Women for Afghan Women is outraged (but not surprised) by the

sustained efforts to silence the voices of women in Afghanistan's

Constitutional Loya Jirga. The methods themselves are not unfamiliar.

Chairman Mojaddedi has dragged out the old myth created and

perpetuated by a patriarchal interpretation of certain Quranic verses

that it takes two women to equal one man. Modern scholars have set

aside this interpretation in favor of a gender-neutral reading that

accords with the overall Qur'anic theme of a just society and with

Prophet Mohammad's tireless efforts to empower women politically and

socially.

Mr. Mojaddedi manipulations of religion for political gain are an

affront to Islam, a religion that holds forth a vision of an

egalitarian society, gender and class neutral.

We applaud Malalai Joya, the outspoken delegate who had the courage to

raise the crucial question at the outset: why has the Loya Jirga

selected as committee chairmen "those criminals who have brought these

disasters for the Afghan people." Rather than determining

Afghanistan's constitution, she believes "they should be taken to the

world court.''

While Ms. Joya was ultimately allowed to remain as a delegate despite

the eruption from male delegates and despite Chairman Mojadeddi's

order to throw her out, she now requires the protection of the UN

because of threats to her life from the floor of the assembly. It is

clear that women's views will not be tolerated when they challenge the

entrenched power of the Mujahidin.

Lack of security has been and continues to be the main barrier to women

achieving their human rights in Afghanistan.

Islam endows all creation with certain inalienable rights. These rights

are incorporated in the Afghan Women's Bill of Rights, a document

drafted and signed by Afghan women from throughout the country who

gathered three months ago in Kandahar for WAW's annual conference.

These women overcame their considerable differences in ethnicity,

language, education, and religious conviction to reach consensus on

the rights they want enumerated in their nation's constitution. Some

of these are mandatory education, health services with special

attention to reproductive rights, protection against sexual abuse and

domestic violence, freedom to vote and run for election, the right to

marry and divorce according to Islam and to financial independence and

ownership of property, the minimum marriageable age set at 18 years,

and full rights of inheritance.

The absence of these and other rights for women in the draft

constitution is a shocking reminder of the vast distance Afghan women,

and men, have yet to travel, even after the Taliban are gone, to

defeat fanaticism and sheer corruption before they can approach the

ideals embodied in Islam.

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