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Kabul, Afghanistan
- Second Lieutenant Negara, one of Afghanistan's 1,500 female police
officers, was leaving her home for work when two assailants on a
motorcycle pulled up and opened fire. Negara, 45, took a round in the
neck, and died in a hospital in southern Helmand province on Monday.
The
attack follows the targeted killings of two other women officers in
recent months, including Negara's predecessor. Third Lieutenant Islam
Bibi was gunned down in July in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, also by motorbike-borne assailants as she drove to work
Negara, who like many Afghans uses one name, recently told The New York Times that she was receiving death threats, but would not be deterred from her work despite the killing of her colleagues.
"I
love this job and I see my countrymen in trouble and the country in a
critical situation, and I feel women's role is important in policing," Negara said.
"The smugglers and terrorists are threatening me, saying I should give
up. But I tell them that I am an Afghan woman, and I won't leave the job
as long as there is blood in my veins."
No
one claimed responsibility for the killing. Sidiq Sediqi, the Interior
Ministry's spokesman, said a police team was dispatched to investigate,
adding it was too early to say who was responsible.
Militants
have stepped up attacks against female police and other women in
positions of authority in recent months. In August, an armed group
ambushed the convoy of a female Afghan senator, seriously wounding her
and killing her eight-year-old daughter and a bodyguard.
Recruitment drive
Despite the dangers faced by policewomen, a recent report
by nongovernmental organisation Oxfam International said more female
officers need to be integrated into the country's police ranks in order
to stop domestic abuse, so-called "honour killings", and forced
marriages.
Women
represent only one percent of the Afghan National Police, according to
the Oxfam report. Not only do women officers face threats and attacks
from militants, but they are often stigmatised by their own families in
this male-dominated country.
While
Afghanistan is one of the harshest countries for women, only 6,000
cases of domestic abuse were registered in 2012, according to the Afghan
Independent Human Rights Commission. Social norms make it difficult for
females to approach male police officers to file complaints, and with
the shortage of women on the police force, abuses are widely
underreported, Oxfam said.
The
Human Rights Commission said incidents of violence against women have
shot up over the past two years. Many here worry the Taliban's influence
could rollback many of the rights Afghan women have gained since the
ouster of the hardline Islamists in 2001.
The
Oxfam report comes almost a year after a nationwide recruitment
initiative known as the "Afghan Surge" reached completion. About 352,000
Afghans have joined the ranks of police or the army to defend their
country. With foreign forces withdrawing on December 31, 2014, the need
for more trained Afghan security personnel is imperative.
The
proportion of policewomen has risen from 0.33 percent in 2005 to 1
percent today - a significant achievement in a country where many women
are forbidden to work by their relatives. However, the figure is not
enough to help bring justice to Afghan women, the Oxfam report said.
"Further
action is urgently needed to recruit, train, retain and protect Afghan
female police officers. This is critical for upholding the rights of
Afghan women and girls, and can contribute to sustainable peace and
development efforts in Afghanistan," it said.
‘No choice'
Many
of the 1,551 policewomen recruited so far are illiterate or widowers,
drawn to the job out of necessity such as the case of Nafisa Mohammed
Anif. After her husband died in a suicide attack that killed 13 people
in front of Cinema Pamir in Kabul, she ignored her relatives' criticism
and joined the police academy and is now an officer.
"I had no choice but to work," the 50-year-old told Al Jazeera. "My eight children couldn't feed themselves."
Anif earns 12,500 Afghanis (US$225) a month. She started her career carrying out house searches in Kandahar province,
where there are currently 52 policewomen. Now assigned to Kabul's city
gate in Pul-e-Charkhi, Anif and another policewoman search female
passengers coming into the city, often pulling them aside to look
beneath their burqas out of sight from men.
Female
body searches - once a rarity in Afghanistan - have gained prominence
after male insurgents began disguising themselves with burqas. Cultrual
mores dictate that men - including law enforcement officers – cannot
speak to or search females that they are not related to.
In
recent years, the Taliban have exploited this security loophole. In an
attack last summer on a popular tourist resort near Kabul that killed
more than 20 people, militants dressed as women to conceal weapons under
burqas and passed through checkpoints undetected.
Today,
female bodychecks are compulsory in front of every government building
and are carried out by women security officers. Even Afghan Special
Forces commandos - trained by US Special Forces - have incorporated a
female team. Women of the Cultural Support Unit handle, search and
arrest women and children during Special Forces house raids.
Challenges ahead
Despite ongoing female security force recruitment initiatives, hiring women and retaining them has proven a challenge.
Lailamah
Walizadah said she recruited three women in the first week of September
alone, the first time she's done that in her career. She has worked
three years as a police recruiter, first in Takhar province and now in
the northern province of Parwan.
However, Walizadah said it remains extremely difficult to convince women to join law enforcement, especially now that anti-government militants have regained momentum in Parwan.
"Even when I give them financial incentives to join, they often refuse saying it is too dangerous. They are afraid of reprisals," Walizadah told Al Jazeera over the phone.
She
faces another hurdle - social stigma. Because policewomen work
alongside men, a career as a police officer is not deemed an acceptable
profession by many in Afghan society. As one of nine policewomen in the
provincial capital Charikar, Walizadah insisted that women would "change
their minds if they tried it," but some of their relatives disapprove
of policing.
The
police force remains a dangerous place for women internally as well.
Reports of abuse against female officers by male colleagues have
surfaced, and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has accused
the Afghan National Police of not doing enough to protect its female
staff.
Asked about it, Anif says she has never had any such problems.
"The men in my unit are so young that they are like my sons," she said, in front of her commander. "Our responsibilities are distinct and we use separate facilities."
Anif
said proof that there wasn't a problem with male harassment and
bullying against female officers is found in the number of women with
husbands now seeking employment with Afghan security forces.
"More married women are joining, and they should not be afraid to do so," Anif said.
SOURCE: AL JE ZEERA
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Friday, 20 September 2013
Afghan policewomen under the gun
