Civilian Interviewees Disapprove of my boring clothes and lack of makeup

I went to interview one family today who had lost the head of the household in 2001 during an aerial bombardment by the international forces. It was a large house with many different family units living together. It was also strictly segregated between men and women. I first spoke with the men in one room, but was then asked to say hello to the women in the other section of the house. This was not a shy and retiring group of women!! They immediately grabbed me when I walked through the door and sat me down on some cushions. Children became dive-bombing into me (there must have been at least 25 children running around).
I hadn’t been sitting long before my lack of makeup began causing general confusion and dismay. Out came the eyeliners, bright lipsticks and rainbow-bright eyeshadows. Then my hair was scraped back, my nasty boring scarf tossed to one side…. THEN the women had a great idea that they were going to change me entirely and dress me up in their party clothes. So I was forced to change into a sexy 1001-nights outfit, complete with a beaded head-piece. This was causing great amusement and pleasure amongst everyone in the house – especially when I was pushed into the men’s quarters again (I really wasn’t sure about the dynamics here and was not comfortable at all.. but the women were pretty insistent!) Oh…. The things I do for my job!

(the photos show me before.. and then after my makeover! You can see all the children that were throwing themselves at me in the "before" photo!)

Make-Up, Afghan Style…

ACAP likes to help civilians by giving them vocational training. But training women in particular can be difficult because they have fewer options to leave the home. Make-up artist training has proved to be an effective way to help…. Because Afghans certainly love their make-up whenever they attend parties and social events!!
Erica and I decided to allow one of ACAP’s clients to give us a “make-over”…. It was a widow whose husband had been killed by a suicide bomber. She had just opened a beauty parlour so that she could make money to support her children.
I have attended a couple of weddings here, so I knew that the make-up would be colourful and not so natural… and this make-up certainly lived up to expectations!Erica went first… and the beautician started by ‘threading’ her face. “Threading” is common in Egypt (where I live at the moment) and also here – it involves taking two pieces of thread and running them up and down so that they remove all the hair…. But I didn’t realize that the hair on the face was something that had to go!
Then Erica had her eyebrows darkened and made into one sexy unibrow… then thick white foundation; shiny, shiny eyeshadow; fake eyelashes and bright lipstick with heavy lipliner.
I went through a similar process, though I also had my hair done (don’t ask me why!!). My hair was scraped back, gelled into submission and then I had glitter put everywhere… the shinier the better in Afghanistan!
This make-over was not a natural look. To be honest, we looked like drag-queens. We were heading to the Italian PRT straight from the salon and the first thing we did was go to the toilets and attempt to remove as much as we could of the gunge on our face!!

Battle Displaced People in Afghanistan (Herat)

“Battle Displaced People” (or BDPs) is a term used to describe individuals who are forced to flee their homes because of fighting. There are a specific subsection of Internally Displaced People (IDPs). There are thousands of BDPs in Afghanistan and the numbers are growing.
Today, we visited a refugee camp on the outskirts of Herat, on the road that heads out to Iran. It is a desolate stretch of road – beautiful in a harsh, dusty, mountainous way. But clearly a tough environment to live amidst.
The camp that we visited was built twenty years ago and has accommodated Afghans as they have fled various different conflicts. The camp is a permanent living-place with small, dark houses made from mud and straw. There are a handful of water pumps where the people can get water. But there is no electricity and no arable land.
We spoke with one family that has lived there for the past 2 years. They fled their village after their uncle was shot in the stomach and killed. He was attempting to help a group of children hide in a mosque during an intense battle between ISAF and the Taliban. After the uncle died, the family immediately left the area. The head of the house told us: “We only grabbed the most important belongings. Many of our things are still up in the village. But we cannot return now. We will die if we visit our home and land again.”
This family is desperate to return to their house in the village. The wife summed up the sense of desperation and the loneliness. She explained: “We have nothing here. Up in our village, we had fruit trees. My husband had a job on the land and he could provide for us. We had relatives and support. I could chat and discuss problems with people. Here, we have nothing. I have all these children and I can’t feed them. It makes me desperate. I make lunch, but then there is nothing left over for dinner. We desperately need help. We desperately need the fighting to end.”

Herat

Erica and I arrived in Herat today – what a beautiful city!! There are pine trees lining the street and open green spaces. There are football teams playing in wooded areas – such a welcome change from the dust of Kabul and the tension of Kandahar!
We hope to talk to some people who were injured by landmines and cluster munitions – the area around Herat was heavily affected by cluster munitions so there are a significant amount of people missing limbs. We’ve also planned to talk with the Italian PRT (provincial reconstruction team – Italian military working to build projects to help civilians) and with soldiers working to provide humanitarian aid in Royal Command West. We’ll be busy!

“Next time, I will not vote for Karzai; I will vote for my donkey”: Civilian Anger at Family Deaths

Goli’s hand is twisted and scarred. His leg and chest is also a knot of scars, threading across his skin. His uncle, Haji, still has his foot in a bandage – two years after the ISAF forces mistakenly bombed his village. And his left leg is basically bone and sinew, a mere reminder of the healthy leg that he once used to farm his land.

Two years ago, ISAF forces bombed the village where Goli and Haji lived because the Taliban were nearby, crossing a road from one area to the next. The bombing began at 11pm. Haji described to me how he was sleeping in the courtyard of his house and “saw bright lights like lightning and a loud sound like a bomb.” The first bomb hit his neighbor’s house. Twelve people were killed there and seven injured. The second bomb was dropped on the house where Haji and Goli were living and six family members were killed. The firing and shelling then continued from a helicopter and from B52s and lasted for five hours. Twelve people were killed by the gunshots and rocket fire and fourteen people were injured.

In total, Goli and Haji lost sixteen members of their family. Two of Goli’s brothers were killed. One died alongside his wife and four of his children. One child remains from that family unit. The other brother was killed along with one of his daughters and three of his sons. The wife remains alive, but is severely injured. Goli and Haji were both severely burned and shrapnel became embedded in their bodies. Pieces of metal still remain under their skin. Goli also described how his sister was so injured that she can no longer eat by herself. And another of his brothers lost one leg and is paralyzed in the other. He is now in a wheelchair.

Another of Goli’s brothers was shot by the ISAF troops and was taken away to Kandahar Air Field (KAF) for questioning. His mother and father went to KAF to beg for his release and to insist that he was innocent. The military provided him with hospital treatment and released him after establishing that he was not a member of the Taliban. All the other injured family members were taken to the local hospital. The family had to sell half of their land in order to pay for the hospital bills.

Three days after the attacks, the Canadian troops came to the village and apologized for the deaths and injuries. They paid some money to the villagers. The injured civilians even received a visit in hospital from President Karzai and the governor. Every injured person received 20,000 Afghanis to help pay for the hospital bills. No money, however, was given to compensate for the deaths or for the loss of property and livestock.

Now this family has moved from their village because the security situation is just too unstable. Their houses and land are destroyed. Their livestock is dead. One brother occasionally returns to the land to collect some produce for the family to eat. Otherwise, the family makes a small amount of money by selling goods from a metal container in Kandahar city. As with so many injured and displaced civilians, they rely on the good-will of family and neighbors and pray every day that the fighting will end. At the end of the interview, Haji threw up his hands and declared: “I am angry. We have no hope from the government and no hope from the international community. Everyone has lied to us – the Canadians, the PRT, the government. I only trust God now.” Still, despite this anger, this injured man was still capable of making a joke – even if he said it with a rueful smile: “I was the first person to cast my vote for Karzai, but this time I will cast my vote for my donkey. It’s better.”

Lack of Cultural Sensitivity from Foreign Troops Angers Civilians in Kandahar - Night Raids and Civilian Casualties

July 22, 2008
Mohddin is angry. His eyes glare at me while he speaks and he sits on the edge of his chair so that he can lean forward and emphasize his complaints. Unlike the majority of civilians who visit the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) office in Kandahar, he has not lost a close family member or suffered losses to his property. But he is angry about the life that he and his neighbors are being forced to endure. It is a life of insecurity and hardship, as civilians are caught in the middle of the fighting between the Taliban and the international forces.

Mohddin took the time to come into the AIHRC office because he feels that the situation is unjust. He was particularly frustrated with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). He told me that the people could not understand why the ISAF troops were hitting civilian targets. “They have sophisticated technology. Surely they can distinguish between the Taliban and the people,” he said, jabbing the air with his finger to emphasize his anger. “Now the people are beginning to think that the ISAF are deliberately targeting civilians. Their perception is that the ISAF forces are committing abuses and this is driving people more towards the AGE [Anti-Governmental Elements].”

Mohddin told me that night raids had occurred in his village and that at least two of his neighbors had been taken away by international security forces. Every day, the villagers were scared that they would be attacked – by the air or by land. ISAF forces, in particular, he said, failed to gather sufficient information and so they made fatal mistakes. “The government should bring security,” he told me, “And ISAF should also coordinate with the government in every military action that they are taking. And they should also work closely with the civilians and try to regain the trust of the civilians and then they can succeed.”

I asked Mohhdin about the biggest need facing his village, expecting him to mention a lack of food, or the need for the fighting to end. Instead, he responded immediately with a different request: “The biggest need is for the foreign troops to educate themselves more about Afghan culture. The night raids in particular are really bad. They are going into people’s houses and taking people and this is not right. When the people are taken, they are not really Taliban or AGE people. They are innocent. And the foreign troops realize this and so they give the civilians to government officials. But the government is really corrupt and they will not release the people so once they are put in prison they will be there for a long time. If they are not rich people, they cannot bribe officials to get out.” Whether or not Mohhdin has an accurate perception of what is happening to civilians, or whether individuals are Taliban members or not, it is important to recognize the growing anti-ISAF sentiment in the Kandahar province. More work clearly needs to be done in demonstrating greater cultural sensitivity and showing civilians that they are not being deliberately targeted in military operations. Unless this happens, any effort to win the “hearts and minds” of civilians in this province will surely be a fruitless endeavor.

Kandahar Field-Trip: Reports of Civilian Mutilations in the Southern Provinces

July 19, 2008

I arrived in Kandahar this morning. To be honest, I was scared to be coming here alone. Everyone I talked to - Afghan or foreign - said that "things were bad" down in Kandahar. The taxi driver who took me to the airport offered to drive me back to my guesthouse in Kabul for free... And a private security guard at a bar I went to last night in Kabul gave me his card and, with a serious nod of his head, told me that "he knew people who could help me if the shit hits the fan..." Gulp. But I was determined to go because there are numerous civilians in Kandahar who are suffering so much from the fighting. And their stories need to be told.

My first stop was Kandahar Air Field (KAF) where I met with a government official who accompanies military forces into remote parts of the southern provinces and organizes stabilization projects. His stories were shocking. He described finding one young woman who had, he was told, been a sex slave to the Taliban. She had been raped, mutilated and killed. Such stories suggest that there are horrific atrocities committed against civilians that are hard to document and verify. Many of the regions in this part of Afghanistan are controlled by the Taliban and other Anti-Government Elements (AGEs) and are completely inaccessible to most NGOs.

Field-Trip to Kandahar City: Location of Significant Civilian Casualties

July 18, 2008
I am leaving tomorrow for Kandahar city with a team from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). Kandahar city is in the south-east of Afghanistan. The NGOs based in this city tend to cover all of the southern provinces, including Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Nimroz. This is a part of Afghanistan that is ravaged by fierce battles between the insurgents and coalition forces. Civilians are frequently caught in the middle and even deliberately targeted. A June 2008 BBC report described the vulnerable situation in Kandahar and the large numbers of villagers who are fleeing to the city to avoid the fighting. The Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) noted in an August 2008 publication that: “In the south, south-east and east of the country insurgents are mounting an increasingly vigorous, systematic terror campaign of threats, abductions and executions aimed against members of the civilian population.”

Arriving in Afghanistan

JULY 16, 2008 Was I scared arriving in Afghanistan this morning? Hell, yes! I had to get to the airport in Dubai at 5am and discovered that flights to "dodgy" places in the world such as Kabul and Bahgdad go from a terminal that is distinctly less fancy and is a 20 minute drive from the main terminal (I went to the wrong place...)

I sat in the terminal staring at crowds of Afghan men. These were the people who have dominated the media for the past few years - flat caps, scarves wrapped in turban style on their heads, waistcoats... And then there were "tough guys" - American and European men dressed in military fatigues. I guessed these were mainly private security contractors working in Afghanistan. There were very, very few women in this terminal...

I was full of apprehension but excited about my work in Afghanistan - I will be conducting interviews with civilians around the country to try to lobby for a better system of compensation payments for war-affected civilians. I am working with my friend Erica, who is a field-staff member for CIVIC (http://civicworldwide.org). We were both at Harvard Law together.