Mass female participation in Kabul food survey

The World Food Programme (WFP) this week is concluding a major survey on food needs in the Afghan capital Kabul, just weeks after the departure of Taliban hardliners and their oppressive restrictions on female employment. "This isn't just the largest survey of its kind done in Kabul, but one that involves the largest number of women ever paid by WFP in Afghanistan," agency spokeswoman, Lindsey Davies told IRIN on Friday in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Of the 3,612 surveyors employed, some 2,400 were women. The house-to-house-survey, which began on Tuesday and is set to finish this weekend, will be followed immediately by food distribution. Surveyors will issue each household with a token for one 50 kg bag of wheat, roughly enough to feed a family for one month. The food agency will then use local radio and TV stations to announce where families can collect their food. For years, WFP has experienced great difficulties employing women to work freely in Afghanistan due to Taliban restrictions. "We faced a catch 22 situation," Lindsey said. In accordance to restrictions, only female staff could consult Afghan women regarding their needs, but the agency was only allowed to employ men openly. "We were working against this extremely difficult backdrop," she said. During the Taliban's rule, WFP-sponsored bakeries represented one of the few job opportunities open to women. The food agency supplied flour that allowed women, particularly destitute war widows, to produce the country's traditionally flat bread at about one sixth of the market price for women and children. Additionally, it provided the bakers with some kind of income. In June, 130 bakeries in Kabul, providing bread to 280,000 impoverished people, faced possible closure after Taliban officials refused requests by WFP to conduct a survey using Afghan women to establish an updated list of eligible bread receipients. The agency threatened to abandon the subsidised bread distribution programme unless it could employ Afghan women to survey the needs of women, while Taliban authorities countered that Afghan women should not be employed by foreign agencies. Commenting on this week's survey, Davies said it was hugely significant. "It's really the first step forward for Afghan women to work more openly and freely in Afghanistan in whatever capacity they choose," she exclaimed. Except for essential jobs in the health sector, the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic law forbade Afghan women from working outside the home. Today Davies noted: "It is clear to WFP that women must help shape any lasting solution to hunger in Afghanistan." As women become more free to work, the agency hopes to employ more qualified Afghan women into its programmes, particularly those who can design, implement and monitor a wide range of programmes inside Afghanistan. In fact, just this week a recruitment drive was already underway in Kabul, and the Pakistani cities of Quetta, Peshawar and Islamabad, where a series of advertisements called for qualified Afghan women to come forward for employment. In addition to the 2,400 employed to carry out this week's survey, WFP has hired 15 Afghan women who in the coming days will be resuming their duties in the Afghan cities of Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Faizabad, Herat, and Mazar-i Sharif. One of these, Dr Massouda Jala, a programme officer in Kabul, described how significantly her life has changed. "Being able to work openly for WFP gives me a sense of pride, the chance to rebuild my country, and more importantly, of feeding my family while I contribute to society and interact with other people - something that seemed impossible just a short time ago," she said. "We were so shocked about the Taliban decrees [barring women from employment]. It made us feel depressed, frustrated, angry, shocked, oppressed, inferior and heavy. Now I feel the same as a prisoner or a slave who has been released - happy, energetic, relieved and light," she explained. Put in a global context, according to WFP, seven out of 10 victims of hunger are women. At the same time, in nearly every society women control the flow of food. Ironically however, women generally eat the least and the last. This is part of a cycle in which women give birth to malnourished children, who subsequently are affected by physical and mental handicaps, perpetuating an already difficult situation. Meanwhile, in a related development, a three-day Afghan women's summit in the Belgian capital, Brussels, concluded on Thursday with a call for full restoration of civil rights for Afghan women in their war-torn country. According to an AFP report, the summit, held in an European Union (EU) building and backed by Euro-MPs, issued a list of demands for Afghan women's rights in health, education, politics, suffrage and personal freedoms, including birth control, freedom from sexual harassment and forced marriage. A summit statement called for women's participation in the "Loya Jirga," or vast national assembly that according to the multi-Afghan accord in Bonn on Wednesday would formulate the country's future constitution. "For the past 23 years, Afghan people have been living in the dark," said another statement issued by the dozens of Afghan women who participated. "We, the Afghan women, should join our efforts to establish a civil society in our country and bring back democratic values through education and culture," it added.