Afghanistan's Islamists try to shut down women's shelters in Afghanistan

August 8, 2010

TV Show Host Targets Afghan Women's Shelters
by Maria Al-Habib, The Wall Street Journal

Momina lives in one of Afghanistan's women's shelters, which have come under fire from conservatives such as TV host Nasto Nadiri. (Kate Brooks reporting for The Wall Street Journal)

KABUL — The televised images shown earlier this year on one of Afghanistan's most popular television shows were stark: several women wailed in a bare room while the host implied that international aid workers had forced them into prostitution.

Acting on a tip from viewers, the show, "Sarzamin-E-Man," or "My Homeland," devoted a multipart series to investigating the place, which the host, 27-year-old Nasto Nadiri, said was an unauthorized women's shelter masquerading as an orphanage.

Mr. Nadiri's report didn't say for sure what was going on at the orphanage, or what the women were doing there. But the show has helped to spark a popular backlash against all shelters, including those registered with the government.

Mr. Nadiri, who is running for Parliament in September, says he wants a clampdown on women's shelters in Afghanistan. The TV host wields considerable power in shaping the national debate here, and has been using it to rail against women's rights and foreign aid organizations.

The shelters are "not acceptable for our people, who have fought 30 years to put the word 'Islam' in front of Afghanistan," he says, referring to the country's full name, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. "We live in an Islamic country. ... But some NGOs come and want to make another way for our country."

The emergence of a free media is one of the few successes in the nine years since the U.S. overthrew Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban regime, which banned television. The Ministry of Culture and Information says there are 26 TV stations based in Kabul and nine more in outlying provinces. Noorin TV, which broadcasts Mr. Nadiri's hourlong show six nights a week, is among the most popular broadcasters here.

But that media freedom has also been used to stir up xenophobic and fundamentalist sentiments that seek to roll back some of the social liberties that more moderate parts of Afghanistan have enjoyed since 2001.

The government closed another station, Emroaz TV, last week, claiming it stoked sectarian tension by accusing Afghan Shiite politicians of working for Iran. But critics say this is a rare exception.

In a sign of the influence of Mr. Nadiri's show, the government expelled two aid groups from Afghanistan earlier this year, after the host broadcast footage purportedly showing them converting Afghans to Christianity, a crime punishable by death under Afghan law.

The two groups, the Norwegian Church Aid and the Church World Service of the U.S., denied allegations of proselytizing and challenged Noorin TV to provide evidence linking them to the videos, which showed Afghans in a dim room praying frantically while others were baptized.

In Afghanistan's deeply conservative society, foreign aid groups are often looked at with suspicion, especially if they champion women's rights. Greater still is the scrutiny on women these shelters serve.

Many women in Afghanistan are thrown into the country's female prisons for broadly interpreted "moral crimes," which can include adultery or running away from one's family to avoid a forced marriage. Some aid workers say Afghanistan's police force often put women in prison when shelters are a more suitable place for them. Women in these shelters often face death threats for disgracing their families' honor by running away.

Momina has lived in shelters since escaping three years ago with three children—a 10-year-old boy and two girls, aged 3 and 6—from a husband she says was violent and heroin-addicted. Living in a cramped room in a registered Kabul shelter with seven other women and their children, Momina, 34, learned to read, write and sew. She earns $10 a month as a seamstress in one of Kabul's bazaars, a meager income in Afghanistan, but manageable within the shelter.

"Now, when I read street signs I feel proud of myself. I feel in charge," says Momina, who like many Afghans has just one name. "I'm trying my best to improve my tailoring and embroidery so when I have to leave the shelter I can find a job."

Mr. Nadiri says he hasn't visited any of the 17 shelters officially registered with the government, which serve 1,430 women. But he says he received hundreds of inquiries from Afghans "suspicious that most of the women are misused sexually" at the shelters. He says he plans to air another multipart series on Afghanistan's shelters.

Aid groups still working in Afghanistan say they fear Mr. Nadiri's focus on women's shelters will sway President Hamid Karzai's government, which is increasingly eager to bolster its Islamic credentials in an effort to blunt the Taliban influence.

"The main problem is the public image from the TV, which makes Afghans think these NGOs are doing un-Islamic things," said Sayed Abdullah Ahmadi, the program director for the Cooperation Center for Afghanistan, which runs two shelters.

A government commission is investigating the shelters, which are often operated by local and foreign nongovernmental organizations, to monitor their quality—and to look into accusations of prostitution and harboring female criminals and drug users.

Mr. Karzai created the commission late last fall, before the TV feature on the shelters aired.

But the head of the commission, Nematullah Shahrani, says Mr. Nadiri's show has made an impact on the investigation. "So many people have complained about the shelters, saying they're brothels and preaching Christianity. This is why the Afghan government decided to open the commission," said Mr. Shahrani, who is also Mr. Karzai's religious-affairs adviser.

The commission's recommendations will be issued "soon," he added. The report will decide which shelters should close and may increase funding to those allowed to stay open, he said.

"Many people in government oppose the shelters," says Shinkai Karokhail, a female lawmaker. The only reason the government is letting them stay open for now, she adds, is the pressure from the international community.