Journey of Hope 2017 journey-of-hope-2017 | Page 28

N
E DUCATIO
E
ADVOCAT
T
SPOTLIGH
TO ERADICATE POVERTY
IN AFGHANISTAN WE
MUST EMPOWER WOMEN
I
n 2003, I moved to Kabul with my husband and our first
child to work with a research institute. Our daughter was six-
months old. Like many first-time mothers I knew nothing
about looking after a baby. We wanted to hire a nanny who
spoke English so I could communicate all my misguided
knowledge about baby care. We interviewed a number of
young women recommended to us. They had learned English in
refugee camps in Pakistan, but they were inexperienced when it
came to child care. Ultimately, we met with a lovely woman in her
thirties. She didn’t speak any English. She picked up our daughter
with ease and proceeded to answer, in Persian, our questions about
what would she do if the child was crying. Finally, having kept our
daughter quiet and amused, she turned to our translator and said: “I
have raised seven children, do they have any more questions?”
We hired Zeba on the spot.
Like Zeba, most Afghan women are incredibly resourceful and
have important skills, yet social and economic barriers prevent
them from reaching their full potential. Insecurity, persistent social
norms, illiteracy, and lack of employment opportunities and access
to markets prevent many Afghan women from formally contributing
to Afghanistan’s economy.
The number of civilian deaths due to the ongoing conflict in
Afghanistan hit a record high in 2017. According to the United
Nations’ Afghanistan mission, the number of women casualties
increased by 23 percent, an unprecedented level since 2001. Lack of
security poses a threat to women’s economic empowerment as fewer
families will back women’s public participation if they don’t feel they
will be safe.
In addition to conflict, which prevents many Afghans from
pursuing normal lives, women also face harassment and social barriers
that prevent them from being part of the formal economic sector.
Research by Women and Children’s Legal Research Foundation
showed that nine out of ten Afghan women living in seven provinces
around the country have faced harassment. Surveyed women said
they faced harassment in workplaces and educational institutions as
26 | JOURNEY OF HOPE
by Kathleen Campbell,
Vice President for
Programs at Women for
Women International
well as on the streets. Fourteen percent of those who experienced
harassment in educational institutions dropped out. According to
the Asia Foundation’s Survey of the Afghan People, 74 percent of
Afghans say women should have the right to work outside the home,
however obstacles such as harassment prevent the vast majority from
doing so. Persistent harassment discourages and prevents women
from seeking formal employment and educational opportunities
Afghanistan also has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world
and women are disproportionately impacted, largely due to six years
of Taliban rule when girls’ schools were closed. As a result, according
to The World Bank only 24 percent of Afghan women over the age
of 15 can read and write. Without these skills, women are far less
likely to access formal employment opportunities. Without security,
safety and literacy most Afghan women, especially those in rural
areas, cannot access markets. As a result, less than 20 percent of
Afghans surveyed say women contribute to their household income.
These obstacles not only violate women’s right to be economically
empowered and self-sufficient, but also harm the country as a whole.
According to the World Bank, Afghanistan’s per capita income is the
lowest in South Asia. More than 70 percent of Afghans think the
number one problem facing youth is unemployment. This is not a
surprise given the country’s unemployment rate is at 40 percent and
36 percent of the country lives under the poverty line. This means
more than one in three Afghans do not have enough money to buy
food or cover other basic needs. The majority of this poverty is
concentrated in rural areas where women face particularly high rates
of social and economic exclusion.
The good news is that we already have the solution to decreasing
and maybe even eradicating poverty: women. A study by Mckinsey
Global Institute shows that with women’s equal participation in the
labor force, the global GDP could increase by 26 percent to $28 tril-
lion dollars. Even if every country matched the gender parity rates of
its “fastest growing neighborhood, global GDP could increase by up
to $12 trillion in 2025,” the report argues. While the study doesn’t
include Afghanistan, it shows that in doing so, South Asia and the
CENTRAL ASIA INSTITUTE