Foreign female aid workers feel less safe in Afghanistan
By Fariba Nawa August 9, 2002 The Christian Science Monitor Kabul — Patricia Omidian looked up through her glasses. Her palm-sized diary was open to an entry on June 8 — the day a French aid worker was gang-raped by seven men in Pul-i-khumiri, a small town in northern Afghanistan. “It’s just starting to sink in,” says Omidian, an American …
Read MoreAfghan women freer, yet a rise in fiery suicides
By Fariba Nawa August 9, 2002 The Christian Science Monitor Herat, Afghanistan – Sanaa was tired of living with 15 in-laws. Tired of daily fights with her mother-in-law. And tired of being treated like a “servant.” So last month, with her husband watching, she threw a gallon of cooking gas on her chest and lit a match. “I did it …
Read MoreReturn of the native to a nation reborn
By Fariba Nawa July 14, 2002 London Sunday Times EDITOR’S NOTE: As an Afghan living in exile in America, Fariba Nawa was drawn back to her homeland as the Taliban were ousted. She found hope amid the ruins of Herat. I can hear the hope in my home town. The once-forbidden sounds echo through the city. In the bazaar, women’s …
Read MoreAfghan women debate the terms of their future
By Fariba Nawa June 30, 2002 Women’s eNews (womensenews.org) EDITOR’S NOTE: Afghan women agree that they should play a role in the rebuilding of their country. They are divided, however, on what role Islam should play in the new nation–integral to the new government or a belief system guiding a secular state. Kabul — When at last she was welcomed …
Read MoreAfghan exiles get mixed homecoming welcome
Since February the United Nations has repatriated 231 Afghans from abroad.
Bay Area Afghan expatriates walk tightrope
Those who returned to rebuild are caught between 2 cultures
Read MoreBeyond the veil: time to refocus women’s rights
By Fariba Nawa June 13, 2002 Pacific News Service Essay also ran in the San Jose Mercury News EDITOR’S NOTE: Afghanistan’s grand council is completing its deliberations on an interim government, but the highly charged issue of women’s rights — inseparable from women’s dress in Islamic countries — will continue to simmer. PNS contributor Fariba Nawa considers how she, an …
Read MoreAfghanistan’s fate rests with council
Delegates to choose new government
Read MoreAfghan warlords exact a toll on the road to democracy
By Fariba Nawa June 5, 2002 The San Francisco Chronicle Herat, Afghanistan — Rafiq Shaheer’s friends were shocked when they saw the bruises on his back after he was released from custody. “He lifted his shirt, and it was all black,” said an acquaintance. Shaheer, president of the pro-democratic Council of Professionals in this city of 330,000, was jailed and …
Read MoreInterim leadership celebrated
‘We can take country forward,’ chief says
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