et leurs blocages.
"Ne passez pas à côté de cette chance. Nous sommes indépendantes, nous sommes des êtres humains, nous avons des droits, il y a une élection et c'est aussi à nous de décider qui sera le président": Shukria, 34 ans, s'adresse à un petit auditoire de boulangères mais semble haranguer une foule, tant sa conviction est forte.
Ses interlocutrices l'écoutent en se cachant derrière leur voile, car un homme s'est glissé dans la cour où elles sont réunies, à proximité du four à pain.
"Que se passe-t-il si l'on met des croix pour deux ou trois candidats ?", demande l'une. "Est-ce qu'une femme peut prendre plusieurs cartes (électorales) et voter pour les autres ?", interroge une autre.
Munie d'un bulletin de vote, Shukria explique patiemment.
Elle poursuit: "Si vous avez peur pour votre sécurité, sachez que le scrutin sera sûr. Le reste c'est de la propagande. N'ayez pas peur. Au nom de Dieu, c'est une chance en or, nous n'avons plus un régime taliban sous lequel vous ne pouviez même pas sortir en cas de maladie !"
C'est, ce matin-là, la principale question des futures électrices, attentives aux menaces de violence autour de la présidentielle du 9 octobre.
"Nous avons de grandes inquiétudes pour notre sûreté", avance l'une. "Nous sommes satisfaites par Karzaï: depuis qu'il est au pouvoir, les femmes peuvent travailler, se rendre à l'école... mais la sécurité, les attentats suicides nous inquiètent", explique une deuxième.
Certaines de ces femmes ont déjà fait un grand pas en allant chercher leur carte d'électrice, indispensable pour participer au vote.
Car, contrairement aux statistiques nationales (41,5% des détenteurs de cartes sont des femmes), les femmes pachtounes du sud ont souvent évité les centres d'enregistrement.
Dans les cinq provinces du sud afghan, dont Kandahar, à la mi-août, cinq jours avant la clôture du recensement, 1,2 million de cartes ont été distribuées, dont environ 230.OOO à des femmes, soit 20% des électeurs.
Pourtant, dans ce pays déchiré par les guerres, où les veuves sont nombreuses, les femmes sont largement majoritaires.
"Il y a eu 25 ans de conflits. Aussi bien les femmes que les hommes manquent d'éducation. Ils n'ont vu que des tueries, des obus, des mitraillettes, nous avons besoin de temps pour reconstruire leurs têtes", concède la représentante des femmes de Kandahar, Safia Amajan.
Selon elle, c'est paradoxalement les femmes aisées qui avanceront le plus lentement et n'iront pas voter. Les époux qui n'ont pas besoin d'un salaire d'appoint sont plus enclins à les enfermer, dit-elle: "Certains ne laissent même pas leurs femmes sortir au pas de la porte".
"Celles qui doivent travailler à l'extérieur sont celles qui se sont fait recenser", poursuit-elle.
Ainsi, sur quatre femmes d'une famille moyenne de la ville interrogées par l'AFP, aucune n'ira voter: l'une parce que son mari lui interdit de sortir, deux autres parce que leur mère ne veut pas les voir voter, et cette dernière car elle est opposée au scrutin.
Une autre fracture, plus évidente, est manifeste entre citadines et campagnardes, explique pour sa part Fatima Jailani, qui supervise l'éducation civique des femmes de Kandahar.
Dans le village de Loya Wala, aux portes de Kandahar, "il y a trois mois, une femme s'est vu remettre une carte d'électrice. Quand son mari est rentré, elle lui a montré. Il l'a battue et l'a renvoyée chez sa mère, avec leurs deux enfants", déplore-t-elle.
La peur gagne les Afghanes qui se risquent à travailler avec les étrangers
AFP - Samedi 25 septembre 2004
Faizabad - Elles étaient agent électoral ou médecin et travaillaient avec des organisations étrangères à Faizabad, mais depuis les émeutes de début septembre qui ont frappé cette ville de l'extrême-nord afghan d'habitude épargnée par les violences, la peur a gagné.
"Avant, je rendais souvent visite à Médecins sans Frontière, l'Unicef ou l'Organisation mondiale de la Santé, mais maintenant je ne peux plus, j'ai trop peur", explique à l'AFP la doctoresse Hajira Zia, chef du département de gynécologie et d'obstétrique de l'hôpital de Faizabad, à 500 km au nord-est de Kaboul.
Travaillant avec l'Onu aux opérations d'enregistrement des électeurs en vue de l'élection présidentielle du 9 octobre, la jeune Ghul Jan Harimya n'ose plus monter dans un véhicule frappé du logo bleu des Nations unies.
Il y a un mois, Faizabad, capitale de la province de Badakhshan, était réputée comme le "lieu le plus sûr d'Afghanistan" pour les organisations internationales.
Mais le 7 septembre, une rumeur de viols de quatre Afghanes dans une ONG a jeté la population dans la rue à l'assaut des organisations humanitaires employant des Afghanes.
Les locaux de Focus for Humanitarian Assistance, une ONG du réseau de l'Aga Khan, très actif dans le nord de l'Afghanistan, et l'organisation suisse Medair étaient attaqués et brûlés et une dizaine de leurs employés blessés.
"Les gens disaient +Nous sommes musulmans et pourquoi des étrangers viennent-ils violer nos femmes+", se souvient le chef de la police locale Ghulam Buharrudin Bahu.
Réalité ou rumeur, les habitants de Faizabad ont jugé que l'honneur de leurs femmes avait été touché et sont bien décidés à ce que cela ne se reproduise plus.
"Les gens m'insultent quand je pars travailler", explique à l'AFP Ghul Jan Harimya, qui préfère désormais marcher que prendre les véhicules de l'Onu.
Les leaders tribaux de Faizabad et des environs ont écrit aux autorités locales pour leur demander d'interdire le travail des Afghanes dans des organisations étrangères.
"Ils me demandent pourquoi faut-il que des femmes travaillent pour des étrangers alors qu'il y a de jeunes hommes intelligents qui parlent anglais", explique le chef de la police.
"L'Afghanistan est un pays où les gens n'aiment pas voir leurs femmes ou leurs filles travailler à l'extérieur. Nous essayons de leur parler des droits des femmes, mais la population n'a pas envie de les voir travailler pour des étrangers", poursuit le chef de la police.
L'exemple de Faizabad a fait tache d'huile dans d'autres régions.
"Il y a une montée de l'hostilité et des questions se posent dans d'autres provinces. On voit apparaître des tracts menaçants", note Nick Downie, de l'organisation Anso qui travaille sur les problèmes de sécurité pour les milliers d'ONG travaillant en Afghanistan.
D'autres Afghans ont appris plus de pragmatisme après des années de violence. A Baharak, un autre district du Badakhshan, Fausia, une mère de famille dans la quarantaine, reste désormais à la maison après avoir travaillé sur des projets de développement agricole.
"C'est dur de rester à la maison quand on a pris l'habitude de travailler", confie-t-elle. Mais, avec le soutien de son mari Ata Bhouri, elle est bien décidée à reprendre son travail lorsque l'orage sera passé.
"Pendant des années, les talibans ont empêché les femmes de travailler. On a attendu, puis elles ont repris le travail. Alors cette fois-ci, on va encore attendre quelques semaines, et puis les femmes retourneront travailler", explique le mari de Fausia.
27/09/2004, Sabawoon, Southern Afghan women urged to vote despite threats, (Back).
KANDAHAR - Female election commission educators in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar are persistent and brave, ignoring threats each day they criss-cross the city to convince women to vote.
"Don't miss this chance. We are independent, we are human beings, we have rights. There is an election and it is up to us to decide who should be president," Shukria, 34, tells a small audience of women bakers in this former stronghold of the Islamist Taliban regime.
They listen from behind their veils because a man has slipped into the courtyard where they have gathered near the bread oven.
"What happens if you put crosses for two or three candidates?" asks one of the women.
"Can one woman take several (voting) cards and vote for the others?" asks another.
Holding a ballot paper, Shukria patiently explains the voting system for the historic October 9 election in which President Hamid Karzai and 17 others are contesting the presidency.
This morning, the main question concerns threats of violence around the polls which Taliban militants have pledged to disrupt.
"We have great concerns about our security," says one woman. "We have small children, we are scared for them."
"We are happy with Karzai. Since he came to power women can work, go to school, but we are concerned about security and suicide attacks," explains another.
"If you are scared about security, we have security. It is just propaganda. Don't be afraid. Please, for God's sake, this is a golden chance. It is not a Taliban government where you could not go out even if you were sick," Shukria says.
Some of the women have already taken the major step of getting a voter registration card to take part in the election.
But contrary to national statistics which show 42 percent of registered voters are women, the Pashtun women of the south have often avoided the registration centres.
In the five southern provinces including Kandahar by mid-August, five days before registration ended, 1.2 million cards had been distributed with just 230,000, or 20 percent, going to women.
However, decades of conflict have left many widows, and women make up the majority of the population.
"This country has had two-and-a-half decades during which both males and females have been left uneducated. You cannot change their minds overnight," says Safia Amajan, a women's representative in Kandahar.
"They have not seen anything else but killing of people and mortars ... and machine-guns ... we need some time to reconstruct their minds."
Paradoxically, according to her, the better-off women are the ones who are least likely to vote.
"Those who have to work outside are the ones to register. Some people don't even like their wives to go outside," she says.
Of four average family women questioned by AFP in Kandahar who said they wouldn't vote, one said her husband prohibits her from leaving the house, two others because their mother does not want them to vote and the fourth said she was against the election.
Another, more obvious, division is displayed between urban and rural residents, explains Fatima Jailani, who supervises the civic education of the women of Kandahar.
In the village of Loya Wala, near Kandahar, "Three months ago, a woman was given a (registration) card.
"Her husband came home and she showed the card. She was beaten and sent back to her mother's house with the two children," she says.
26/09/06, Kansas City Star, Women’s affairs director slain in Kandahar attack, (Back).
Even under the Taliban, Safia Ahmed-jan ran schools to help the women in Afghanistan, from the Chicago Tribune.
KABUL, Afghanistan: The provincial head of the Women’s Affairs Ministry in Kandahar was gunned down in front of her house Monday morning as she was leaving for work.
Safia Ahmed-jan, who was known as Ama Jan or “dear aunt” by many in Kandahar, was the first female official killed by Taliban-led insurgents since the fall of the regime in late 2001.
Gunmen riding motorcycles shot her four times — once in the head — said Mohammad Nader, the head nurse at Kandahar’s main hospital. No one was arrested.
“The enemies of Afghanistan did this, the ones who do not want peace in Afghanistan,” said Zemeri Bashary, spokesman for the Interior Ministry. “They don’t even hesitate to kill women.”
Ahmed-jan, who was said to be in her 60s, ran vocational schools for women. Her son, Naqibullah, said she taught girls at an underground school she ran out of their home during the Taliban’s ultraconservative rule from 1996-2001.
Naqibullah, who goes by only one name, said his mother had not received any threats on her life, as far as he knew, but that he and his father tried to get her to quit her work because of the deteriorating security situation.
“She said, ‘It’s my country, I won’t quit my job. I want to do this work for our women, for our country. I want women to be able to work just like men,’ ” Naqibullah recalled.
In Kandahar alone, Ahmed-jan had opened six schools where almost 1,000 women learned how to bake and sell their goods at market. She also taught women how to use computers.
Ahmed-Jan’s husband was paralyzed, and she needed to work.
In her spare time, she read the Qur’an at a funeral home for women to earn extra money, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Kandahar governor.
26/09/06, Noor Khan, Educator shot dead by militants in Kandahar, (Back).
Taliban takes credit for gunning down popular Afghan women's-rights activist, from Associated Press.
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Gunmen on a motorbike have killed an Afghan women's-rights activist who ran an underground school for girls during the Taliban's rule, the latest victim of an increasingly brazen militant campaign against government officials and schools.
Safia Ama Jan, a provincial director for the Ministry of Women's Affairs, was slain outside her home in Kandahar yesterday while on her way to work, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim Parant, senior adviser to the ministry in Kabul.
"The enemy of Afghanistan killed her, but they should know it will not derail women from the path we are on. We will continue on our way," said Fariba Ahmedi, a female member of parliament from Kandahar who joined hundreds of men and women, including the provincial governor, for the funeral yesterday evening at a packed Shia mosque.
The two attackers fled after the shooting. Mullah Sadullah, a regional Taliban commander, claimed responsibility for the killing in a telephone call to Associated Press, but the claim could not be verified.
A teacher for more than three decades, Ms. Ama Jan was known for being an active proponent of women's rights in this former Taliban stronghold. Although she was a women's activist, she always wore a burqa and was shot dead while wearing the traditional Islamic garment, her son said.
Her death comes at a time of rising Taliban violence against civilian targets. This month, a suicide bomber assassinated a provincial governor who was a close associate of President Hamid Karzai, and militants killed 19 construction workers riding on a bus in Kandahar province last week.
Last year, militants burned down or attacked 146 schools, and have already topped that this year with 158 hits, said Zuhoor Afghan, the top adviser to Afghanistan's Education Minister.
The school attacks appear motivated partly by Taliban opposition to education for girls -- they say it is against Islam -- but also as a strategy to undermine the already feeble reach of Mr. Karzai's U.S.-backed government. The government has tried, with mixed success, to promote women's rights enshrined under Afghanistan's post-Taliban constitution.
Mr. Karzai said he was deeply saddened by her death.
"The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan," the President said in a statement. "The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that we have millions of people like [Ms. Ama Jan] who will continue to serve this great nation."
Ms. Ama Jan, who was reportedly in her 60s, ran vocational schools for women. Her son Naqibullah said she taught girls at an underground school she ran out of their home during the Taliban's ultraconservative rule from 1996 to 2001.
Naqibullah, who goes by only one name, said he had not known of any threats against his mother's life. But he said he and his father tried to get her to quit her work because of the deteriorating security situation.
"She said, 'It's my country; I won't quit my job. I want to do this work for our women, for our country. I want women to be able to work just like men,' " he recalled.
One of Ms. Ama Jan's most successful projects was running schools for women, her secretary Abdullah Khan said.
In Kandahar alone, Ms. Ama Jan had opened six schools where almost 1,000 women learned how to bake and sell their goods at market. She also taught women how to use computers.
18/07/2005, Waheed, 23 Girls Graduate After 11 years, (Back).
After 11 long years, the first group of 23 girls completed their high school education in the southern province of Kandahar last week. These 23 girls graduated from Zarghona High School in Kandahar City, a former stronghold of the Taliban who had banned female education in Afghanistan
These are the first girls to graduate Khandahar City, because during the civil war and Mujahideen government the girls school was closed, due to the unstable security situation in the Region. Safi Ama Jan, head of the Women Affairs Department, said this graduation of the girls was a great success, and is a new beginning for girls education after years of war and violence. She also said that she was very glad because these (female) graduates were now in a postition to apply for government jobs; and also able to pursue higher education at university level. Female education is still a problem in the conservative south.
Families have stated many reasons why their daughters cannot attend school. There are still no schools for girls in some districts, and is very difficult and expensive to transport their daughters from outlaying villages into cities. In other provinces such as Herat and Mazer-e-Sharif hundreds of girls attend school and graduate every year. In the capital city of Kabul thousands of girls attend school and graduate every year. In Kabul there are many schools for girls, and the bussing transportation for students is very good.
We hope that the govenment will build more schools in rural areas of Afghanistan so that a larger part of the population will have access to schools and education. The main key to our advancement as a country is to educate our people as much as possible.
25/09/2006, USA Today, Gunmen kill director of women's affairs in southern Afghanistan, (Back).
[photo AFP/Getty Images, Safia Ahmed-jan is shown last July during an official visit to Japan.]
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Two gunmen on a motorbike killed the provincial director of Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs outside her home Monday in apparent retribution for her efforts to help educate women, officials said.
Safia Ama Jan was slain outside the front gate of her Kandahar home as she was walking to her office, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim Parant, senior adviser to the women's ministry in Kabul.
Ama Jan was known for being an active proponent of women's rights and education in this former Taliban stronghold, a region where insurgents have turned increasingly violent in the last several months.
President Hamid Karzai said he was deeply saddened by her death.
"The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan," Karzai said in a statement. "The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that we have millions of people like (Ama Jan) who will continue to serve this great nation."
Hundreds of mourners — including the provincial governor and tribal leaders — attended her funeral Monday evening at a packed Shiite mosque in Kandahar.
"The enemy of Afghanistan killed her, but they should know it will not derail women from the path we are on. We will continue on our way," said Fariba Ahmedi, a female member of parliament from Kandahar who attended.
Mullah Sadullah, a regional Taliban commander, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press. It was impossible to verify the claim.
One of Ama Jan's most successful projects was running vocational schools for women, said her secretary, Abdullah Khan. "She was always trying her best to improve education for women," Khan said.
In Kandahar alone, Ama Jan had opened six schools where almost 1,000 women learned how to bake and sell their goods at market. She had also opened tailoring schools for women, and clothes made there found their way to Western markets, Khan said.
During the Taliban's rule, Ama Jan, a former teacher, ran an underground school for girls out of her home, said Mohammed Asif, her nephew.
Taliban holdouts have launched an increasing number of attacks this year, particularly in the south, where dozens of schools have been destroyed. The fighters are also increasingly targeting civilians and government officials with suicide and roadside bombs.
The Taliban, which was ousted from power after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, follows an ultraconservative ideology. When the regime ran the country, women were banned from schools and jobs and couldn't leave their homes without a male escort.
Aleem Sidique, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said the U.N. was "appalled at this senseless murder."
"What we need to see in Afghanistan is peace, development and progress," Sidique said. "We share the sentiment of the majority of Afghan people who are appalled at this killing."
In other violence, a police vehicle hit a roadside bomb Monday in eastern Afghanistan near the border between Khost and Paktia provinces, killing two police officers and wounding eight, said Khalil Amin Zada, commander of border police in Khost province.
A suicide bomber on foot targeted an Afghan army vehicle patrol in the same province, slightly wounding an American soldier who was training Afghan troops, said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a U.S. military spokesman.
The soldier received minor burns to his face and shoulder, while the bomber died in the blast, Fitzpatrick said.
U.S. forces killed 10 suspected Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the U.S. military said. Troops backed by attack helicopters clashed with some 15 suspected insurgents in the Sharan district of Paktika province, the statement said. Ten suspected insurgents were believed killed while five fled, it said.
Two militants were killed just outside Khost city when a bomb they were carrying exploded prematurely in their car, said Gen. Mohammed Ayub, the provincial police chief. The two were planning to carry out a bombing in the town, he said. There were no other casualties.
Some 20 militants attacked the house of a district chief in neighboring Paktika province late Sunday, killing him, said Sayed Jamal, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
Authorities launched a search Monday for the perpetrators, recovering the district chief's vehicle and detaining nine people for questioning, Jamal said.
Suspected Taliban militants, meanwhile, attacked and destroyed a medical clinic in Yaqoubi district of the eastern Khost province Sunday, Ayub said.
25/09/2006, Carlotta Gall, Gunmen Kill Afghan Women’s Advocate, (Back).
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept. 25 — A senior Afghan official specializing in women’s rights was gunned down here on her way to work Monday morning by suspected Taliban gunmen. It was the highest-level assassination of a woman in Afghanistan in the five years since the Taliban were ousted from power.
Safia Amajan, 65, had served as chief of the Woman’s Affairs department in Kandahar for five years, working to improve women’s rights and opportunities for education and vocational training. A former teacher and high school principal, she was well known and much liked in Kandahar.
“It is a very tragic loss,” said Sonja Bachmann, a United Nations political officer who knew Ms. Amajan well. “She did a good job, she worked in a very low-key way and worked hard to raise awareness about women’s issues.”
A spokesman claiming to speak for the Taliban took responsibility for the killing in a telephone call, Reuters reported.
Hundreds of women gathered at the main Shiite mosque in the town, where her body lay wrapped in a white shroud decorated with golden Koranic script, to mourn her loss. “There is no security for anyone now in Kandahar,” one woman said, sobbing through her veil.
Ms. Amajan was shot as she was walking from her house up a narrow street to the main road shortly after 7 a.m. local time, shopkeepers along the road said. A gunman shot her four times with a pistol, said Muhammad Haidar, an official who worked in her office.
Her nephew, Muhammad Asif, 45, said no one reported seeing the gunmen. “A carpenter was close to the scene and heard the shots and he called people,” he said. Her husband also heard the shooting and came out of their house and found her lying in the street, Mr. Asif said.
The police were looking for two men, who escaped by motorcycle, said the provincial governor, Asadullah Khaled, who went to the crime scene himself. The police found tracks of the motorcycle driving away from the scene, he said.
Ms. Amajan preferred to take a taxi or public transport so as not to draw attention to herself, even though her office had cars and drivers, her nephew said. “She wanted to keep a low profile,” he said. “We wanted her to come and live with us in town, but she used to say, ‘If it’s God’s will, they will take me anywhere.’”
She had not received threats, Mr. Haidar said. but everyone in the office knew there was a threat from the Taliban, who have in the past attacked teachers and government officials. In another recent high-level assassination, a suicide bomber killed the governor of Paktia Province.
But to gun down a woman in the street, in this strictly conservative tribal society, is very rare and shocking to many people, and it has reinforced the fear in this southern city that was once the Taliban’s spiritual headquarters at the continuing violence and growing Taliban threats. A United Nations official noted that five people had been kidnapped in the city on Sunday.
“People are scared, of course,” said Mr. Haidar. “How can we fell secure when the head of our department is killed in front of her house?”
Ms. Amajan’s relatives and employees ruled out any personal enmity as a motive, saying that she was a religious woman, the mother of an 18-year-old son and a person of unimpeachable character.
“She was a poor woman, from a poor background and was very well connected to the local women’s networks in Kandahar,” Ms. Bachmann said. “In the south things are very difficult and she worked to improve things for women — and she worked very well with us in the United Nations.”
President Hamid Karzai, on a visit to the United States, condemned the killing. “The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan,” he said in a statement released in Kabul.
25/09/2006, BBC, Afghan women's official shot dead, (Back).
Ms Amajan had been a fierce critic of the Taleban
A leading Afghan official working on women's rights has been shot dead in the southern province of Kandahar.
Safia Amajan, head of the province's women's department, was leaving her home for work when a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire, police said.
She may have been targeted by Taleban militants because of their opposition to women taking part in politics and education, the BBC's Dan Isaacs says.
Hundreds have died in clashes between troops and Taleban fighters this year.
Nato-led forces have been battling a resurgent Taleban militia, with some of the fiercest fighting taking place in the south of the country.
Taleban critic
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack on Safia Amajan.
She had served as head of women's affairs in Kandahar's provincial government since the Taleban government was toppled by US-led forces in 2001.
An eloquent public speaker, Safia Amajan was fierce in her criticism of what she saw as the Taleban's repression of women.
After the US-led invasion in 2001, the former teacher took charge of women's affairs in Kandahar's provincial government.
In a conservative region where most families keep wives and daughters cloistered indoors, she was able to attract hundreds of women to schools and vocational courses.
Her requests for secure official transport and personal bodyguards had not been granted by the government.
At the time of the attack, she was travelling in a taxi.
A spokesman for the UN agency overseeing development in Afghanistan condemned the "senseless murder of a woman who was simply working to ensure that all Afghan women play a full and equal part in the future of Afghanistan".
Earlier this month, a suicide bomber killed the governor of eastern Afghanistan's Paktia province - the highest-ranking official to die in the insurgency.
Abdul Hakim Taniwal was attacked outside his office. The Taleban said it carried out the attack.
25/09/2006, Herald Tribune, Gunmen kill director of women's affairs for southern Afghanistan, (Back).
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Two gunmen on a motorbike killed the southern provincial head of Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs outside her home Monday in apparent retribution for her efforts to help educate women, officials said.
Safia Ama Jan was slain outside the front gate of her home in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar as she was walking to her office, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim Parant, senior adviser to the women's ministry in Kabul.
Ama Jan was known for being an active proponent of women's rights and education in this former Taliban stronghold, a region where insurgents have turned increasingly violent over the last several months.
President Hamid Karzai said he was deeply saddened by her death.
"The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan," Karzai said in a statement. "The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that we have millions of people like (Ama Jan) who will continue to serve this great nation."
Hundreds of mourners — including the provincial governor and tribal leaders — attended her funeral Monday evening at a packed Shiite mosque in Kandahar.
"The enemy of Afghanistan killed her, but they should know it will not derail women from the path we are on. We will continue on our way," said Fariba Ahmedi, a female member of parliament from Kandahar who attended the ceremony.
Mullah Sadullah, a regional Taliban commander, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press. It was impossible to verify the claim.
One of Ama Jan's most successful projects was running vocational schools for women, her secretary Abdullah Khan said. "She was always trying her best to improve education for women," Khan said.
In Kandahar alone, Ama Jan had opened six schools where almost 1,000 women learned how to bake and sell their goods at market. She had also opened tailoring schools for women, and clothes made there found their way to Western markets, Khan said.
During the Taliban's rule, Ama Jan, a former teacher, ran an underground school for girls out of her home, said Mohammed Asif, her nephew.
Taliban holdouts have launched an increasing number of attacks this year, particularly in the country's south, where dozens of schools have been destroyed. The fighters are also increasingly targeting civilians and government officials with suicide and roadside bombs.
The Taliban, which was ousted from power after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, follows an ultraconservative ideology. When the regime ran the country, women were banned from schools and jobs and couldn't leave their homes without a male escort.
Aleem Sidique, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said the U.N. was "appalled at this senseless murder."
"What we need to see in Afghanistan is peace, development and progress," Sidique said. "We share the sentiment of the majority of Afghan people who are appalled at this killing."
In other violence, a police vehicle hit a roadside bomb Monday in eastern Afghanistan near the border between Khost and Paktia provinces, killing two police officers and wounding eight, said Khalil Amin Zada, commander of border police in Khost province.
A suicide bomber on foot targeted an Afghan National army vehicle patrol in the same province, slightly wounding an American soldier who was training Afghan troops, said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a U.S. military spokesman.
The soldier received minor burns to his face and shoulder while the bomber died in the blast, Fitzpatrick said.
U.S. forces killed 10 suspected Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan Monday, the U.S. military said. Troops backed by attack helicopters clashed with some 15 suspected insurgents in Sharan district of Paktika province, the statement said. Ten suspected insurgents were believed killed while five fled, it said.
Two militants were killed just outside Khost city when a bomb they were carrying exploded prematurely in their car, said Gen. Mohammed Ayub, the provincial police chief. The two were planning to carry out a bombing in the town, he said. There were no other casualties.
Some 20 militants attacked the house of a district chief in neighboring Paktika province late Sunday, killing him, said Sayed Jamal, spokesman for the provincial governor.
Authorities launched a search for the perpetrators Monday, recovering the district chief's vehicle and detaining nine people for questioning, Jamal said.
Suspected Taliban militants, meanwhile, attacked and destroyed a medical clinic in Yaqoubi district of the eastern Khost province on Sunday, Ayub said.
05/07/2005, Saeed Zabuli, 23 girls complete school education after 11 years, (Back).
KANDAHAR, July 5 (Pajhwok Afghan News): After a lapse of more than a decade, the first batch of 23 girls Tuesday completed their high school education in the southern Kandahar province, a former stronghold of Taliban who had banned female literacy in Afghanistan.
Kandahar Education Department chief Hayatullah Rafiqi told Pajhwok Afghan News after the passage of 11 long years, the girls graduated from the Zarghona Ana High School in Kandahar City. He appeared upbeat about the event seen as a watershed in female education.
Girls were barred from going to school during the Taliban rule, with Kandahar serving as their bastion. And during the civil war and the mujahideen government, girl schools remained closed owing to an instable security situation.
Head of Women Affairs Department Safi Ama Jan described the success of the school's outgoing girls as a new beginning after a crippling war and subsequent bouts of violence.
She was glad that the girl students were now in a position to apply for government jobs or pursue higher education at the university level. She viewed it as big stride because female education is still in a phase of infancy in the conservative south.
25/09/06, Aljazeera, Afghan woman activist shot dead, (Back).
A resurgent Taliban have claimed a number of recent attacks
A senior Afghan women's affairs official has been shot dead in an attack in Kandahar that was claimed by the Taliban.
Safia Ana Jan, head of the women's affairs department in the province of Kandahar, was killed by armed men on motorbikes as she got into her car outside her home on Monday, her nephew said.
A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayat Khan, said Ama Jan was killed because she worked for the government.
"We have told people time and time again that anyone working for the government - including women - will be killed," Khan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Ama Jan had served as the head of the province's women's affairs department since 2002, and was well known as a teacher and women's rights activist.
Witness account
A witness to the murder said he had seen the two men on motorbikes position themselves on the road and wait for her.
"After she arrived, they attacked," said the man, who gave his name as Allaudin.
The shooting seemed to go on for about three minutes, he said.
The car was marked with bullet holes from both sides and its windows were shattered.
An Afghan security official said no arrests had been made and an investigation had been started.
Condemnation
The UN condemned the killing. Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said: "Unama is appalled by this senseless murder of a woman who was simply working to ensure that all Afghan women play a full and equal part in the future of Afghanistan."
Also on Monday, police in the eastern town of Khost said two apparent suicide bombers had been killed in a blast.
Residents said a US military convoy had been attacked, but there was no word on casualties among the troops.
(Back)
26/09/2006, Afghana.org, Les femmes du sud afghan devront voter contre leurs peurs, (Source).
26/09/2006, Kansas City Star, Women’s affairs director slain in Kandahar attack, (Source).
26/09/2006, Noor Khan, Educator shot dead by militants in Kandahar, (Source).
25/09/2006, Aljazeera, Afghan woman activist shot dead, (Source).
25/09/2006, USA Today, Gunmen kill director of women's affairs in southern Afghanistan, (Source).
25/09/2006, Carlotta Gall, Gunmen Kill Afghan Women’s Advocate, (Source).
25/09/2006, BBC, Afghan women's official shot dead, (Source).
25/09/2006, Herald Tribune, Gunmen kill director of women's affairs for southern Afghanistan, (Source).
18/07/2005, Waheed, 23 Girls Graduate After 11 years, (Source).
05/07/2005, Saeed Zabuli, 23 girls complete school education after 11 years, (Source).
27/09/2004, Sabawoon, Southern Afghan women urged to vote despite threats, (Source).
26/09/06, Kim Sengupta, The woman who defied the Taliban, and paid with her life, (Back).
Women's rights campaigner in Afghanistan shot dead. One in two Afghan women a victim of violence. Suicide on the rise as Taliban's power increases.
Safia Amajan promoted women's education and work - a fairly ordinary job in most places - but in the Afghanistan of a resurgent Taliban it was a dangerous path to follow. She was a target, and yesterday she was gunned down outside her home.
Five years after the "liberation" of Afghanistan by the US and Britain, with promises of a new dawn for its downtrodden women, her murder was a bloody reminder of just how far the country is slipping back into a land of darkness.
Public figures, including the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, lined up to praise Ms Amajan.
Yet this support was signally lacking while she lived. The former teacher worked in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, and also the place where women have faced the most virulent discrimination and mistreatment. It is also where Nato forces are fighting a ferocious insurgency. Ms Amajan had asked for, and been refused, a protective vehicle, or bodyguards, despite repeated death threats.
She was in a battered taxi when two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire with automatic rifles. Her nephew, Farhad Jan, said: "She died on the spot. There was no time to give her treatment." In a place of fear where one can sign one's death warrant with the wrong choice of words, Farhad was careful not to blame anyone for the killing. All he would say was: "We had no personal enmity with anyone."
A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayat Khan, declared that Ms Amajan had been "executed". He said: "We have told people again and again that anyone working for the government, and that includes women, will be killed."
Ms Amajan had taken over the post of women's welfare officer soon after Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, fled with the fall of his regime. With the return of the Taliban, as the "war on terror" moved on to Iraq, aid workers - foreign and Afghan, men and women - were intimidated into leaving the region.
Ms Amajan was one of the few who refused to flee. Her secretary, Abdullah Khan, said: "She was very brave. She was also very hard-working. She was always trying her best to improve education for women."
As well as defying the Taliban, Ms Amajan made the mistake of being successful in what she was doing. In Kandahar alone she had opened six schools where a thousand women had learnt how to make and then sell their goods at the market. She was also instrumental in setting up tailoring schools for women, with some of the products making their way to markets in the West.
At the official end of the Afghan war, America's first lady, Laura Bush, was among those who declared that one of the most important achievements of overthrowing the Taliban was emancipation of women. However, since then female social workers and teachers have been maimed and killed, girls' schools shut down and female workers forced to give up their jobs. The few women out in the streets in Kandahar and other places in the south are covered in burqas. A report by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission spoke of the "systematic and violent campaign" directed against women.
Statistics paint a bleak picture of women's lives with 35 female suicides in Kandahar alone and nearly 200 attempted suicides in the Herat region - one third of which were successful. Rights groups estimate that between 60 and 80 per cent of marriages in the country are forced. And the majority of those marriages involve girls under the age of 16.
Ms Amajan's funeral yesterday, in a Shia ceremony, was attended by the provincial governor and hundreds of mourners, including tribal elders. In Kabul, President Karzai said: "The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan. The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that we have millions of people like Amajan."
Fariba Ahmedi, a female member of parliament, who attended the burial, said: "Those enemies who have killed her should know it will not derail women from the path we are on. We will continue on our way."
Human rights groups point out, however, that the battle for women's rights is in serious danger of being lost. There are now entire provinces where there is no girls' education; of the 300 schools shut or burnt down, the majority were for girls. The death rate at childbirth is the second highest in the world, and the number of women who have committed suicide, mainly through self-immolation, has risen by 30 per cent in two years.
Life gets worse for Afghan women
Violence
* 50 per cent of Afghan women say they have been beaten, while 200 women in Kandahar ran away from domestic violence this year.
* In the past year, 150 cases of women resorting to self-immolation have been reported in western Afghanistan, 34 cases in the south-east.
* 197 women in Herat were reported to have attempted suicide last year, 69 successfully.
* 57 per cent of girls are married before the legal age of 16.
Education
* 85 per cent of women in Afghanistan are illiterate.
* The number of girls going to school in Afghanistan is half that of boys.
* 300 schools were set on fire across the country this year.
Health
* 70 per cent of tuberculosis deaths are among women.
* Death rate of mothers in labour is 60 in 1000 - (60 per cent higher than developed world).
* Only 5-7 per cent of women in Zabul and Helmand province have access to health care.
Voting
* 41 per cent of the 10.5 million registered voters are women. Women's registration rates in southern provinces were much lower than the national average: Zabul (9 per cent), Uruzgan (10 per cent) Helmand (16 per cent), and Kandahar (27 per cent)
Source: AIHRC, UNICEF, HRW
26/09/06, Afghana.org, Les femmes du sud afghan devront voter contre leurs peurs, (Back).
KANDAHAR (Afghanistan), 26 sept (AFP)
Les femmes du sud afghan devront voter contre leurs peurs
Les éducatrices de la commission électorale de Kandahar (sud de l'Afghanistan) sont obstinées: chaque jour, elles sillonnent la ville, bravant les menaces, pour convaincre les femmes de voter contre leurs peurs et leurs blocages.
"Ne passez pas à côté de cette chance. Nous sommes indépendantes, nous sommes des êtres humains, nous avons des droits, il y a une élection et c'est aussi à nous de décider qui sera le président": Shukria, 34 ans, s'adresse à un petit auditoire de boulangères mais semble haranguer une foule, tant sa conviction est forte.
Ses interlocutrices l'écoutent en se cachant derrière leur voile, car un homme s'est glissé dans la cour où elles sont réunies, à proximité du four à pain.
"Que se passe-t-il si l'on met des croix pour deux ou trois candidats ?", demande l'une. "Est-ce qu'une femme peut prendre plusieurs cartes (électorales) et voter pour les autres ?", interroge une autre.
Munie d'un bulletin de vote, Shukria explique patiemment.
Elle poursuit: "Si vous avez peur pour votre sécurité, sachez que le scrutin sera sûr. Le reste c'est de la propagande. N'ayez pas peur. Au nom de Dieu, c'est une chance en or, nous n'avons plus un régime taliban sous lequel vous ne pouviez même pas sortir en cas de maladie !"
C'est, ce matin-là, la principale question des futures électrices, attentives aux menaces de violence autour de la présidentielle du 9 octobre.
"Nous avons de grandes inquiétudes pour notre sûreté", avance l'une. "Nous sommes satisfaites par Karzaï: depuis qu'il est au pouvoir, les femmes peuvent travailler, se rendre à l'école... mais la sécurité, les attentats suicides nous inquiètent", explique une deuxième.
Certaines de ces femmes ont déjà fait un grand pas en allant chercher leur carte d'électrice, indispensable pour participer au vote.
Car, contrairement aux statistiques nationales (41,5% des détenteurs de cartes sont des femmes), les femmes pachtounes du sud ont souvent évité les centres d'enregistrement.
Dans les cinq provinces du sud afghan, dont Kandahar, à la mi-août, cinq jours avant la clôture du recensement, 1,2 million de cartes ont été distribuées, dont environ 230.OOO à des femmes, soit 20% des électeurs.
Pourtant, dans ce pays déchiré par les guerres, où les veuves sont nombreuses, les femmes sont largement majoritaires.
"Il y a eu 25 ans de conflits. Aussi bien les femmes que les hommes manquent d'éducation. Ils n'ont vu que des tueries, des obus, des mitraillettes, nous avons besoin de temps pour reconstruire leurs têtes", concède la représentante des femmes de Kandahar, Safia Amajan.
Selon elle, c'est paradoxalement les femmes aisées qui avanceront le plus lentement et n'iront pas voter. Les époux qui n'ont pas besoin d'un salaire d'appoint sont plus enclins à les enfermer, dit-elle: "Certains ne laissent même pas leurs femmes sortir au pas de la porte".
"Celles qui doivent travailler à l'extérieur sont celles qui se sont fait recenser", poursuit-elle.
Ainsi, sur quatre femmes d'une famille moyenne de la ville interrogées par l'AFP, aucune n'ira voter: l'une parce que son mari lui interdit de sortir, deux autres parce que leur mère ne veut pas les voir voter, et cette dernière car elle est opposée au scrutin.
Une autre fracture, plus évidente, est manifeste entre citadines et campagnardes, explique pour sa part Fatima Jailani, qui supervise l'éducation civique des femmes de Kandahar.
Dans le village de Loya Wala, aux portes de Kandahar, "il y a trois mois, une femme s'est vu remettre une carte d'électrice. Quand son mari est rentré, elle lui a montré. Il l'a battue et l'a renvoyée chez sa mère, avec leurs deux enfants", déplore-t-elle.
La peur gagne les Afghanes qui se risquent à travailler avec les étrangers
AFP - Samedi 25 septembre 2004
Faizabad - Elles étaient agent électoral ou médecin et travaillaient avec des organisations étrangères à Faizabad, mais depuis les émeutes de début septembre qui ont frappé cette ville de l'extrême-nord afghan d'habitude épargnée par les violences, la peur a gagné.
"Avant, je rendais souvent visite à Médecins sans Frontière, l'Unicef ou l'Organisation mondiale de la Santé, mais maintenant je ne peux plus, j'ai trop peur", explique à l'AFP la doctoresse Hajira Zia, chef du département de gynécologie et d'obstétrique de l'hôpital de Faizabad, à 500 km au nord-est de Kaboul.
Travaillant avec l'Onu aux opérations d'enregistrement des électeurs en vue de l'élection présidentielle du 9 octobre, la jeune Ghul Jan Harimya n'ose plus monter dans un véhicule frappé du logo bleu des Nations unies.
Il y a un mois, Faizabad, capitale de la province de Badakhshan, était réputée comme le "lieu le plus sûr d'Afghanistan" pour les organisations internationales.
Mais le 7 septembre, une rumeur de viols de quatre Afghanes dans une ONG a jeté la population dans la rue à l'assaut des organisations humanitaires employant des Afghanes.
Les locaux de Focus for Humanitarian Assistance, une ONG du réseau de l'Aga Khan, très actif dans le nord de l'Afghanistan, et l'organisation suisse Medair étaient attaqués et brûlés et une dizaine de leurs employés blessés.
"Les gens disaient +Nous sommes musulmans et pourquoi des étrangers viennent-ils violer nos femmes+", se souvient le chef de la police locale Ghulam Buharrudin Bahu.
Réalité ou rumeur, les habitants de Faizabad ont jugé que l'honneur de leurs femmes avait été touché et sont bien décidés à ce que cela ne se reproduise plus.
"Les gens m'insultent quand je pars travailler", explique à l'AFP Ghul Jan Harimya, qui préfère désormais marcher que prendre les véhicules de l'Onu.
Les leaders tribaux de Faizabad et des environs ont écrit aux autorités locales pour leur demander d'interdire le travail des Afghanes dans des organisations étrangères.
"Ils me demandent pourquoi faut-il que des femmes travaillent pour des étrangers alors qu'il y a de jeunes hommes intelligents qui parlent anglais", explique le chef de la police.
"L'Afghanistan est un pays où les gens n'aiment pas voir leurs femmes ou leurs filles travailler à l'extérieur. Nous essayons de leur parler des droits des femmes, mais la population n'a pas envie de les voir travailler pour des étrangers", poursuit le chef de la police.
L'exemple de Faizabad a fait tache d'huile dans d'autres régions.
"Il y a une montée de l'hostilité et des questions se posent dans d'autres provinces. On voit apparaître des tracts menaçants", note Nick Downie, de l'organisation Anso qui travaille sur les problèmes de sécurité pour les milliers d'ONG travaillant en Afghanistan.
D'autres Afghans ont appris plus de pragmatisme après des années de violence. A Baharak, un autre district du Badakhshan, Fausia, une mère de famille dans la quarantaine, reste désormais à la maison après avoir travaillé sur des projets de développement agricole.
"C'est dur de rester à la maison quand on a pris l'habitude de travailler", confie-t-elle. Mais, avec le soutien de son mari Ata Bhouri, elle est bien décidée à reprendre son travail lorsque l'orage sera passé.
"Pendant des années, les talibans ont empêché les femmes de travailler. On a attendu, puis elles ont repris le travail. Alors cette fois-ci, on va encore attendre quelques semaines, et puis les femmes retourneront travailler", explique le mari de Fausia.
27/09/2004, Sabawoon, Southern Afghan women urged to vote despite threats, (Back).
KANDAHAR - Female election commission educators in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar are persistent and brave, ignoring threats each day they criss-cross the city to convince women to vote.
"Don't miss this chance. We are independent, we are human beings, we have rights. There is an election and it is up to us to decide who should be president," Shukria, 34, tells a small audience of women bakers in this former stronghold of the Islamist Taliban regime.
They listen from behind their veils because a man has slipped into the courtyard where they have gathered near the bread oven.
"What happens if you put crosses for two or three candidates?" asks one of the women.
"Can one woman take several (voting) cards and vote for the others?" asks another.
Holding a ballot paper, Shukria patiently explains the voting system for the historic October 9 election in which President Hamid Karzai and 17 others are contesting the presidency.
This morning, the main question concerns threats of violence around the polls which Taliban militants have pledged to disrupt.
"We have great concerns about our security," says one woman. "We have small children, we are scared for them."
"We are happy with Karzai. Since he came to power women can work, go to school, but we are concerned about security and suicide attacks," explains another.
"If you are scared about security, we have security. It is just propaganda. Don't be afraid. Please, for God's sake, this is a golden chance. It is not a Taliban government where you could not go out even if you were sick," Shukria says.
Some of the women have already taken the major step of getting a voter registration card to take part in the election.
But contrary to national statistics which show 42 percent of registered voters are women, the Pashtun women of the south have often avoided the registration centres.
In the five southern provinces including Kandahar by mid-August, five days before registration ended, 1.2 million cards had been distributed with just 230,000, or 20 percent, going to women.
However, decades of conflict have left many widows, and women make up the majority of the population.
"This country has had two-and-a-half decades during which both males and females have been left uneducated. You cannot change their minds overnight," says Safia Amajan, a women's representative in Kandahar.
"They have not seen anything else but killing of people and mortars ... and machine-guns ... we need some time to reconstruct their minds."
Paradoxically, according to her, the better-off women are the ones who are least likely to vote.
"Those who have to work outside are the ones to register. Some people don't even like their wives to go outside," she says.
Of four average family women questioned by AFP in Kandahar who said they wouldn't vote, one said her husband prohibits her from leaving the house, two others because their mother does not want them to vote and the fourth said she was against the election.
Another, more obvious, division is displayed between urban and rural residents, explains Fatima Jailani, who supervises the civic education of the women of Kandahar.
In the village of Loya Wala, near Kandahar, "Three months ago, a woman was given a (registration) card.
"Her husband came home and she showed the card. She was beaten and sent back to her mother's house with the two children," she says.
26/09/06, Kansas City Star, Women’s affairs director slain in Kandahar attack, (Back).
Even under the Taliban, Safia Ahmed-jan ran schools to help the women in Afghanistan, from the Chicago Tribune.
KABUL, Afghanistan: The provincial head of the Women’s Affairs Ministry in Kandahar was gunned down in front of her house Monday morning as she was leaving for work.
Safia Ahmed-jan, who was known as Ama Jan or “dear aunt” by many in Kandahar, was the first female official killed by Taliban-led insurgents since the fall of the regime in late 2001.
Gunmen riding motorcycles shot her four times — once in the head — said Mohammad Nader, the head nurse at Kandahar’s main hospital. No one was arrested.
“The enemies of Afghanistan did this, the ones who do not want peace in Afghanistan,” said Zemeri Bashary, spokesman for the Interior Ministry. “They don’t even hesitate to kill women.”
Ahmed-jan, who was said to be in her 60s, ran vocational schools for women. Her son, Naqibullah, said she taught girls at an underground school she ran out of their home during the Taliban’s ultraconservative rule from 1996-2001.
Naqibullah, who goes by only one name, said his mother had not received any threats on her life, as far as he knew, but that he and his father tried to get her to quit her work because of the deteriorating security situation.
“She said, ‘It’s my country, I won’t quit my job. I want to do this work for our women, for our country. I want women to be able to work just like men,’ ” Naqibullah recalled.
In Kandahar alone, Ahmed-jan had opened six schools where almost 1,000 women learned how to bake and sell their goods at market. She also taught women how to use computers.
Ahmed-Jan’s husband was paralyzed, and she needed to work.
In her spare time, she read the Qur’an at a funeral home for women to earn extra money, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the Kandahar governor.
26/09/06, Noor Khan, Educator shot dead by militants in Kandahar, (Back).
Taliban takes credit for gunning down popular Afghan women's-rights activist, from Associated Press.
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Gunmen on a motorbike have killed an Afghan women's-rights activist who ran an underground school for girls during the Taliban's rule, the latest victim of an increasingly brazen militant campaign against government officials and schools.
Safia Ama Jan, a provincial director for the Ministry of Women's Affairs, was slain outside her home in Kandahar yesterday while on her way to work, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim Parant, senior adviser to the ministry in Kabul.
"The enemy of Afghanistan killed her, but they should know it will not derail women from the path we are on. We will continue on our way," said Fariba Ahmedi, a female member of parliament from Kandahar who joined hundreds of men and women, including the provincial governor, for the funeral yesterday evening at a packed Shia mosque.
The two attackers fled after the shooting. Mullah Sadullah, a regional Taliban commander, claimed responsibility for the killing in a telephone call to Associated Press, but the claim could not be verified.
A teacher for more than three decades, Ms. Ama Jan was known for being an active proponent of women's rights in this former Taliban stronghold. Although she was a women's activist, she always wore a burqa and was shot dead while wearing the traditional Islamic garment, her son said.
Her death comes at a time of rising Taliban violence against civilian targets. This month, a suicide bomber assassinated a provincial governor who was a close associate of President Hamid Karzai, and militants killed 19 construction workers riding on a bus in Kandahar province last week.
Last year, militants burned down or attacked 146 schools, and have already topped that this year with 158 hits, said Zuhoor Afghan, the top adviser to Afghanistan's Education Minister.
The school attacks appear motivated partly by Taliban opposition to education for girls -- they say it is against Islam -- but also as a strategy to undermine the already feeble reach of Mr. Karzai's U.S.-backed government. The government has tried, with mixed success, to promote women's rights enshrined under Afghanistan's post-Taliban constitution.
Mr. Karzai said he was deeply saddened by her death.
"The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan," the President said in a statement. "The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that we have millions of people like [Ms. Ama Jan] who will continue to serve this great nation."
Ms. Ama Jan, who was reportedly in her 60s, ran vocational schools for women. Her son Naqibullah said she taught girls at an underground school she ran out of their home during the Taliban's ultraconservative rule from 1996 to 2001.
Naqibullah, who goes by only one name, said he had not known of any threats against his mother's life. But he said he and his father tried to get her to quit her work because of the deteriorating security situation.
"She said, 'It's my country; I won't quit my job. I want to do this work for our women, for our country. I want women to be able to work just like men,' " he recalled.
One of Ms. Ama Jan's most successful projects was running schools for women, her secretary Abdullah Khan said.
In Kandahar alone, Ms. Ama Jan had opened six schools where almost 1,000 women learned how to bake and sell their goods at market. She also taught women how to use computers.
18/07/2005, Waheed, 23 Girls Graduate After 11 years, (Back).
After 11 long years, the first group of 23 girls completed their high school education in the southern province of Kandahar last week. These 23 girls graduated from Zarghona High School in Kandahar City, a former stronghold of the Taliban who had banned female education in Afghanistan
These are the first girls to graduate Khandahar City, because during the civil war and Mujahideen government the girls school was closed, due to the unstable security situation in the Region. Safi Ama Jan, head of the Women Affairs Department, said this graduation of the girls was a great success, and is a new beginning for girls education after years of war and violence. She also said that she was very glad because these (female) graduates were now in a postition to apply for government jobs; and also able to pursue higher education at university level. Female education is still a problem in the conservative south.
Families have stated many reasons why their daughters cannot attend school. There are still no schools for girls in some districts, and is very difficult and expensive to transport their daughters from outlaying villages into cities. In other provinces such as Herat and Mazer-e-Sharif hundreds of girls attend school and graduate every year. In the capital city of Kabul thousands of girls attend school and graduate every year. In Kabul there are many schools for girls, and the bussing transportation for students is very good.
We hope that the govenment will build more schools in rural areas of Afghanistan so that a larger part of the population will have access to schools and education. The main key to our advancement as a country is to educate our people as much as possible.
25/09/2006, USA Today, Gunmen kill director of women's affairs in southern Afghanistan, (Back).
[photo AFP/Getty Images, Safia Ahmed-jan is shown last July during an official visit to Japan.]
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Two gunmen on a motorbike killed the provincial director of Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs outside her home Monday in apparent retribution for her efforts to help educate women, officials said.
Safia Ama Jan was slain outside the front gate of her Kandahar home as she was walking to her office, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim Parant, senior adviser to the women's ministry in Kabul.
Ama Jan was known for being an active proponent of women's rights and education in this former Taliban stronghold, a region where insurgents have turned increasingly violent in the last several months.
President Hamid Karzai said he was deeply saddened by her death.
"The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan," Karzai said in a statement. "The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that we have millions of people like (Ama Jan) who will continue to serve this great nation."
Hundreds of mourners — including the provincial governor and tribal leaders — attended her funeral Monday evening at a packed Shiite mosque in Kandahar.
"The enemy of Afghanistan killed her, but they should know it will not derail women from the path we are on. We will continue on our way," said Fariba Ahmedi, a female member of parliament from Kandahar who attended.
Mullah Sadullah, a regional Taliban commander, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press. It was impossible to verify the claim.
One of Ama Jan's most successful projects was running vocational schools for women, said her secretary, Abdullah Khan. "She was always trying her best to improve education for women," Khan said.
In Kandahar alone, Ama Jan had opened six schools where almost 1,000 women learned how to bake and sell their goods at market. She had also opened tailoring schools for women, and clothes made there found their way to Western markets, Khan said.
During the Taliban's rule, Ama Jan, a former teacher, ran an underground school for girls out of her home, said Mohammed Asif, her nephew.
Taliban holdouts have launched an increasing number of attacks this year, particularly in the south, where dozens of schools have been destroyed. The fighters are also increasingly targeting civilians and government officials with suicide and roadside bombs.
The Taliban, which was ousted from power after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, follows an ultraconservative ideology. When the regime ran the country, women were banned from schools and jobs and couldn't leave their homes without a male escort.
Aleem Sidique, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said the U.N. was "appalled at this senseless murder."
"What we need to see in Afghanistan is peace, development and progress," Sidique said. "We share the sentiment of the majority of Afghan people who are appalled at this killing."
In other violence, a police vehicle hit a roadside bomb Monday in eastern Afghanistan near the border between Khost and Paktia provinces, killing two police officers and wounding eight, said Khalil Amin Zada, commander of border police in Khost province.
A suicide bomber on foot targeted an Afghan army vehicle patrol in the same province, slightly wounding an American soldier who was training Afghan troops, said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a U.S. military spokesman.
The soldier received minor burns to his face and shoulder, while the bomber died in the blast, Fitzpatrick said.
U.S. forces killed 10 suspected Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the U.S. military said. Troops backed by attack helicopters clashed with some 15 suspected insurgents in the Sharan district of Paktika province, the statement said. Ten suspected insurgents were believed killed while five fled, it said.
Two militants were killed just outside Khost city when a bomb they were carrying exploded prematurely in their car, said Gen. Mohammed Ayub, the provincial police chief. The two were planning to carry out a bombing in the town, he said. There were no other casualties.
Some 20 militants attacked the house of a district chief in neighboring Paktika province late Sunday, killing him, said Sayed Jamal, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
Authorities launched a search Monday for the perpetrators, recovering the district chief's vehicle and detaining nine people for questioning, Jamal said.
Suspected Taliban militants, meanwhile, attacked and destroyed a medical clinic in Yaqoubi district of the eastern Khost province Sunday, Ayub said.
25/09/2006, Carlotta Gall, Gunmen Kill Afghan Women’s Advocate, (Back).
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept. 25 — A senior Afghan official specializing in women’s rights was gunned down here on her way to work Monday morning by suspected Taliban gunmen. It was the highest-level assassination of a woman in Afghanistan in the five years since the Taliban were ousted from power.
Safia Amajan, 65, had served as chief of the Woman’s Affairs department in Kandahar for five years, working to improve women’s rights and opportunities for education and vocational training. A former teacher and high school principal, she was well known and much liked in Kandahar.
“It is a very tragic loss,” said Sonja Bachmann, a United Nations political officer who knew Ms. Amajan well. “She did a good job, she worked in a very low-key way and worked hard to raise awareness about women’s issues.”
A spokesman claiming to speak for the Taliban took responsibility for the killing in a telephone call, Reuters reported.
Hundreds of women gathered at the main Shiite mosque in the town, where her body lay wrapped in a white shroud decorated with golden Koranic script, to mourn her loss. “There is no security for anyone now in Kandahar,” one woman said, sobbing through her veil.
Ms. Amajan was shot as she was walking from her house up a narrow street to the main road shortly after 7 a.m. local time, shopkeepers along the road said. A gunman shot her four times with a pistol, said Muhammad Haidar, an official who worked in her office.
Her nephew, Muhammad Asif, 45, said no one reported seeing the gunmen. “A carpenter was close to the scene and heard the shots and he called people,” he said. Her husband also heard the shooting and came out of their house and found her lying in the street, Mr. Asif said.
The police were looking for two men, who escaped by motorcycle, said the provincial governor, Asadullah Khaled, who went to the crime scene himself. The police found tracks of the motorcycle driving away from the scene, he said.
Ms. Amajan preferred to take a taxi or public transport so as not to draw attention to herself, even though her office had cars and drivers, her nephew said. “She wanted to keep a low profile,” he said. “We wanted her to come and live with us in town, but she used to say, ‘If it’s God’s will, they will take me anywhere.’”
She had not received threats, Mr. Haidar said. but everyone in the office knew there was a threat from the Taliban, who have in the past attacked teachers and government officials. In another recent high-level assassination, a suicide bomber killed the governor of Paktia Province.
But to gun down a woman in the street, in this strictly conservative tribal society, is very rare and shocking to many people, and it has reinforced the fear in this southern city that was once the Taliban’s spiritual headquarters at the continuing violence and growing Taliban threats. A United Nations official noted that five people had been kidnapped in the city on Sunday.
“People are scared, of course,” said Mr. Haidar. “How can we fell secure when the head of our department is killed in front of her house?”
Ms. Amajan’s relatives and employees ruled out any personal enmity as a motive, saying that she was a religious woman, the mother of an 18-year-old son and a person of unimpeachable character.
“She was a poor woman, from a poor background and was very well connected to the local women’s networks in Kandahar,” Ms. Bachmann said. “In the south things are very difficult and she worked to improve things for women — and she worked very well with us in the United Nations.”
President Hamid Karzai, on a visit to the United States, condemned the killing. “The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan,” he said in a statement released in Kabul.
25/09/2006, BBC, Afghan women's official shot dead, (Back).
Ms Amajan had been a fierce critic of the Taleban
A leading Afghan official working on women's rights has been shot dead in the southern province of Kandahar.
Safia Amajan, head of the province's women's department, was leaving her home for work when a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire, police said.
She may have been targeted by Taleban militants because of their opposition to women taking part in politics and education, the BBC's Dan Isaacs says.
Hundreds have died in clashes between troops and Taleban fighters this year.
Nato-led forces have been battling a resurgent Taleban militia, with some of the fiercest fighting taking place in the south of the country.
Taleban critic
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack on Safia Amajan.
She had served as head of women's affairs in Kandahar's provincial government since the Taleban government was toppled by US-led forces in 2001.
An eloquent public speaker, Safia Amajan was fierce in her criticism of what she saw as the Taleban's repression of women.
After the US-led invasion in 2001, the former teacher took charge of women's affairs in Kandahar's provincial government.
In a conservative region where most families keep wives and daughters cloistered indoors, she was able to attract hundreds of women to schools and vocational courses.
Her requests for secure official transport and personal bodyguards had not been granted by the government.
At the time of the attack, she was travelling in a taxi.
A spokesman for the UN agency overseeing development in Afghanistan condemned the "senseless murder of a woman who was simply working to ensure that all Afghan women play a full and equal part in the future of Afghanistan".
Earlier this month, a suicide bomber killed the governor of eastern Afghanistan's Paktia province - the highest-ranking official to die in the insurgency.
Abdul Hakim Taniwal was attacked outside his office. The Taleban said it carried out the attack.
25/09/2006, Herald Tribune, Gunmen kill director of women's affairs for southern Afghanistan, (Back).
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Two gunmen on a motorbike killed the southern provincial head of Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs outside her home Monday in apparent retribution for her efforts to help educate women, officials said.
Safia Ama Jan was slain outside the front gate of her home in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar as she was walking to her office, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim Parant, senior adviser to the women's ministry in Kabul.
Ama Jan was known for being an active proponent of women's rights and education in this former Taliban stronghold, a region where insurgents have turned increasingly violent over the last several months.
President Hamid Karzai said he was deeply saddened by her death.
"The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan," Karzai said in a statement. "The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that we have millions of people like (Ama Jan) who will continue to serve this great nation."
Hundreds of mourners — including the provincial governor and tribal leaders — attended her funeral Monday evening at a packed Shiite mosque in Kandahar.
"The enemy of Afghanistan killed her, but they should know it will not derail women from the path we are on. We will continue on our way," said Fariba Ahmedi, a female member of parliament from Kandahar who attended the ceremony.
Mullah Sadullah, a regional Taliban commander, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press. It was impossible to verify the claim.
One of Ama Jan's most successful projects was running vocational schools for women, her secretary Abdullah Khan said. "She was always trying her best to improve education for women," Khan said.
In Kandahar alone, Ama Jan had opened six schools where almost 1,000 women learned how to bake and sell their goods at market. She had also opened tailoring schools for women, and clothes made there found their way to Western markets, Khan said.
During the Taliban's rule, Ama Jan, a former teacher, ran an underground school for girls out of her home, said Mohammed Asif, her nephew.
Taliban holdouts have launched an increasing number of attacks this year, particularly in the country's south, where dozens of schools have been destroyed. The fighters are also increasingly targeting civilians and government officials with suicide and roadside bombs.
The Taliban, which was ousted from power after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, follows an ultraconservative ideology. When the regime ran the country, women were banned from schools and jobs and couldn't leave their homes without a male escort.
Aleem Sidique, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said the U.N. was "appalled at this senseless murder."
"What we need to see in Afghanistan is peace, development and progress," Sidique said. "We share the sentiment of the majority of Afghan people who are appalled at this killing."
In other violence, a police vehicle hit a roadside bomb Monday in eastern Afghanistan near the border between Khost and Paktia provinces, killing two police officers and wounding eight, said Khalil Amin Zada, commander of border police in Khost province.
A suicide bomber on foot targeted an Afghan National army vehicle patrol in the same province, slightly wounding an American soldier who was training Afghan troops, said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a U.S. military spokesman.
The soldier received minor burns to his face and shoulder while the bomber died in the blast, Fitzpatrick said.
U.S. forces killed 10 suspected Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan Monday, the U.S. military said. Troops backed by attack helicopters clashed with some 15 suspected insurgents in Sharan district of Paktika province, the statement said. Ten suspected insurgents were believed killed while five fled, it said.
Two militants were killed just outside Khost city when a bomb they were carrying exploded prematurely in their car, said Gen. Mohammed Ayub, the provincial police chief. The two were planning to carry out a bombing in the town, he said. There were no other casualties.
Some 20 militants attacked the house of a district chief in neighboring Paktika province late Sunday, killing him, said Sayed Jamal, spokesman for the provincial governor.
Authorities launched a search for the perpetrators Monday, recovering the district chief's vehicle and detaining nine people for questioning, Jamal said.
Suspected Taliban militants, meanwhile, attacked and destroyed a medical clinic in Yaqoubi district of the eastern Khost province on Sunday, Ayub said.
05/07/2005, Saeed Zabuli, 23 girls complete school education after 11 years, (Back).
KANDAHAR, July 5 (Pajhwok Afghan News): After a lapse of more than a decade, the first batch of 23 girls Tuesday completed their high school education in the southern Kandahar province, a former stronghold of Taliban who had banned female literacy in Afghanistan.
Kandahar Education Department chief Hayatullah Rafiqi told Pajhwok Afghan News after the passage of 11 long years, the girls graduated from the Zarghona Ana High School in Kandahar City. He appeared upbeat about the event seen as a watershed in female education.
Girls were barred from going to school during the Taliban rule, with Kandahar serving as their bastion. And during the civil war and the mujahideen government, girl schools remained closed owing to an instable security situation.
Head of Women Affairs Department Safi Ama Jan described the success of the school's outgoing girls as a new beginning after a crippling war and subsequent bouts of violence.
She was glad that the girl students were now in a position to apply for government jobs or pursue higher education at the university level. She viewed it as big stride because female education is still in a phase of infancy in the conservative south.
25/09/06, Aljazeera, Afghan woman activist shot dead, (Back).
A resurgent Taliban have claimed a number of recent attacks
A senior Afghan women's affairs official has been shot dead in an attack in Kandahar that was claimed by the Taliban.
Safia Ana Jan, head of the women's affairs department in the province of Kandahar, was killed by armed men on motorbikes as she got into her car outside her home on Monday, her nephew said.
A Taliban commander, Mullah Hayat Khan, said Ama Jan was killed because she worked for the government.
"We have told people time and time again that anyone working for the government - including women - will be killed," Khan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Ama Jan had served as the head of the province's women's affairs department since 2002, and was well known as a teacher and women's rights activist.
Witness account
A witness to the murder said he had seen the two men on motorbikes position themselves on the road and wait for her.
"After she arrived, they attacked," said the man, who gave his name as Allaudin.
The shooting seemed to go on for about three minutes, he said.
The car was marked with bullet holes from both sides and its windows were shattered.
An Afghan security official said no arrests had been made and an investigation had been started.
Condemnation
The UN condemned the killing. Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said: "Unama is appalled by this senseless murder of a woman who was simply working to ensure that all Afghan women play a full and equal part in the future of Afghanistan."
Also on Monday, police in the eastern town of Khost said two apparent suicide bombers had been killed in a blast.
Residents said a US military convoy had been attacked, but there was no word on casualties among the troops.
(Back)
Home