[Nasional-e] Kabul women seize long-denied chance to get behind the wheel

[Ambon]

The Guardian Weekly
Jan 30, 2003

Kabul women seize long-denied chance to get behind the wheel
Jason Burke

For years they were banned from working, barred from the classroom and
forced to wear the tent-like burka whenever they left home. Last weekend
Kabul's women were given back the freedom to get behind the wheel of a car
after a decade-long ban on women driving.Few can be seen on the roads yet,
and even fewer have their own cars. But driving lessons run by the new
Afghan government's ministry of women's affairs, with help from a German
NGO, are booked up months in advance.The first batch of graduates to
complete the three-month course were given driving licences last weekend.
 There is more at stake than transport. After years under the repressive
Taliban, women in Afghanistan are trying to regain lost liberty.
Malalai Wardaki, 33, who returned to Kabul from Pakistan and resumed work as
a teacher six months ago, said she wanted to drive because it would give her
"a sense of freedom".
In Kabul many of the harsher restrictions imposed by the Taliban have been
lifted, but the cultural conservatism of Afghanistan is proving a more
durable barrier. Few venture out without their burkas. Many of the aspirant
woman drivers are attending the lessons in secret, for fear of the
disapproval of their husbands. The course has been held during the day
inside government buildings to  give women an excuse to attend and to be
away from home.
Many of the more conservative members of President Hamid Karzai's government
disapprove of the perceived liberalism of the new regime. They recently
tried to ban women from attending the hugely popular showings of the latest
Bollywood movies in the capital. A version of the feared Taliban religious
police has been reinstated in Kabul.
The tensions reflect those in the country as a whole. Mr Karzai's
administration is still weak and reliant on aid from Western donors. Though
more than 4,000 international peacekeepers maintain public order in Kabul
and, in the provinces, new teams of development special ists and soldiers
are starting work, experts say there is a risk that extremist leaders will
mount a serious threat soon. "It has been a hard winter and there is a lot
of anger. Many people's expectations have not been met," said Peter Marsden
of the British Agencies Afghanistan Project.
A key consideration now is the effect a US-led war in Iraq might have on
Afghanistan. There is widespread resentment of the US forces still hunting
former Taliban and al-Qaida elements in the country. There has been a rise
in the number of attacks on US military targets and the first pitched battle
between reconstituted former Taliban and US forces.
There have also been a series of bomb attacks in Kabul and fighting  between
warlords in the west and the north. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, known for his
hardline views, has been rallying support in northeastern Kunar province and
on the Shomali plains north of Kabul. Aid has been slow to reach the area
and he has capitalised on resentment. <I> The Observer</I>
&#149; Afghanistan's most senior judge outlawed cable television last week
saying it was against Islam, a decision reminiscent of the Taliban regime.
Fazl Hadi Shinwari, a cleric and the new government's chief justice, said
cable television, which now provides foreign news, movies, sports and
entertainment channels in Afghanistan, was filled with "prostitution" and
"nudity".

The Guardian Weekly 20-3-0130, page 3