http://viewchange.org Videos from ViewChange.org (Filtered by topics: Suraya Pakzad) en-us Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:30:00 +0000 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/afghanistan-women-arise <p>It's more than eight years since the Taliban ruled Herat but, for many women here, life has barely changed, with forced marriage, domestic violence, and rape still commonplace. Now a fledgling women's rights movement is determined to change that legacy.</p> Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:30:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/afghanistan-women-arise Suraya Pakzad, Afghanistan, Voice of Women Organization, Women in Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, Women's shelter, Malalai Kakar, Sitara Achakzai, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, Sexual violence >> TITLE: Women Arise >> VOICEOVER: The city of Herat in western Afghanistan. It's been more than eight years since the Taliban ruled these streets, but for many of the women here, life has barely changed. Unmarked, in a back street, is this refuge for women and girls who've been abused. The location is secret to protect them from violent relatives, like the husband of this 16-year-old girl. >> GIRL: He punched me. Last time he attacked me with a knife twice. >> INTERVIEWER: Do you have any marks? >> GIRL: On my leg. >> INTERVIEWER: On your leg? >> GIRL: Yes. >> VOICEOVER: This is Sara. She's only 12 years old and was about to be traded for a house. >> SARA: We used to be a family. But after we lost our father we went to live at our uncle's house. But he was giving us a hard time. Every day it got worse. He started beating me and pushing my mum to sell me. >> SARA'S MOTHER: I told my brother-in-law we were not for sale and left. My sons had already left home. I did not want to lose my daughter too. He really wanted to swap my daughter for the house. If I go back there they'll kill me on sight. I risked my life to save her. >> VOICEOVER: The refuge is part of a non-government organization called Voice of Women. It's run by Suraya Pakzad, one of Herat's leading women's rights activists. During the Taliban's rule, she conducted secret classes, teaching girls who were banned from schooling. But in President Hamid Karzai's Afghanistan, her work is far from over. Each day she confronts systematic abuse, including young women and even children who are raped or forced into marriage. >> SURAYA PAKZAD [Executive Director, Voice of Women Organization]: Unfortunately in Afghanistan forced and child marriage is not really reduced since 2001. It is still high and a common practice, not only in the rural areas, in the remote areas, even in the cities as well we see every day cases of forced marriages. >> VOICEOVER: Suraya's is the only women's refuge in all of western Afghanistan and this afternoon it's nearly full. For Afghan women who want to escape forced marriages and abuse, there are few options. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: The law says no one can push the woman to marry some man, but we do not have law enforcement. We have beautiful paper in the constitution, we have beautiful laws, but the implementation of the law is in hands of the warlords, in the hands of the commanders, in the hands of the religious leaders. When they are able to make the decisions, no one can stop them. >> VOICEOVER: For those not lucky enough to make it to Suraya's shelter, worse fates are sometimes waiting. This is Herat's juvenile detention centre, and it holds many sad stories. Suraya convinces the guards here to let me inside. I find the inmates are sewing garments for the prison to sell. Many of the girls are here because they ran away from home, which is a crime for women in Afghanistan, regardless of the reason. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: They are here because of forced and child marriages. They run away, and according to the law, the government puts them in jail. >> VOICEOVER: As well as running away, about half the girls here have also been charged with adultery -- an accusation that often hides a terrible truth. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: Some of them are here who are raped. But unfortunately they are here because rape is considered as adultery. >> VOICEOVER: Under Afghan law, it is extremely difficult for women to prove they've been raped. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: If anyone is raped, they should prove with three witnesses. Somehow they should prove that they are raped and it was not their wish and they were not part of that. And even if it happened in some area and some witnesses were there, no one wants to be witness against a man. >> VOICEOVER: This is Nadia. She's just 12 years old. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: What problem made you run away from home? >> NADIA: A man and his wife kidnapped me. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: So why were you brought here? >> NADIA: Because the man raped me. That's why I was brought here. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: The man raped you? >> NADIA: Yes. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: Because she was abused and it was considered an adultery case, and they put her in jail, in a correction centre. >> NADIA: It's hard for me. I'm left without hope. My life is ruined. I don't know how to live. >> VOICEOVER: Nadia has already been held here for eight months and has another four to serve. >>SURAYA PAKZAD: When you leave here, will your father come and get you? >> NADIA: Yes, but he will push me to get married to my fiance. He's too old for me and I don't want him. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: How old is he? >> NADIA: He's 30. >>VOICEOVER: Police investigations into these girls' cases are basic at best. Farzana is also 12 years old and she too has been charged with adultery. >> FARZANA: Our neighbor has a bakery and he took me inside. He gave me something to make me unconscious. Then he raped me inside the bakery. >> VOICEOVER: Farzana says the police didn't properly investigate her claims of rape. >> FARZANA: They took me for a medical check-up. But they didn't even touch me between the legs. >> VOICEOVER: There are at least another 18 girls being held here in similar circumstances, all desperate to get out. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: What's your message? >> FARZANA: I would like it if my government let me out of here. I would be very grateful. >> INTERVIEWER: Some of these girls, they say they're being raped, but then, because they can't prove they were raped, they end up being charged with adultery, and some of them are as young as 13, 12, 14. What's the government going to do about this? >> HAMAYUN HAMIDZADA [President Karzai's Spokesman]: We have mechanisms to address unfortunate situations like that if they do arise. One is through the Ministry of Women's Affairs and then the other programs are through the Ministry of Justice. And then you have legal representation for people who cannot afford it or are not able to get legal aid otherwise. >> INTERVIEWER: But isn't this more about the fact that maybe this shouldn't be illegal? >> HAMAYUN HAMIDZADA: Well, if they are, you know, as I said, arbitrarily taken to the detention centers, it's absolutely wrong. And we'll be sure to pursue incidents you just mentioned. But otherwise we have our laws, the country's laws, Islamic country, and of a highly conservative society. Adultery, as seen under the law, is punishable. So if there are real incidents of adultery, then the laws take their course. >> VOICEOVER: Challenging these views can be a dangerous business. Suraya's work has sparked death threats against her, both from abusive husbands and from local warlords who don't like what she is doing. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: Mostly I receive phone-call threats. They call me and say if I don't send the girls or women in this time and location they will kill me, they will kidnap my children, or they will create problems for my organization. >> VOICEOVER: Suraya went to the local authorities to ask for a bodyguard, but they said they couldn't spare a policeman to give her protection. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: Hopefully in the future they can do that, but not now. But I'm at risk now. I need now. I cannot wait for tomorrow. If something happens tomorrow that will be late. But they made a kind of excuse and said they cannot provide anything. >> VOICEOVER: While Suraya's work has received praise from the President and international acclaim, she still struggles to get adequate funding. And she accuses the West of not paying enough attention to women's rights in Afghanistan over the last eight years. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: They don't take women's issues seriously. They are busy with security issues. They think security is the priority and if they pay attention to that everything will be okay. But they forget that we are 50 percent of the population of Afghanistan. We are able to improve the condition of the country if they don't ignore us. >> VOICEOVER: For abused women who can't make it to the shelter or can't bear the thought of being arrested, another desperate and horrific option has become common. In Herat Hospital I find this young woman, Zia. She's 18 years old and has been married for five years. >> ZIA: It was very hard for me. I was young when I got married. I didn't know how to run the house. I'd play with kids and then he'd beat me up. Then I grew up and learned it all, but you can see how it ended up. >> VOICEOVER: Zia set herself on fire after deciding that she couldn't take her husband's beatings anymore. >> ZIA: Last month I couldn't stand it and I did this to myself. And I did all these things to myself. >> VOICEOVER: Now her burns have healed and her husband wants to take Zia back to the village, but she doesn't want to go. >> ZIA: If I live in the village and my parents live in the city, my husband will beat me up even more. No one will stop him. If he did all this to me here, what will he do in a village? >> VOICEOVER: Each year around 100 young women from this area try to commit suicide by setting themselves on fire. >> DR. MOHAMMAD AREF JALALI [Director of Heart Hospital Burns Unit]: It's the preferred method for women. This is new to Afghanistan. It started in 2003. >> VOICEOVER: Dr. Mohammad Aref Jalali is the director of the burns unit. >> DR. MOHAMMAD AREF JALALI: There's no one to help when they set themselves on fire. So they get badly burned. Most of them die. Last year there were 63 deaths from 84 incidents: 85 percent to 90 percent mortality is a very high figure. As for the 15 percent who survive, they have serious problems. It does damage to their beauty, slowly killing them from within. >> VOICEOVER: Twenty-year-old Annar Gul has been in the burns unit for the past eight months. Even she finds it hard to believe that she set herself on fire to escape years of abuse from her husband. >> ANNAR GUL: I'd make him tea and food when he came home. But he wouldn't eat. He'd just beat me up. He'd punch me and kick me. With so much pressure, I lost control. I left everything and went into a room. I collapsed. I don't remember pouring petrol over myself and lighting it. Afterwards I told people, "I didn't do it. Someone else set me on fire." Now I know that I did it myself. When they're treating my burns, I cry buckets of tears. By the time they finish, I'm nearly dead. >> VOICEOVER: Annar's wounds are infected, but Dr. Jalali doesn't have the facilities available to treat her condition. >> ANNAR GUL: They say I should be treated in Pakistan, but we have no money and no one is willing to help or to lend us any money. My brother has no money left to take me there. >> VOICEOVER: Thirteen-year-old Jamila also set herself on fire. Last year her parents sold her to a 25-year-old man in return for some sheep. Her new family abused her terribly, so she decided to commit suicide, something she now regrets. But Jamila blames poverty, and not her parents, for her situation. >> JAMILA: People don't know who they're marrying their daughters to. They don't wait for their daughters to grow up and choose their own husbands. People are poor and marry off their daughters young. The families have no other options. >> VOICEOVER: Jamila's little sister is now terrified at the thought of getting married. >> LITTLE GIRL: I don't want to marry. I'm scared by my sister's marriage. I want to be someone. I don't want to get married. >> VOICEOVER: With an election imminent, some are hoping for an improvement in women's rights in Afghanistan, but the chances are slim. Warlords have long set appalling standards for the treatment of women here, and President Hamid Karzai has picked two powerful warlords as his running mates. Mohammad Fahim and Karim Khalili have both been accused of war crimes. In Kabul, I find a family in hiding. Their story is testament to how much power many of the local warlords still wield. >> ANISA: We were all asleep at home: me, my dad, my mum, and my brother. At 1 a.m., five armed men came in and started beating me. >> VOICEOVER: Thirteen-year-old Anisa and her mother were raped in their home by men who were linked to a local warlord. Police arrested the men, but, according to this family, three of them were quickly let go due to their links with the warlord and a member of parliament. >> ALI KHAN [Anisa's Uncle]: They have powerful supporters. They have supporters in parliament. They're warlords. The generals support them. They're all armed. We are poor and don't dare leave our house. Who will arrest them? Where is law? Where is justice? >> VOICEOVER: Anisa's uncle Ali Khan is continuing the family's fight for justice. But he says he's being pressured to withdraw his testimony against the two men who remain in custody. >> ALI KHAN: They openly threatened to kill me if I pressed charges. >> INTERVIEWER: The member of parliament? >> ALI KHAN: Yes. He threatened me. >> VOICEOVER: He doesn't believe there will be any justice for women in Afghanistan while warlords like President Karzai's running mates Fahim and Khalili continue to dominate the political scene. >> ALI KHAN: In my opinion, as long as these armed men exist, these armed men, these warlords and so-called mujahideen, there'll be no peace in Afghanistan. Now President Karzai is running for election with Marshal Fahim and Khalili as his deputies. They're both warlords with bad reputations. They're men who have killed two million young Afghani men. If Karzai wants to run, he should run alone, if Karzai's not the same as them. >> VOICEOVER: The Karzai government's commitment to women's rights has been openly questioned since a controversial new law was passed in February. The law applied to Afghanistan's six-million-strong Shia community and stated that women could not leave the house without male permission. It also reduced women's rights in divorce proceedings and even decreed that women must be sexually available to their husbands at least four nights a week. >> SAYED HUSSEIN ALEMI BALKHI [Shia Cleric]: It says in the Koran that a wife must obey her husband. >> VOICEOVER: Shia member of parliament Sayed Hussein Alemi Balkhi supported the introduction of the controversial law. >> SAYED HUSSEIN ALEMI BALKHI: Traditionally in Afghanistan a woman runs the household. If she wants to go out whenever she feels like it, without her husband's permission, without any logical reason, then their life will be a mess. >> VOICEOVER: When the details of the law became public, there was an outcry among Afghanistan's women and international condemnation. President Karzai was forced to call for a review of the law, claiming he hadn't been fully informed. >> HAMAYUN HAMIDZADA [President Karzai's Spokesman]: The President did not know the details of the law. He knew of certain details which were, you know, fine, were not controversial, but there was an oversight and things like this happen in other countries as well. >> VOICEOVER: But that's not how Sayed Hussein Alemi Balkhi remembers it. >> INTERVIEWER: Did President Karzai know about the details of this bill before it was passed? >> SAYED HUSSEIN ALEMI BALKHI: Yes, absolutely. Because this bill went to President Karzai many times. Before it went to parliament, the cabinet's legal committee studied the bill and then took it to cabinet for approval. Cabinet, led by Karzai, approved the bill. >> VOICEOVER: Spurred on by continued discrimination, young Afghan women are increasingly joining the fight for their rights. >> WOMEN'S GROUP LEADER: He's just trying to pretend that he's a democrat. "I support women's rights. I believe in democracy." >> VOICEOVER: This is a clandestine meeting being run by RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. It's a political action group, but, even so, these women don't want to be identified. Because of death threats, membership is kept secret. >> WOMEN'S GROUP LEADER: These are basics. It's good to have laws, but not laws that trample women's rights and abuse women in general. There are many examples of such laws. >> VOICEOVER: RAWA members see the recent law targeting Shia women as proof of how little attitudes have changed under President Karzai. >> WOMEN'S GROUP LEADER: He's surrounded himself with fundamentalists. Parliament and cabinet are full of fundamentalists. All the government bodies consist of fundamentalists. >> VOICEOVER: A symbolic victory may soon be won, with parliament set to pass new laws criminalizing violence against women. But these activists know that real cultural change will take much longer. >> YOUNG GIRL: Yes, one of the things about Afghanistan is that they're only paying lip service by making laws that give men and women equal rights. On the other hand, we hear they are also making laws that trample on women's rights, as it were. >> VOICEOVER: Movements like RAWA are growing, but for those brave enough to fight for women's rights, the stakes are getting higher. The Taliban have taken to targeting and assassinating activists across the country. In April this year, Sitara Achakzai, a politician and a women's rights advocate, was shot dead outside her home. And last November, Kandahar's first female police superintendent, Malalai Kakar, was murdered. The mother of six had been in charge of the Crimes Against Women Office. But, despite the dangers, women like Suraya are continuing the struggle, determined that one day their daughters will enjoy the same freedoms as other women around the world. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: I have a strong commitment to help women in Afghanistan. I would like to work hard today to pave the road for the generation of Afghanistan. I would like to suffer today and sacrifice for women's rights so at least the next generation should have their voices raised. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/sosan-s-story-domestic-violence-in-afghanistan <p>Eight years after the fall of the Taliban, targeted violence against women in Afghanistan is back at an alarming level. Women of all ages are enduring brutal physical and sexual abuse in their own homes. A few lucky ones find their way to one of only six shelters in the country. We visited one of them.&nbsp;</p> Wed, 07 Jul 2010 23:52:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/sosan-s-story-domestic-violence-in-afghanistan Women's shelter, Afghanistan, Domestic violence, Women in Afghanistan, Violence against women, Sexual abuse, UNIFEM, 21st Century, Suraya Pakzad, Voice of Women Organization >> DALJIT DHALIWAL: Eight years after the fall of the Taliban, targeted violence against women in Afghanistan is back at an alarming level. Women of all ages are enduring brutal physical and sexual abuse in their own homes. A few lucky ones find their way to one of only six shelters in the country. We visited one of them. >> VOICEOVER: It's breakfast time for the residents of the only shelter for battered women and girls in Herat, Afghanistan. Eighteen women and ten children live here. Each of their stories is unique but they have all suffered abuse, at the hands of their husbands, fathers, brothers, and even mothers-in-law. >> SOSAN: He tried to kill me with electric shock. My brother is his brother-in-law and they are all in this together. >> VOICEOVER: This is a story about Sosan, who at age 35 is a mother of seven. Her husband and his family tried to kill her more than once because they suspected that she was having an affair. The United Nations says over 87 percent of all Afghan women suffer from domestic abuse, making Afghanistan one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman. >> SOSAN: They injected me with poison and I had such reaction that my hands were numb and I nearly died. There are police reports of all of this. They brought the mullah to say prayers for my passing away, and they even obtained my death certificate. >> VOICEOVER: Sosan's ex-husband admits that he, his brother, and their 15-year-old son tried to electrocute her, a horrific fact he does not deny. >> EX-HUSBAND: I tortured her, with my son. >> VOICEOVER: Sosan escaped with her three youngest children and came to the shelter. This kind of abuse and violence against Afghan women has roots in almost three decades of conflict in this vast and arid land in Central Asia. After the Soviet occupation, a long and brutal civil war ensued. Fueled by opium money, groups of Afghan Islamic fighters, or mujahideen, fought for power culminating in the Taliban finally taking control of most of the country by 1996. The next five years were marked by extreme Islamic policies, especially when it came to women and their position in the society. Today, eight years later, mistreatment of women continues. >> WENNY KUSUMA [UNIFEM]: In Afghanistan what we see, in the last year especially, is a rise in the return of public acceptance of violence against women to the degree where it was under the Taliban. >> VOICEOVER: Wenny Kusuma from the UN Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, in Afghanistan. >> WENNY KUSUMA: What we're seeing is a targeted, pre-meditated approach to intimidation, fear, waging intimidation and fear against the public at large and women in particular. >> VOICEOVER: What's different now is that women and their families are starting to speak out about domestic violence. Long a taboo subject, many Afghan women used to feel suicide was the only way out. >> NARGES [nurse]: I tend to their wounds. I also dispense medication if needed. >> VOICEOVER: The shelter's nurse Narges helps the lucky ones that survive and make it here. >> NARGES: Women who come here sometimes suffer from burn wounds because they tried to commit suicide by putting themselves on fire. >> VOICEOVER: Afghan women and girls are married at a young age, often against their own will. Many run away and some find refuge at shelters like this one. Here, through role-play, they are taught that they actually do have a say in who they will marry and when. >> ROLE-PLAY: (Bride): Are you going to force me to marry him? I don't love him. / (Mother): You must! / (Groom): I will pay seven million Afghanis. / (Bride): I don't care about his money. I don't want to live with somebody like him for the rest of my life. I will NOT marry this man! >> VOICEOVER: Sosan, who also married in her teenage years, says that she suffered years of physical abuse only because she's a woman. >> SOSAN: The brutalities I have endured, not just once but hundreds of times. It's like fire burning inside my chest. I have spent half of my life in abuse. I wanted to kill myself. >> VOICEOVER: Now Sosan is divorced but she says her husband owes her money. Today the shelter's legal counselor will mediate between Sosan and her husband. During the session, Sosan makes a case for receiving money for land that rightfully belongs to her. >> SOSAN: He ought to pay me for the 18 years that I slaved at his house. Was I just a slave to him? >> VOICEOVER: Because her husband was poor, Sosan bought the land they lived on from her own father with the money she earned working as a seamstress. >> EX-HUSBAND: Yes, she earned the money, but I worked on the land. It was my hard labor. >> VOICEOVER: With no woman in the house and left to care for their four older sons, Sosan's ex-husband is reconsidering their divorce. >> EX-HUSBAND: I forgive her, since she didn't have any relations with other men or acted in a way that would make the family look bad. I'm grateful to her. I want her to come and be with her kids. That's what I want. I don't want my kids to be without their mother. If I take another wife, she will never be the mother to her kids. >> SOSAN: Even though my husband divorced me, my brothers were going to kill me for being divorced. For soiling their name and their honor. If this place weren't here, where would we have gone? >> SURAYA PAKZAD [Executive Director of the Voice of Women Organization]: It is a place for shelterless women, for women at risk, and for women who don't have anyone. >> VOICEOVER: Suraya Pakzad, the Executive Director of the Voice of Women Organization, recognized the need for a safe haven in her hometown of Herat a few years ago. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: Girls, women run away from domestic violence, run away from forced and child marriages, come to the shelter. >> VOICEOVER: Hers is just one of six UNIFEM-supported shelters in Afghanistan. Here, women like Sosan learn skills such as sewing and weaving. Most importantly, they are given the opportunity to learn to read and write, many for the first time in their lives. >> WENNY KUSUMA: Nowhere else in the world have I personally encountered such a compelling need for basic social services. >> VOICEOVER: Kusuma says it's a sign of progress that even a few shelters for battered women have opened in recent years. But it still takes a lot of courage to run one. >> SURAYA PAKZAD: When I receive a death threat, I stop coming to the office; I work two or three days at home just to pretend that I am not in the city. >> WENNY KUSUMA: In no other place in the world does serving as a women's human rights defender place you at greater risk. >> VOICEOVER: Shelters like this one are criticized as anti-Islamic because disputes in the traditional Afghan society are mediated within the family with the help of tribal elders. It is taboo for women to seek justice outside. >> WENNY KUSUMA: It's not just shelters. It's a woman-specific space and activity that is not in the home. Typically, that places women at risk of being accused of prostitution, being accused of immoral behavior. >> SOSAN: His objective is to kill me. That is why he wants me back. >> VOICEOVER: As much as the shelter wants women to return to their parents or male members of their families, Sosan won't consider going back. >> SOSAN: There is no way that I want to go there. He tortured me with electric shock. It was God that gave me a second chance to live. My feet are finally healed. Look at them! He put two exposed wires to kill me. >> VOICEOVER: Since living without a man is not acceptable in the Afghan society, it has been suggested that Sosan should reconcile and live together with her oldest son, the same son who took part in the attempt to kill her. >> VOICEOVER: Because Sosan refuses to return to her son or husband, she is losing custody of her seven-year-old boy. He is forced to go live with his father, as mandated by Afghan tradition. >> SOSAN: His father is cruel, violent, and unloving. So he kept crying, "God help me, I won't go and live with my father." >> WENNY KUSUMA: Far as you're addressing issues of custody and the rights of parents, we do have to deal with laws that have uneven and unfair impact on women and their rights as, in this case, mothers. >> VOICEOVER: But there are encouraging signs of improvement. The President of Afghanistan recently signed a groundbreaking decree criminalizing violence against women. As a result of the shelter's mediation, Sosan received the equivalent of USD$10,000 for the disputed land. But since her father disowned her, and with no other family member to live with, she can't use the money to rent a house and live with her two young daughters, who are allowed to stay with her. >> SOSAN: I can't leave the shelter, I can't go anywhere. The only way for me to leave the shelter is to marry again. I have half of my life left. I just want to live the rest of my life for me, on my terms. This is a basic human right. >> DALJIT DHALIWAL: Since filming this story, Sosan has married another man, but her leaving the shelter comes at a terrible price: she was forced to give up her daughters. They now live with her ex-husband. That's all for this edition of 21st Century. I'm Daljit Dhaliwal. We'll see you next time. Until then, goodbye. >> TITLE: 21st Century: A production of United Nations Television Department of Public Information