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Women of Kabul Gather for Faltering First March

KABUL, Afghanistan - Shedding their head-to-toe burqas, hundreds of women gathered in the Afghan capital on Tuesday to demand their rights after five years of stifling Taliban rule. But military police of the Northern Alliance, who seized control of Kabul from the Taliban a week ago, said they had been given no warning and postponed the march for a week.
Women of Kabul Gather for Faltering First March

By Rosalind Russell

KABUL, Afghanistan - Shedding their head-to-toe burqas, hundreds of women gathered in the Afghan capital on Tuesday to demand their rights after five years of stifling Taliban rule.

On a bright, crisp day in a Kabul suburb, women in leather jackets, skirts and flowered headscarves met to call for the right to work, education for their daughters, and a political voice.

Led by former politician Saraya Parlika, the plan was to march to the United Nations office in the center of city.

But military police of the Northern Alliance, who seized control of Kabul from the Taliban a week ago, said they had been given no warning and postponed the march for a week.

It was a faltering start, but still an important moment for the women who just seven days ago could not leave the house unaccompanied, let alone show their faces.

``They say it was a security problem but we'll do it again next week,'' said Parlika, as men hung out of their apartment windows, amazed at the spectacle beneath.

Former teachers, doctors and civil servants chatted and laughed in the winter sunshine. They had all been sacked from their jobs by the Taliban, who banned women from working in their strict interpretation of Islamic rule.

``I came here to demand an education for my daughter,'' said 43-year-old Roya Sherzad. ``I was a teacher, I am a literate, educated woman, but my daughter has barely been to school.''

The Taliban banned mixed classes and said they did not have the resources to open separate boys' and girls' schools.

Most of the women had similar thoughts on their mind.

``I don't think we are asking for much. We want a government that gives our children an education and allows us to work and live our lives in peace,'' said Shukria, a former administrator.

``I need to support my family. This isn't about politics, it's just about a normal life.''

FINDING A VOICE

But Parlika, chairwoman of the 100-member General Coalition of Women, a human rights organization that has operated in secret since 1996, had more ambitious plans.

``We met yesterday to draw up our short-term agenda,'' she said. ``We decided we should shed our burqas and march to the U.N. to demand our political voice.''

Parlika is pushing for women to be represented at a meeting of Afghan groups to discuss the shape of a future government that the U.N. is working to convene.

But despite the concern to ensure all Afghanistan's ethnic groups are fairly represented in the new government, the rights of women seem to have been left behind.

U.N. special envoy Francesc Vendrell has held meetings in recent days with the exclusively male Northern Alliance and other political leaders, but not with Afghan women.

Even before the Taliban took power, Afghanistan was a male-dominated society.

``Now we have to start the women's struggle all over again,'' said Parlika, a senior member of Afghanistan's communist party in the 1980s, who says she is finished with hard-line politics.

``We need a voice, that is all. We want to be at that meeting.''
 
 

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