2013
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit
are under great control and monitoring: they are described as “locked up”. Women generally do not go out of the immediate neighbourhood. Apart from these, a woman has her other duties to the community, that is, for weddings, deaths, births, illness, siyāli wa shariki, hashār, etc.; women participate in all these extensively. Matchmaking and deciding upon alliances is also the domain of men in Isārkhail; the women from the groom’s family are then informed to formally approach the bride’s household. Women do not go to the bāzār; the men buy and bring what is asked for, and a man with gheirat would not allow a woman to do go to the bāzār. They do not go into the mosque. The women feel the lack of a clinic very much; transportation to Qārābāgh and other places for health care is very expensive. An illness could entail seeking loans; informal loans seem to be a prominent coping strategy. Most births take place at home, with the help of other women. On education, they say it is enough for a girl to study up to the second or third class; there is no need for a girl to study more. The women do not know about a women’s council. Women feel their lack of income acutely. In their opinion, an income may at least contribute to their siyāli wa shariki. Life is hard, they say; young girls are also idle at home, while the men can only labour at uncertain, and often dangerous, stone-breaking. The Female Rehabilitation and Development Organization (FRDO) project, which began here in 2011, entailed distributing livestock to women and, later, training them in bag sewing and tailoring. About 25 women were identified for the FRDO project by the malik and his son, primarily on the basis of family permission, available time, and age. The participants were given basic livestock training and information on personal health care. In an add-on project, the participants were given training in literacy (alphabet and math) and in sewing bags (for six months, for four hours in the mornings). The malik’s son, who is the only educated person in Isārkhail other than the mullah, implemented both these trainings. Classes were held in the two rooms in the malik’s courtyard. All of what they were taught and learned was new knowledge for them, the women said. Each participant was given three sheep; a veterinarian came to train them once. The animals were given, de facto, to the husband or son. Some women who had backyards grazed them there. Space to corral them and feed them during winters was a problem. Very few sheep have lambed. Some women said that their husbands sold the animals to meet pressing household needs181; others said that the sheep were too young for lambing and milk and that two sheep were not enough to change anything182. Later, four tailoring machines were also given to this community. The finished bags ended up with the project’s representatives with the women seeing no income from it. However, they have all been busy and happy with the increased activity. The changes that women have seen in this past decade are: lessening of control, especially from the mother-in-law; more brothers living apart from their joint households; education for girls; and more willingness among men to attend to women’s health care needs. The project participant, Nāzanin, is rather uncertain about the project and its benefits. She is appreciative of the literacy training (including some reciting of the Holy Qur’ān) and is happy she can now write from 1 to 100, read from a second-grade book, write her and her mahram’s names, and that, in general, she knows more. However, Nāzanin had hoped that the livestock would bring some income. The sheep, she says, are too young for milk or reproduction. She cannot afford to buy feed and hopes they will survive the winter. Acquiring the two sheep is significant for her. The fourth site, Mousākhil Pāein, is a village about a half-hour drive on a dirt road from Qārābāgh township. It has about 260 families, mostly Tājik, with some Pashtoon. The main source of income for the families is agriculture and livestock, and some orchards. The lack of water is a source of major concern. There is no electricity. They have a male shurā and a nominal female shurā in the CDC. There is a secondary school built around 2011, but girls generally study till seventh or eighth grade, or until they attain puberty; there are no women teachers. Child marriages are not uncommon. The high 181 For example, the intestine of a sheep can bring in one kilo of sugar while a bottle of yoghurt from sheep’s milk can fetch 30 Afs. 182
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“So two sheep are nothing...at most, they would give two cups of milk’, says Dādā Shirin (42 years, housewife, Tājik).
Dr. Lena Ganesh