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Afghanistan's Parliament in the Making

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Afghanistan's Parliament in the Making The involvement of women in Afghanistan’s public life is decreasing. Attacks, vigilantism, and legal processes that contradict the basic principles of human and women’s rights are the order of the day. The security situation is worsening in step with the disenchantment E MAKING H arising from the lack of results and functional shortcomings of existing democratic structures. In the face of such difficulties, we often forget who should create the legal underpinnings for the power in Afghanistan: the women and men in parliament who are working to build a state in these turbulent times of transition. To what extent will these elected representatives succeed in creating alternatives to established traditional power structures? What are the obstacles they face? What kinds of networks or caucuses are they establishing? This book, which is based on interviews of male and female members of parliament held in Kabul in 2007 and 2008, examines the reali- IN T pARLIAMENT ANISTan’s H ties of parliamentary work in Afghanistan. It shows how varied and G coercive the patterns of identification prevalent in Afghanistan can AF be, and it provides a rare opportunity to gain insights into the self- images and roles of women in parliament. ISBN 978-3-86928-006-6 Andrea Fleschenberg Afghanistan’s parliament in the making Andrea Fleschenberg Gendered understandings and practices of politics in a transitional country .) ED BÖLL FOUNDATION ( BÖLL FOUNDATION H The Green Political Foundation Schumannstraße 8 10117 Berlin www.boell.de HEINRIC Afghanistan’s parliament in the making Andrea Fleschenberg, PhD, currently works as research associate and lecturer at the Institute of Social Science at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. Previously, she was a research fellow at the Institute of East Asian Studies/Po- litical Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen and a lecturer at the Univer- sity of Cologne, Germany. In 2007 she was a visiting professor at the University of the Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan, and in 2006 at the Universitat Jaume I in Castellon, Spain. Her research areas are comparative and third world politics with a particular focus on South and Southeast Asia, democratization and election studies, transitional justice issues, gender and politics, on which she has contributed numerous publications. This publication was prepared with support from the United Nations Develop- ment Fund for Women (UNIFEM-Afghanistan). The views and analysis con- tained in the publication are those of the author and do not necessarily repre- sent the views of UNIFEM, the United Nations or any of its affiliated organiza- tions. Bibliographic data of the German Library The German National Library (DNB) lists this publication in the German Na- tional Bibliography. For detailed bibliographic data online go to: http://dnb. ddb.de Afghanistan’s parliament in the making Gendered understandings and practices of politics in a transitional country By Andrea Fleschenberg Edited by the Heinrich Böll Foundation In cooperation with UNIFEM © Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Berlin 2009; UNIFEM All rights reserved Editing: Robert Furlong Photos: Gulbuddin Elham Design and Typesetting: graphic syndicat, Michael Pickardt, Berlin Printing: agit-druck, Berlin ISBN 978-3-86928-006-6 Afghanistan’s parliament in the making Gendered understandings and practices of politics in a transitional country By Andrea Fleschenberg Edited by the Heinrich Böll Foundation In cooperation with UNIFEM Content Preface 7 Introduction 11 1 State- and institution-building in post-2001 Afghanistan 27 1.1 Achievements of and challenges to Afghanistan’s state- and institution-building 33 1.2 Achievements of and challenges to Afghanistan’s political system and its legislative functionality 50 2 Doing politics – findings from worldwide experiences to raise women parliamentarians’ political effectiveness 75 2.1 Cooperation with parliament, women’s political machinery, and civil society 82 2.2 Caucusing and networking 85 3 Major findings of the survey on women parliamentarians 93 3.1 Personal backgrounds and pathways into politics 93 3.2 Accountability, support, and interaction with society 98 3.3 Government oversight, national budget, and cooperation with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs 100 3.4 Political agendas and legislative interests 108 3.5 International treaties, resolutions, and cooperation agreements on Afghanistan 120 3.6 Women parliamentary network / caucus 123 4 Major findings of the survey on male parliamentarians 133 4.1 Personal backgrounds and pathways into politics 133 4.2 Accountability, support, and interaction with society 137 4.3 Government oversight, national budget, and cooperation with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs 140 4.4 Political agendas and legislative interests 146 4.5 Cooperation among parliamentarians 157 5 Conclusions and the way forward 160 Abbreviations 171 References 172 Endnotes 182 7 Preface The Heinrich Böll Foundation has been supporting projects promot- ing democracy and the active participation of women and men in the process of rebuilding Afghanistan since early 2002. Among these, it successfully fostered the Women and Children Legal Research Foun- dation (WCLRF), Afghanistan’s sole research institution to date for women’s rights. As publishers of a widely circulated women’s maga- zine, the WCLRF reaches a large, interested audience. The magazine’s coverage of political content and social issues that are especially rel- evant to women clearly strikes a chord among its readership. The renowned anthropologist and singer Samar Minhalla and the Heinrich Böll Foundation jointly produced a number of songs focusing on civic action that topped the Afghan charts – a noteworthy achieve- ment, considering the skepticism with which large parts of the Afghan population still respond to the presence of women in public life. Our partnership with the Afghan Women’s Network (AWN) re- sulted in the founding of a youth organization focused on advocacy, which successfully negotiated with the Ministry of Transport to have special reserved seats for women introduced in overcrowded public transport vehicles. For us, the question remains how we can contribute effectively to civil development and foster political participation in the provinces – areas beyond the reach of the international organizations concen- trated in Kabul. In light of this, it was a virtual stroke of luck that tribal elders from the southeastern Afghan province of Paktiya turned to Swisspeace in 2003 to explore ways in which they could become involved in the peace and reconstruction processes and work to- gether with both the Afghan government and international repre- sentatives. In December 2003, the Tribal Liaison Office – since re- named The Liaison Office (TLO) – was founded with funding from the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Swisspeace. The project rapidly gained momentum, and by February 2004, the organization had opened offices in Paktiya, Paktika, and Khost in addition to its head- quarters in Kabul. In 2008, a further office opened in Jalalabad. TLO is now in great demand as a successful mediator between the central government and international organizations on one side and tradi- 7 tional local structures on the other. From the outset, one of our concerns has been to increase the involvement of women in decision-making and to ensure that girls from conservative families also have the opportunity to attend school. Today, we have to concede that we are still far from the project goal of securing freedom, equality, and political co-determination for the entire population. The road to that goal appears especially long in southern and southeastern Afghanistan. In this 2009 election year, the results of six years of hard work on our part and that of other organizations are sobering: election cam- paigns featuring candidates, open election events, citizens’ hearings, and the distribution of information brochures do not take place, nor does Afghanistan have a transparent, egalitarian, and just system of government. The involvement of women in public life is decreasing. Violence throughout the country remains unchecked. Attacks, vigi- lantism, and legal processes that contradict the basic principles of human and women’s rights are the order of the day. The security situation is worsening in step with the disenchantment arising from the lack of results and functional shortcomings of existing demo- cratic structures. In the face of such difficulties, we often forget who should wield the actual power in Afghanistan, and who should create the legal underpinnings for that power: the women and men in par- liament who are working to build a state in these turbulent times of transition. To what extent will these elected representatives succeed in creating alternatives to established traditional power structures? What are the obstacles they face? What kinds of networks or cau- cuses are they establishing? This book, which is based on interviews of male and female mem- bers of parliament held in Kabul in 2007 and 2008, examines the realities of parliamentary work in Afghanistan. It shows how varied and coercive the patterns of identification prevalent in Afghanistan can be. Of those not specific to gender, the family, clan, and ethnic background are most important; an individual’s regional heritage and status also play a role. While it can be dangerous or even deadly for women to ignore those identities, a lack of solidarity with other women will not result in sanctions. Cooperation between female members of parliament is therefore not very pronounced. This book provides a rare opportunity to gain insights into the self-images and roles of women in parliament. Of the 91 female mem- bers of parliament in both houses, 76 took part in the study. The questions related to areas in which similar interests could lead to 8 9 cooperation provide especially valuable direction in supporting par- liamentary work in the future. Topics for coalitions of exclusively female representatives must be based on the needs of the population as a whole – especially with regard to security, healthcare, and edu- cation – to enable the people to attain greater political weight.
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