Revolutionary Association of the Women

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA): Address

The image of the oppressed Afghani woman in a burka has been burned across the newspapers of the world: undeniably, the status of women in Afghanistan has had a profoundly negative impact upon the public image of the nation. Improving women's rights must serve as a cornerstone of the evolving agenda of the new government of Afghanistan. It is critical to establishing the legitimacy of the regime and improving Afghanistan's international image.

Bolstering the social role of women has many practical arguments in its favor as well: any disenfranchised group can provide a fertile source of support for civil unrest. The poorest and most marginalized women in the Shah's Iran strongly supported the Islamic revolution, even though they suffered a loss of status as a result: when people feel as if they have nothing to lose, they are more apt to support terrorist and fundamentalist causes. By bringing women into the government, educating girls, and increasing the social stake that women feel in the new government, a potential source of social instability can be thwarted. Liberated women will be more apt to support the new government, and to communicate this message to their husbands, fathers, and sons -- thus also thwarting potential terrorist leaders of the future.

Another practical consideration is overpopulation -- when women are educated, they tend to have smaller families and to take a more assertive role in voluntarily limiting their family's size. Given the poverty currently gripping the nation of Afghanistan, reducing the birth rate is an important objective. Also, when women are educated they tend to get married later in life, which further reduces the birth rate and increases the amount of scarce resources available for current citizens. Women with smaller families who marry later also will be healthier and more economically productive.

To improve the role of women, the government must take an active role in promoting educational opportunities for girls and instating vocational education programs for all women, regardless of age, to better enable them to establish some degree of economic autonomy. This will improve the economic status of Afghani families as a whole, and also ensure that women who face violence at home will not feel compelled to stay in untenable circumstances. One of the reasons women stay in bad marriages, agree to arranged marriages, or do not leave home even after coming of age is a fear of being unable to support themselves. This can serve as part of a larger agenda of educating the Afghani people in viable skills that will enable the nation to compete in the modern world.

To demonstrate the changed role of women, the government must aggressively prosecute instances of domestic violence, forced marriages of underage girls, and honor killings. The unacceptability of such behavior must be indicated through legal action, not simply through rhetoric. Appointing a woman in charge of overseeing the prosecution of such crimes would be one way to show that women are 'getting tough' on the problem of violence and discrimination against women.