Afghanistan Committee on Oct. 20th, 2010

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

If I can, I'll add one more question. When we were in Afghanistan in May, they talked about the Kabul conference and the interest of the Government of Afghanistan to see donor countries assist the government in being able to have capacity itself. International organizations and contractors seemed to have lots of money, the money bypassing the government and going directly into groups or organizations.

I don't think it was particularly talking about support for the Afghan human rights commission or groups of your nature, but is there some body or some department that you've identified within the Afghan government that could be a vehicle for the kind of education that you're talking about, for the kind of support for women that you realize is important, and the whole nature of education for men as well in terms of awareness of this?

Is this something that the Government of Afghanistan can and should play a role in? Is there an agency or something that you could identify that Canada perhaps should support?

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

A brief response, please.

[Jennifer Rowell]

Yes, Mr. Harris, it's the Ministry of Women's Affairs, which was established in late 2001, early 2002. It was given the very mandate that you describe, but since then has received only 2% of the development budget of other ministries and has received very little capacity and very little authority to do what it needs to do.

If we focus on the Ministry of Women's Affairs in a genuine way, you'd get the results that you've been describing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Dechert, please.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Rowell and Mr. Green, I just want to thank you and reiterate what my colleagues have said. Thank you both for your efforts and for CARE's efforts in Afghanistan, both today and over the past 50 years.

In response to a question from my colleague Mr. Rae earlier, I understand that CARE will receive $12 million in 2011 from CIDA. I think that's something—

[Jennifer Rowell]

Thank you for that clarification. That's good.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

It's my pleasure to do so.

You mentioned to us that CARE has been involved for 50 years, or perhaps more, in Afghanistan. I wonder if you could give us a short history of where women were in terms of their rights and their political influence pre-Taliban, what happened with the Taliban, and what has happened since the Taliban. Is there any improvement?

I was with this committee in Afghanistan in June. One of the things we were told, which was very encouraging to me, was that approximately 28% of the MPs in the Afghan parliament are women. That's actually a higher percentage than here in Canada. And those women face enormous threats to their personal safety in doing those jobs everyday.

Perhaps you could comment on all of that.

[Jennifer Rowell]

Very briefly, Afghanistan has always been a conservative society. This is sure. But before the insurgents took over, 75% of all teachers across the country were women. Many doctors, many lawyers, many nurses were women. So throughout the last century, we have seen significant moments at which women's rights have been fairly well respected, especially in cities. In the rural areas, it's a bit of a different story, but in cities there has been a precedent of very strong women's rights, and very strong economic and political participation for women.

I don't believe I need to explain the situation for women under the Taliban. From 2001 to 2005, there was a heyday in Afghanistan in which it surged back up from the great depths it had fallen to under the Taliban. There was tremendous hope. Women were coming out of the woodwork. There were more civil society activists. There were more people who wanted to go back into teaching. There were human rights lawyers, for lack of a better term. There was far more engagement. Women wanted to join the police, but because of the rule of law problems, which we described earlier in this session, women began to get hurt, so they would go to the police to seek support. They would try to join the police themselves. They would try to become women leaders within Parliament, and they would be threatened. They would be killed. The number of assassinations for women leaders in Afghanistan is appalling.

What we found was that because the basic rule of law wasn't in place, this heyday at about 2005 started to dwindle, and women started to pull back into the woodwork. So since 2001 we've seen a surge and a decline. It's now at a stage where I think there's a mini-surge again. This surge, though, is probably due more to the fact that women know that we're at a critical crossroads than the fact that, for example, we're giving them all the support and resources they need. I think that explains why a record number of women participated in the election this year: 406 women participated in the election, despite rampant threats on their lives, their children's lives. They put themselves way out there because they know that this is possibly one of the last opportunities they will have.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Very good. Thank you.

Do I still have more time, Mr. Chairman?

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

I think we're out of time. We're going to have to adjourn the meeting. It's 5:30.

I really want to thank you very much. Your experience in Afghanistan has really made your testimony very valuable to us and most enlightening. Thank you very much.

[Jennifer Rowell]

Thank you so much for the time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

The meeting is adjourned.