VZCZCXRO7924
OO RUEHPW
DE RUEHBUL #3062/01 3291241
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 241241Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6228
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 4444
RUMICEA/USCENTCOM INTEL CEN MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KABUL 003062 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, DRL, GTIP, GIWI, PRM, INL 
NSC FOR JWOOD 
OSD FOR MCGRAW 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPOL PREL PHUM AF KTIP
SUBJECT: VIEW FROM THE NORTH: KUNDUZ WOMEN NAVIGATE 
POSSIBILITIES AND CHALLENGES 
 
REF: A. KABUL 3025 
     ¶B. KABUL 2796 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Women in Kunduz Province face problems 
common throughout the country including illiteracy and 
violence.  However, many Kunduz women are free to work, are 
much less covered in public than in other areas of the 
country, and express satisfaction with the Afghan government. 
 The area is ripe for further development of women's 
potential if key programs are initiated and supported, and 
security does not worsen. (Reftel A) 
 
DOWA: Illiteracy is the North's Greatest Challenge 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Nadira, Director of the Kunduz Department of Women's 
Affairs (DOWA), estimated that only 10% of women there are 
literate, and only 25% of girls attend school past sixth 
grade.  Family pressure to stay home and the lack of female 
teachers in rural areas are the primary reasons why girls 
drop out of school.  She recommended more outreach programs 
to men and women and particularly religious leaders 
emphasizing the importance of educated women to Afghan 
society as a strategy to increase girls' enrollment.  She 
also asked for support in conducting a public outreach 
campaign to educate women on the electoral process because 
most women do not have basic information about the electons 
or understand the importance of voting.  In addition she 
advocated the use of mobile voter registration teams, without 
which, she predicted, only a small percentage of Kunduz women 
would register because the voter registration sites are 
located too far from their villages. 
 
¶3. (U) International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) 
will host the first of a series of election-focused dialogues 
with female Members of Parliament on December 2.  Through 
these sessions IFES will provide voter registration 
information and facilitate discussion of women's 
participation in elections from an Islamic perspective, 
emphasizing the recent fatwa issued with the support of 400 
Kabul mullahs encouraging women to register and vote. IFES 
also staffed an elections information booth at the First 
National Women's Council of Afghanistan, held in Kabul 
October 28-29, and attended by 500 women from 33 provinces. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Domestic violence, early marriage, and forced 
marriage are among the other challenges northern women face, 
Nadira said.  Families give women to other families in order 
to settle a dispute or as compensation for a crime.  Kunduz 
Province does not have a women's shelter, which, Nadira 
believes, cause many women not to approach DOWA for help 
becuse they know DOWA cannot shelter them.  She hosed 
several girls who had run away from hom in her own house 
before the police counseledher this practice was too 
dangerous.  Most woen who run away from home due to violence 
or forced marriage end up in prison.  She is working with the 
Kunduz police to house these women in the children's section 
of the jail in order to avoid their confinement in the same 
space as older or dangerous inmates. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Nadira's identification of illiteracy as the primary 
problem facing Kunduz females and her focus on their lack of 
civic participation as a major secondary concern contrasts 
with Herat DOWA and Kabul Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) 
representatives' approach who mentioned violence first and 
other issues such as education and voting much later in the 
conversation.  (Reftel B) The Kunduz DOWA did not appear 
overwhelmed by cases of violence as DOWA offices in other 
areas are.  In the past three months the Kunduz DOWA has not 
handled a single case of a woman fleeing domestic violnce or 
forced marriage.  Nadira's explanation that potential clients 
do not come in because they know DOWA cannot offer them 
shelter may be a factor. Indeed a new shelter opened in 
Mazar-e-Sharif in October and reports receiving approximately 
seven clients a week.  It is also likely, however, that 
Kunduz women are faring better than their counterparts in 
other areas of the country, and thus, the potential for 
advancement if educational opportunities could be expanded is 
 
KABUL 00003062  002 OF 003 
 
 
evident. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Nadira is well-spoken and thoughtful and focused on 
practical and specific initiatives such as asking for funding 
for electoral awareness campaigns and programs to attract 
female teachers to rural schools.  She also recently 
successfully advocated initially resistant Afghan officials 
for land to build new DOWA offices. 
 
Live from Kunduz: Five Years of Women's Radio 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Najia Khudayar, Director of Radio Zuhra, said the 
women-run radio station has been broadcasting for almost five 
years after receiving start up assistance from Internews. 
The women-focused programming includes shows centered on 
women's rights under Islam, family issues such as marriage 
and domestic violence, health, and legal topics. 
 
¶8. (SBU) According to Khudayar, security concerns in Kunduz 
are increasing.  Up until a year and a half ago, the radio 
staff was able to travel into districts to interview 
residents, but current security concerns make that travel 
impossible.  The Kunduz UNAMA human rights officer also said 
that worsening security conditions in recent months caused 
UNAMA to suspend operations in several districts.  Khudayar 
is increasingly hesitant to send out female reporters and 
often depends on the station's one male reporter for outside 
reporting. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Khudayar and her female colleague, Zarghuna Hasan, 
favored expansion of local government authority, recommending 
that the ANP be increased and send more police to work in 
rural areas.  Young people turn to violence because they are 
unemployed and recruiting them as police officers would 
improve security and make it harder for insurgent groups to 
attract new members. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Khudayar expressed satisfaction with the national 
government as well, noting that she was able to get out of 
her house and start her radio station, and that opportunities 
for many other women increased due to support from the Karzai 
administration.  Interest in the upcoming election is low 
compared to the 2004 and 2005 elections.  Only 40%-50% of the 
local populace will participate, she estimated.  People that 
do participate would generally vote as directed by others, 
either by men for women, or by ethnic group for all, she 
said.  She and Hasan, however, both enthusiastically said 
they planned to vote, and that the result of the election 
would be meaningful for Afghanistan. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Over the past several years the radio station has 
become involved in several legal cases involving domestic 
violence and forced marriage.  In one case a girl ran away 
from home in order to avoid marrying a local commander.  The 
commander ordered her arrest and local authorities arrested 
and imprisoned her.  After the girl's mother approached the 
radio station, Khudayar and her colleagues worked with the 
Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) to obtain 
the girl's release.  However, the girl was imprisoned for six 
months before Afghan authorities released her.  Khudayar said 
another common scenario is when a man cannot afford to pay 
the customary sum to his intended bride's family, the couple 
runs away and often marries in Kabul or Mazar-e-Sharif.  Both 
the man and woman in these situations spend months in jail 
when they attempt to return to Kunduz.  Honor killings are 
extremely unusual in the North, Khudayar claimed, because 
once the local government is involved in a situation, 
families fear government retribution if they were to kill 
their daughter or wife. 
 
UNAMA: Weak Rule of Law; Family Response Unit Shows Promise 
but Needs More Support 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶12. (SBU) Gorretty Akinyi Omala, Kunduz UNAMA human rights 
officer, said UNAMA received reports of 60 cases of rape of 
girls aged 8-14 in Takhar Province during 2008, and the 
 
KABUL 00003062  003 OF 003 
 
 
majority of these cases were not prosecuted.  The AIHRC has 
also reported a sharp increase in reported cases of sexual 
assault in northern Afghanistan, particularly incidents of 
child rape.  On a positive note, UNAMA has not received 
substantiated information of cases of trafficking in persons 
in the four northern provinces covered by the Kunduz office. 
Kunduz German PRT political assistant, Maria Anna Puertinger, 
reported that there had been a few reported cases of human 
trafficking from Takhar Province across the northern border. 
 
 
¶13. (SBU) The Kunduz Family Response Unit (FRU) mediated 
several civil cases successfully by counseling disputing 
parties, resulting in the parties signing an enforceable 
written agreement, Omala said.  The FRU, however, is not 
fully supported or accepted by police leadership.  The female 
FRU officers could benefit from more training particularly on 
how to handle criminal cases. Omala approached DynCorp 
requesting this training but had not yet received a response. 
 
WOOD