Unbroken resilience of the women of Afghanistan

"The Taliban cannot stop the power of Afghan women." Parisa H., former director of our Afghan partner organization Women's Hope Social Association WHSA, has clear words. She draws her hope from the stories of the women from the self-help groups that the 24-year-old used to be responsible for in Afghanistan and now runs from exile.

"The Taliban cannot stop the power of Afghan women. The women say: we have recognized our potential, we feel strong - and we are not prepared to give all this up."
Parisa H., former director of WHSA

As encouraging as Parisa H.'s assessment sounds, the situation for women in Afghanistan is challenging. The Taliban have massively restricted women's rights since taking power just over two years ago (see timeline). Before that, women met weekly in around two hundred self-help groups, which Women's Hope International has been funding to set up and coordinate since 2021.

Building trust and strengthening each other
The self-help group approach has been tested and continuously improved over many years by a Dutch organisation and has proven to be very effective. When the organization withdrew, Parisa H. founded WHSA without further ado and brought Women's Hope International on board. The aim of the groups is to create an environment of trust and cooperation between the women. Through the exchange of ideas and experiences, the members can reflect on existing cultural habits and develop solutions together. At the same time, the participating women recognize their potential, for example by learning new skills and starting a small business.

Women exchange ideas in a self-help group on the subject of child marriage.

Project termination? Without us!
Parisa H., director of an organization dedicated to women's empowerment, was in danger after the fall of the former government and had to leave her country, as did her family. To ensure that no one was put at risk, Women's Hope and WHSA decided to suspend the project in the summer of 2021. But not the local women: they continued the low-threshold activities. Motivated by the courage of these women, Women's Hope and WHSA decided to resume the project in 2023. The women currently meet in around one hundred groups. "In the meantime, the women primarily discussed economic issues because it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to to feed their families. Today, we consciously bring in social issues again," says Parisa H..
Women's Hope remunerates again the initiators who accompany the groups for around six months and then slowly withdraw. The remuneration increases the stability of the groups. The resumption of the project required some adjustments: The Afghan organization WHSA must now be represented by a man. In order to not endanger the members of the groups, the group leaders pass on sensitive information only verbally; pictograms are also deliberately avoided or they are destroyed after use.

A space of peace and hope
"As long as everything is done under the guise of supporting women economically, the Taliban have no problems with the self-help groups - as long as the women keep to themselves," Parisa H. answers the question about the Taliban's reaction to the meetings. In other words, from the outside, the meetings are primarily about empowering the women to bring home money. In reality, however, they also learn in the groups how to set up and market their own business. Experience shows: When women contribute to the family income they gain respect and status within their family and can therefore play a more active role in decision-making. The benefits of these groups therefore go far beyond the economic.
"When a woman tells us what the marriage of her 16-year-old daughter meant for her, for example, it is extremely valuable," says Parisa H.. Today, many women resolutely stand up to their husbands and support their young daughters, as they are aware of the negative consequences of child marriages. In other groups, women teach other women arithmetic and writing. They in turn pass on their knowledge and newly acquired skills to their daughters, some of whom are no longer allowed to attend school, says Parisa H. .

"The women's most important resource in these dark times is themselves: They support each other and create a small space of peace and hope."
Parisa H.

Midwives: Increased availability
In the province of Laghman in eastern Afghanistan, Women's Hope is responsible for a second project together with its partner organization Première Urgence Internationale PUI. In Laghman, people from remote villages are largely cut off from healthcare services that have been weakened by years of conflict. Since the start of the project in 2021, Women's Hope and PUI have therefore invested in the training and further education of midwives and other health personnel and supported the health facilities in expanding their infrastructure. For example, midwives can now live with their families in a specially built house directly next to a health center, which increases their availability at night as well. In the first half of 2023, 294 women gave birth in a health center supported by Women's Hope.

Negotiations with the Taliban
However, also here, the de facto Taliban government has made project work more unpredictable. At the end of 2022, it banned all female employees of NGOs from working; in January, the Taliban allowed women to work in the health sector again due to pressure from various sides. As women are only allowed to be treated by women, this was an essential decision for their health. In the summer of this year, the Ministry of Health of the de facto government suspended all PUI projects without prior notice. The PUI was able to negotiate a gradual resumption with the authorities. The experience of the last two years shows that talks with the Taliban are possible and that regulations issued are not always enforced; also because the Taliban are not always in agreement internally.

Midwife accommodation in Islam Abad, Afghanistan

Regulations generate double transportation costs
"Due to the absence of my husband, who was away on business, I gave birth at home at night. There was no one there to take me to the clinic." The testimony of an Afghan woman from the project region illustrates another problem that women have increasingly faced since the Taliban came to power. As they should only leave the house with a male companion, the already expensive trip to a health center becomes even more unaffordable for them. Women's Hope and PUI have therefore decided to cover not only the women's transportation costs but also those of the men. Representatives of the Taliban also tried to ensure that the health centers only treat women who come with a male companion. The project team sought talks with the Taliban in order to limit such interference and remain true to its own humanitarian principles. With success: women who come to the health centers unaccompanied continue to be received and treated without restrictions.

Getting men on board
Another barrier to accessing health services is male control over female family members. In surveys conducted by PUI, 14 percent of women stated that their male relatives would not allow them to give birth in a health center. This makes it all the more important for the project team to inform people in the villages about the importance of assisted childbirth and the existing services. The example of a woman from the project area shows that the work is having an effect - albeit slowly: she had lost her child twice during a home birth. When she became pregnant again, her family only allowed her to go to the health center after the project team had visited the village. From then on, the woman visited the health center several times accompanied by her husband and was finally able to give birth to her child there under safe circumstances.

Cover picture: Health services are only permitted from woman to woman. Female employees are therefore indispensable for the Afghan healthcare system; Foto: Roya Heydari/Première Urgence Internationale