First Impressions

So I finally had time to meet everyone at work and have an initial tour of Kabul.

To being with work, it is quite interesting as it deals with injustices faced by women and children, and there are no shortage of them here. The organization is very research oriented, trying to document and present problems in a systematic and complete way. Some examples of the research projects that have been commissioned in the past are Polygamy in Afghanistan, A Glance on Cases of Running Away From Home in Afghanistan, and Women Economic Independence in Afghanistan. Very quickly, certain things become apparent when going through the materials. First, tribal practices are very strongly rooted in the areas outside of the city centers. The law here is a combination of civil law deriving from the French, Islamic law and tribal law. Though both Civil law and Islamic law try to put safe guards against many form of abuses, the tribal traditions are very often too strongly rooted thus undermining any authority to the former. Second, exorbitantly high illiteracy only exacerbates the problem. Illiterate women are far more likely to not know the rights afforded to them by they law (or rather "law"), and thus they will very quickly face abuse. Literacy and economic empowerment does help reverse this problem. Third, the government is not fully effective in implementing justice. Government laws, even if they attempt to protect women and children, are ineffective if the rural parts of the country continue to follow their tribal tradition. Further, rampant corruption in the government often makes justice no more than a battle of vendettas, where one group taking revenge against a rival by making large bribes to officials. I'll write examples of stories later (because stories also have to be understood in a proper context). The two upcoming projects that I will be working on are violence against women and child marriages.

Kabul is a very interesting city bustling with life but also mired in poverty. People conduct their lives regularly (whatever "regularly" means) and the remnants of war are not immediately apparent. The stores are all open and children play near the streets. But poverty is rampant. Men, women, children are begging at every street corner. I caught this one photo of children collecting good from the trash. Police are stationed all over the city, thus making it easier for internationals to commute. In Afghanistan, the problems internationals will face are becoming ponds of tribal warfare through kidnapping or facing allegation of being an American spy. However, these problems occur when one leaves the city. Instability outside the city is probably one reason why some of my co-worker have never traveled to more the two cities in Afghanistan aside from Kabul. (My co-worker, took me to the local chess club. Indeed, he is the chess champion of Afghanistan)