April 2005
Suraya Parlika
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Suraya Parlika on US Tour, meets
with members of WBW
According to Suraya Parlika, the situation today in Afghanistan is not much better than it was before American troops descended on the land to run out Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
"Women can take off the burkah, they can go to work or to school, but real democracy is not happening in practice," she said.
Parlika, one of the foremost advocates for women's rights in Afghanistan, came to the United States for the first time, thanks to the efforts of members of the Afghan Academy of Hope. Her tour included a talk at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York in March.
Parlika is a member of Afghanistan's Loya Jirga, a candidate for Senator in the new congressional government, and the head of the All Afghan Women's Union.
The Peace Circle she convened after 9-11 has grown from 8 to 50 members and is linked with the Sonoma County Women's council in the United States by arrangement with Peacexpeace, an international network of women's circles.
After two years of fragmentary e-mail communication, WBW Founder Stephanie Hiller and council member Diane Rae Schulz were delighted to meet with the leader of our sister circle there on February 22, 2005, in Walnut Creek, CA.
We were seated in a small office at the Jewish Family Service Agency, where Mahboba Satar, Suraya's hostess during her Bay Area stay, works, helping Afghan refugees. Mahboba, who came to the US in 1996 with her husband and son, during the Taliban, knew Suraya in Kabul. She translated for us.
Suraya said that on paper, Afghanistan is a democracy, but in real life it does not exist. The warlords are still effectively in power.
"In the provinces, the warlords can do whatever they want because they have weapons. Kabul is much better but not far from Kabul you can find robbery, rapes, everything. You can imagine the fundamentalists are still in power."
The picture of Afghanistan that emerged in our conversation was one severely stripped of the fundamental infrastructure so needed to support economic development and the restoration of the country, which has been pulverized by a quarter century of war.
Even in Kabul, electricity is unreliable, and the water system is in urgent need of repair.
American aid is not making a dent, Suraya said, because it does not get to the right people, and its use is not monitored, so in effect it disappears into the pockets of corrupt officials.
How did she feel about the role of the United States in her country?
"If not for the US we wouldn't have democracy at all," she acknowledged. "We need more help from the US to support economic recovery, rebuild Afghan infrastructure, and control where the money is going.
"If money goes to the people, then life can change. If people can find jobs, peace will come sooner. Farmers grow heroin because otherwise they don't have money for their life. We have to destroy the key companies that are benefiting from heroin, give farmers machines to work the land."
Afghanistan could grow wheat but currently imports it. "Cheap imported wheat is coming in from Pakistan. At the market you can buy French flour but not Afghan flour.
People need training for literacy, computer skills and job skills. "I have programs," she said, "but no money." Women can learn to run beauty salons, do tailoring, work with leather. "If I have aid, I give to the poorest people."
Afghan Americans are helping where they can, but "if someone comes back after 20 years and spends one month, they don't know, they forget how it is."
Many Afghan Americans are now selling their family land in Afghanistan, which is not good for the country.
After our conversation, we enjoyed a nice lunch at a local Afghan restaurant, where we introduced Suraya and Mahboba to our friend Rahima Haya who runs literacy and training programs for widows in Kabul.
Diane Rae Schulz, Mahboba Satar, with Suraya Parlika
Suraya's talk at the World Affairs Council
MORE ABOUT WBW's PROJECT FOR AFGHAN WOMEN
MORE ABOUT SURAYA:
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/arr/arr_200408_129_2_eng.txt