Sima Samar: Afghanistan cannot have peace without education The Afghan human rights activist takes education and health care to the margins of society in her quest for sustainable peace Gulf News By Nilima Pathak October 17, 2013 In 1982, when Sima Samar became a doctor, little did she know that the profession would change the course of her life. The events that unfolded turned her into an activist fighting for the rights of women in one of the world’s most complex and dangerous regions. She has established and nurtured the Shuhada Organisation that operates in the strife-torn areas of Afghanistan more than 100 schools and 15 clinics and hospitals that focus on women. For her enormous efforts Samar has won many laurels. These include the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the 2004 Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights, and the 2005 Doctor of Humane Letters from Brown University. In 2012, she received the Right Livelihood Award, referred to as the “Alternative Nobel Prize” (see box). Born on February 3, 1957, in Jaghori, in Ghazni province of Afghanistan, she attended a co-education school in Lashkargah in Helmand. Troubles for Samar began in 1979. “Following the Soviet Union-backed coup, my husband, his three brothers and several other family members disappeared, never to be seen again,” she told Weekend Review. “Though life became tough, I continued to study and, on graduating in medicine from Kabul University in 1982, began practising at the Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital in Kabul.” When the capital became unsafe for her, Samar was forced to go back to Jaghori, where she began providing medical treatment to poor patients. “But due to lack of facilities and continuing political turmoil in Afghanistan, I decided to go to Pakistan in 1984, where I lived for 17 years,” she said. On reaching Pakistan, she found several hundred Afghan families living as refugees: “Initially, I worked as a doctor at the refugee branch of the Mission Hospital in Quetta, but the conditions there were extremely distressing. So, in 1989, I decided to open a hospital for refugee women and children and also established the Shuhada Organisation.” Ever since, the organisation has played an important role in the education and health-care sectors for Afghans. On her return to Afghanistan in 2001, Samar opened the first girls’ school, the Shuhada High School for Girls. At present, apart from its more than 100 schools for girls and boys in Afghanistan, the organisation operates about three-dozen schools for Afghans in Pakistan. Shuhada’s health-care programmes have benefited more than 3.5 million people. Shuhada has an enterprising way of functioning. Once a new school is established, the organisation hands it over to the government and moves on to the next project in the region where the government machinery has not yet penetrated. “While operating in this manner, we have provided medical facilities and built schools for girls and boys in extremely remote villages, where people had never seen a school or a clinic,” Samar said. “Of course, the schools still face problems due to the lack of infrastructure facilities and teachers, but we are continuing to do our best. “There have been times when I have overworked myself and felt tired, but the positive results of the efforts have led to an upbeat mood. And the impact has been felt in all spheres, including human rights in the country.” In its own way, Shuhada is playing an active role in the reconstruction of a democratic Afghanistan, and the credit for this goes to Samar. She has played an active role in politics too. After returning to Afghanistan, she was appointed deputy president in the Afghan Transitional Administration led by President Hamid Karzai and later established the country’s first ever Ministry for Women’s Affairs. She was one of the two women cabinet ministers in the council of 30 ministers and complained about the council practically denying the existence of women. Under her leadership, the ministry began advocacy, training and service programmes to help restore the rights of women and improve their economic, political, legal and social status. Her other accomplishments around that time included the ministry winning the right for women government employees to return to their jobs after maternity leave. However, after holding the post for just six months, Samar was forced to resign in June 2002, when she was threatened and harassed for questioning the conservative Islamic laws in a interview she gave to a Persian-language newspaper. In 2003, she was elected vice-chairperson of the Emergency Loya Jirga and launched a women’s rights legal department. When the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) was set up, Samar was appointed its first chairperson. Since its inception, the AIHRC has reported on pressing challenges, including issues of civilian casualties and the realisation of economic and social rights of women. “One of the important reports the AIHRC published was the ‘Call for Justice’, which examined the past violations of human rights in Afghanistan,” Samar said. “Our focus, thereafter, has been to strengthen the rule of law and end a culture of impunity in the region.” She still heads the AIHRC and because of her relentless calls for accountability of human rights violations that have taken place in the past and continue even now, she has become a thorn in the flesh of those involved. From 2005 to 2009, Samar also served as the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Sudan. Her commitment towards justice has put her at great risk and she often gets death threats. “Lack of security is today the biggest challenge in Afghanistan,” Samar said. “It not only limits access to freedom of movement and expression, but also restricts growth and development in terms of housing and health. Due to the lack of rule of law, all kinds of violations take place. Another challenge before the AIHRC is the lack of awareness of rights among the people, who neither know their own rights, nor can defend the rights of others.” A fervent believer in education being key to socio-economic development, Samar recently established the non-profit Gawharshad Institute of Higher Education. The institute offers training in the fields of political science, political sociology, economic planning and leadership. It aims to provide greater opportunities to women, and poor and marginalised students through subsidies and scholarships. “Education is a priority in countries such as Afghanistan, because this is the only means to change mindsets and promote democracy,” she said. “We cannot have sustainable peace unless we educate the masses.” Samar has done a lot of research on rights of women, children and child labour, and Shuhada runs orphanages and provides social security to children who have lost their parents in the long-drawn wars and have turned to menial work. “Tragically, many children are breadwinners of the families and we cannot ban child labour,” she said. “In such circumstances, we strive for better regulations, access to education and healthy working conditions for such children. “And looking back, I can say that we have achieved progress. Compared with the 1990s, when only few hundred thousand children had access to education, today, more than 7 million children go to schools and a third of them are girls, who earlier had no access to education. Although we could have done much better, the figures don’t lie and we are still counting.”
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 08:35:27 +0000
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