When Moving Up the Ladder Means More Than Success. 

      In 2007 a government letter containing a suicide bomber threat had been sent to Shukaria Barakzai, a female member of the Afghan Parliament.  As BBC news Women under siege in Afghanistan had noted, she had been sent this letter for the past three months anticipating her for the acclaimed threat to happen in the next six.  At this time she was also one of six members to receive a letter.  Ms. Bazakzai, mother of three daughters believes she was a target due to her speeches against the "country's warlords" and her support for women's education and rights. 

      Since the Taliban's ending rein in 2001 women have been able to be a part of Afghanistan's constitutional positions. Of today's 361 members of Parliament, 91 are women, a severe change since Taliban rule. Now women can be a part of politics from almost every angle and their rights as women are completed in the constitution. The government has also been sought after to deal with traditions that work against them as women. Even though these changes have been made, the women still live in fear of coercion throughout their daily lives.

      For Ms. Barakzai, not even security had been ensured for her, even through her MP status.  The state cannot protect women or ensure safety, even considering their work. Considering these women of status, this does not even describe the scenario for common women. For others the real situations of beatings, forced marriages and rape has been the life of many. Many of these situations, especially forced marriages and even physical abuse from drug- addicted husbands, have led to fire suicides by women. As exposed in BBC's Afghan Women Seek Death by Fire in 2006, the number of suicides by fire has been said to have doubled since that year. Most of the women said they just wanted to receive an education and a chance to work.  Delegates from countries that included Sri Lanka and India among others met at a conference in Afghanistan in November of 2006 to discuss the issue. Sima Simar, Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission chief stated "It [self immolation] is the final decision for women who don't have any other way to solve their problems". 

      Among the women of Afghanistan, especially the MPs, now in 2008, Mehbooba Andyar, a female Afghan on her way to the Beijing Olympics went missing. Although a middle distance runner, she still chooses to wear a full body covering running suit along with her headscarf. This covering while training to run in the Olympics is what has led to taunts and threats by the Taliban, not to mention she will be the only Afghan 

woman to compete in the Olympics as seen in Time's Where is The Female Afghan Runner? These factors could have lead to her sudden disappearance right before the opening ceremonies in Beijing. Her bags and passport were gone, displaying the chance she had left on her own, but all factors are not being ruled out. There is the suspicion that she is in hiding in Europe after repeated threats. Andyar was an athlete trained by the IAAF, which is a program that offers special opportunities to athletes in troubled conditions and paid for by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The world track and field governing body has said the disappearance came as a surprise and that they knew nothing of Andyar having second thoughts of competing. As the days go by, there is little hope Afghanistan will have a competing woman in the Beijing Olympics. The only other Afghan athlete is a male sprinter, training in the same facility, who has also said he has no knowledge of Andyar's whereabouts. Andyar could be another symbol of the effects of threats and abuse of women all around Afghanistan.

            As it can be seen much progress has been made for women since the end of the Taliban rule. Threats made on women and women of power have been seen in the past years in the same condition that can be seen now in 2008.  Although these issues are still prevalent, measures are being taken to help ensure a bright future for women in all areas of Afghan life.  For most of these women security and education could be the solution. For common women in Afghanistan education and the opportunity to work are not only their hopes, but also a necessity for their livelihood. As women slowly move up the ladder of success, a follow-up of security to ensure their goals are met and secured is essential to guarantee women can preserve the accomplishments already attained. 

In Pakistan, Corrupt Governance Could Obstruct Development

A recent opinion piece in the LA Times, by American law students Tobias Berkman and Matthew Fay, describes the rising discontent felt by many Pakistanis towards President Pervez Musharraf’s November suspension of their nation’s constitution.

Last fall, in anticipation of a possible court order that would render him ineligible for re-election, President Musharraf declared a national state of emergency, suspended Pakistan’s 1973 constitution, and dismissed numerous major judges—in effect, dismantling the nation’s legal system and erasing the already-tenuous separation between its military and its government.

These events, combined with the December assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, have lead to a less stable situation in Pakistan. Berkman and Fay’s article describes the recent upswing in protests against Musharraf’s violations of democracy. The constitution was restored on December 15, when the state of emergency ended (though the international NGO Human Rights Watch, among others, voiced sharp criticism of the true nature of that restoration), but 60 removed judges remain to be reinstated. Reuters India reports that Aitzaz Ahsan, a resistance leader and president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association, predicts more protests.

One of the most important steps, in a developing country, towards procuring people’s basic needs is maintaining a government that is just and accountable. The corruption that President Musharraf and his regime cultivate in Pakistan—scolded publically by, yet tacitly condoned by, the United States— is detrimental to the humanitarian development goals that we at Barakat seek to achieve. Educational parity cannot be achieved when the government is more concerned with maintaining its own power than supporting the needs of its people. Undemocratic governance and inequality go hand in hand— as long as power struggles continue at the top level of the government, the people’s needs will continue to go unaddressed by those who are supposed to heed them.