Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)
AFGHANISTAN: Women face misery in Nuristan
24 February 2005


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United 
Nations]

NURISTAN, 24 February (IRIN) - The wooden hut of Zulaikha, a 45-year-old 
midwife, remains the only ray of hope for destitute women in the 
Nuristan valley, in northeastern Nuristan province. Dozens of women 
gather around Zulaikha, many of them after travelling from snow-capped 
mountains after a day's journey by foot.

While some come for treatment, others have been severely beaten by their 
husbands or forced to leave their homes and children. Many women claim 
that their husbands have sent them back to their parents after coming 
down with tuberculosis (TB), the province's chief health concern, or 
that they had become weak as a result of poor nourishment.

"My husband beat me and kicked me out after my sickness [TB] became 
serious," Bibi Hawa, a 30-year-old housewife, told IRIN, after speaking 
with Zulaikha, the only literate woman and health worker in Kamdish and 
Bargmatal districts, with a population of over 100,000.

"He threw me out to take revenge on my father who had received 30 cows 
as a dowry for my wedding," she exclaimed.

Like many rural Afghan areas, ultra conservatism and cultural 
complexities have proven the tools of violence against women, but here 
the problem has been worse. In addition to maltreatment, women 
traditionally have been obliged to engage in physical labour outside the 
home, including agriculture and carrying heavy loads of firewood on 
their shoulders from nearby mountains.

Meanwhile, Zulaikha, who graduated from high school and later attended a 
midwifery-training course in Pakistan, is struggling to cope in 
male-dominated Nuristan. She and two male TB technicians are the only 
health workers serving the province's two heavily populated and troubled 
border districts.

Nuristan has one of the highest rates of maternal and child mortality in 
the country due to a lack of healthcare centres, as well as 
inaccessibility to many parts of the mountainous valley. The nearest 
health clinic is in the town of Chitral, two days walk across the border 
in Pakistan.

There isn't a single doctor in the province, according to Zulaikha. She 
regularly walks for hours to visit patients and often has to deliver 
babies and cope with birthing problems under the most primitive of 
conditions.

"Unfortunately, often mothers die before I can reach them. Because of 
the lack of roads I have to walk or go by horse," she said.

"Here women have to work more than a human being's capacity," she 
claimed, adding that in addition to TB, many women suffered from back 
and leg problems due to physical labour.

"No one uses horses or donkeys. Instead they use women as a means of 
carrying things," she said, adding that women even had to plough the 
hard mountains for cultivation. "Unfortunately, despite all the work 
they are doing, women are not treated as human beings."

Most of the problems originated from heavy bride-prices paid to parents 
for their daughters, the mother-of-four maintained. "To marry a girl you 
have to give up to 40 cows to your in-laws," she said, adding that this 
had often created tension between husbands and wives after the marriage. 
"Many women are sent to their father's home for treatment by angry 
husbands," she added.

Meanwhile, a lack of government control in the area has meant that 
conservative religious leaders still hold sway in most parts of 
Nuristan.

In addition to tradition, illiteracy and ultra conservative elements 
were also having an effect. "The illiterate men are influenced by 
religious extremists here and they don't want us to know our rights," 
the midwife noted.

She said local religious extremists closed her health and social 
education training last year. "They said I was influencing women against 
them and closed my centre," she said.

Zulaikha said women in Nuristan were suffering and neither the 
government nor aid agencies could intervene. "In a situation where there 
is no aid agency or government properly functioning here, one can 
imagine that the first victim in a lawless area is a woman," she 
explained.


[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN 
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views 
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or 
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: Irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: 
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this 
item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial 
sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 
2005


To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit:
http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions


[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: Irin@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by
commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005

To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit:
http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions


IRIN-Asia
Tel: +90 312 454 1177
Fax: +90 312 495 4166
Email: IrinAsia@IRINnews.org

[This Item is Delivered to the "Asia-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by
commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Appropriate Donations for International Disaster/Humanitarian Needs
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Center for International                  web: www.cidi.org
     Disaster Information             listserv: www.cidi.org/listsub.htm
                                    guidelines: www.cidi.org/donate.htm
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Central Asia                  www.cidi.org/humanitarian/hsr/centralasia