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Article #297 : Opinions on prostitution

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Forced to fend for themselves due to the Afghanis, provided, of course, that work
death or incapacitation of their male is available throughout the month.
breadwinners, and banned from seeking The ban on working women further
gainful employment under the Taliban complicates the scenario for households
dispensation, scores of Afghani women are headed by women. Pushed into a corner,
turning to prostitution to eke out a most such women first came out in droves
living to beg. Now, many of them are turning to
Clad in the ubiquitous shuttlecock prostitution as a more convenient source
burqa, she crosses a street in Kabul’s of income.
Shahr-I-Nau district and enters a “Pretending to be beggars, these women
cosmetics and toiletry store. She walks have easy access to clients who are
up straight to the clerk and stretches mainly shopkeepers and their trading
out her hand as if to ask for alms. But partners in Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf,”
this gesture is just a ruse. “It’ll be contends a former member of Taliban’s
two lakh Afghanis (equivalent to 250 religious police, popularly known as Amr
Pakistani rupees) per head, nothing bil Maroof. Most shops in Kabul contain a
less,” she tells the clerk under her storeroom or an attic, which can be used
breath, casting a veiled glance at me and for the purpose. But more security
the one other man present in the store. conscious clients prefer to fix
“I was expecting some good business, but appointments elsewhere such as their
I dropped it when I received word from homes. For Diva and others like her, such
you.” an invitation can translate into a
“I’m sorry, but this call is just for an million Afghanis in one night, which, as
interview with our journalist friend far as they are concerned, can buy 100
here,” replies the clerk apologetically, nanns.
pointing in my direction. “It’ll still be The more wretched of Kabul’s prostitutes
two lakhs,” she insists. “I told you I live in brothels, where they have to
dropped some good business to come share their income with the madam and the
here.” resident pimp. RAWA claims that there
As radiant as her name, which means an are some 25 to 30 brothels operating in
oil lamp in Pushto, Diva is a stunning Kabul. A Taliban source in the
beauty. In the privacy of the store’s Hauz-I-Awwal police cannot confirm this
attic, she throws off her tattered burqa figure, but admits that brothels do
to reveal a beautiful crimson blouse and indeed exist. “I know of one place in the
an ankle-length black Afghani skirt. Ashiqan-o-Arifan neighborhood, and I
Diva’s shoes are worn, but pepping from have heard that there are others in Qalae
underneath the hem of her skirt is a Zaman Khan. But they change their
shimmer of gauze stockings. Her neatly location every few months to avoid
trimmed brunette hair falls in straight detection.”
tresses to her shoulders. Her eyebrows When they do get caught, judicial
are plucked thin into perfect arches and authorities are bribed and the accused
there is no make-up to mar her glowing gets away with only a few lashes. Aqazad,
complexion. Though she looks barely 20, who worked at a brothel in Qalae Musa,
Diva claims she’s 28. recalls one such incident. “The Taliban
“I graduated from collage in geophysics once picked up one of the girls on
and used to work for the government,” she charges of zina, but the pimp paid the
says. But life changed dramatically for judicial officer six million Afghanis who
Diva in 1995 when she was abducted and in turn advised the girl to plead not
raped allegedly by some fighters of the guilty. The prosecution was reined in,
Hizb-I-Islami in the southern Chilistoon and she was only imprisoned for 60 days
district of Kabul. “I returned to work and received 20 lashes.”
for a brief period, but in September 1996 In Kabul, however, court cases based on
the Taliban overran Kabul and ordered charges of adultery are few and far
women to stay home.” Left without a between. “It is difficult to keep an eye
dependable source of income, Diva was on all the beggars and monitor shops
forced into prostitution. throughout the day. Even if a suspect is
Diva lives with her aged mother and found in a shop, she can conveniently
three sisters, one of whom is a plead that she was just begging. Besides,
prostitute and the other a widow with it is very difficult to prove adultery
three children. She has a 15-year-old under the Islamic Law, which requires
brother who works at a smithy for 100,000 four God-fearing witnesses who have seen
Afghanis a month. With their combined the act’ as clearly as a thread going
incomes, the family appears to be in a though the eye of a needle’” explains the
position to survive, however modestly, on source in Hauz-I-Awwal.
its own. As an added protection, the brothels
Aqazad, a 35-year-old Tajik woman, is entertain the Taliban free of charge.
not as glamorous as Diva and only half as “One of the reasons I left the house
business-like. But her price is the (brothel) was that every two or three
same: 200,000 Afghanis. “The money is days a group of Taliban youngsters would
only enough to buy 10 naans, which is drop in and want to do it for free,” says
less than what my family needs to feed Aqazad. “I decided to move out.”
itself for one day,” she points out, A former member of the religious police
defending her rates. Aqazad has four confirms the involvement of the Taliban
daughters and two sons. The daughters in such affairs and even provides an
sometimes take in laundry, while thee explanation.
sons, both of them less than 10 years “Communists and lechers have grown
old, beg on the streets. Her husband was beards and infiltrated the Taliban ranks.
an Afghan army officer who died in the They will do anything to defame the
battle of Jalalabad in 1989. Between 1992 Taliban.” He recalls the time when some
to 1996, Aqazad ran a grocery stall in of his colleagues took him to a brothel.
the northern Khairkhana district. That “There they smoked hashish, performed
lasted till the Taliban ordered all adultery and cracked jokes about Islam.
stalls run by women to be closed down. Some four months later, the entire gang
According to Aqazad, she is extremely disappeared without a trace. And it was
good at tar-shumar, the cross-stitch only later that a friend told me that
embroidery which is used to decorate they were ex-communists from the
women’s wear and shoulder bags. “I could Ningarhar province, out to have fun.”
embroider for large handicraft exports There are indications that
who pay well, but the Taliban do not poverty-driven prostitution is not
allow women to interact with male confined to Kabul alone. Faced with
businessmen. And I have no male relatives abject poverty, women in other cities of
through whom I can deal with the Afghanistan are also turning to this
exporters.” profession. Mariam is one of them. She
Both Diva and Aqazad hail from that lost her husband in a rocket attack on
enormous cross-section of Afghani society their house in the western Border City of
whose male breadwinners have either been Heart two years ago. She lived for six
incapacitated or consumed by the 20-year months without the means to buy food for
war, leaving the women and children to her six starving children. Following a
fend for themselves. The World Food period of acute anxiety during which she
Program estimates that this segment went as far as contemplating suicide, she
numbers between 60,000 to 120,000 turned to prostitution.” Among my
individuals in Kabul alone. Banned from clients were many Taliban soldiers and
work by the Taliban, these women have qomandans (commanders) who were generous
very few options other than begging on as well as gently,” she recalls. But
the streets or becoming prostitutes in things got really bad when the massing of
order to feed themselves and their Iranian troops on Heart’s border around
dependants. mid-1998 brought hordes of unruly Taliban
“There are hundreds of prostitutes youth to the city. “They were wild and
roaming the streets of Kabul and their tight-fisted, and when I demanded money,
numbers are rising every day,” asserts they said they would prefer to pay my
Zarghuna Hashemi, a Kabul-based daughter who was reaching puberty.” Four
spokeswoman of the Revolutionary months ago, Mariam sold whatever little
Association of the Women of Afghanistan she could muster to buy a ticket to
(RAWA). “They are not the regular Pakistan.
professionals we had in Kabul before or The wisdom of the Taliban’s so-called
during the war. These women are a product Islamic policies is being debated all
of the economic turmoil of the last over the world. While concerned members
three years.” of the international community continue
The economic turmoil in Afghanistan has to express their outrage at the state of
indeed been severe. Over the last three affairs, the predicament of the women
years, the price of wheat flour has risen living in Taliban controlled Afghanistan
by around 450 per cent to 80,000 goes from bad to worse. Taliban rhetoric
Afghanis per maund. While a five-Kilogram may claim that the ban on working women
canister of ghee carries a price tag of has been imposed to protect them from the
210,000 Afghanis, kerosene oil costs “ignominy” of dealing with men and
60,000 per gallon. The prices, moreover, braving the world on their own. But it is
continue to escalate while the average these very repressive policies that are
government salary remains stuck between forcing increasing numbers of Afghani
110,000 to 300,000 Afghanis per month. women to resort to the beasts of
The monthly wages of manual laborers are professions in the desperate struggle to
even lower and do not exceed one million survive.






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