Women's Shura, by Ann Argabright

A most satisfying accomplishment for T.I.E. in Lalander is empowering women. The first big step was enabling the villagers to send their girls to school. On Budd’s visit in March another breakthrough was made when the male shura agreed to create a women’s shura (a governing council). T.I.E. was very pleased with the decision to allow women to establish their own shura – surely one of the first in Afghanistan. This could have been a very contentious issue.

Thus, it was disappointing to Budd in October to find that the women’s shura had made very little progress. Budd met with the women’s shura and it was clear that they had not been organized and did not fully understand the role of the women's shura. He explained that their primary goal is to identify issues important to the women of Lalander, for example: they would help the micro credit loan program by identifying which women and enterprises to fund; another would be to contribute to the “wish list”, which defines the villages developmental priorities. These actions support T.I.E.’s long term goal to have women become an integral part of the decision making process.

It was also evident that the women’s shura needed stronger leadership (not surprisingly given traditional attitudes toward women as leaders). All but one of the women were passive and silent for most of the meeting. One, however, Lailana, was very comfortable expressing her views while making direct eye contact, which most Afghan women are reluctant to do. She was later asked, and agreed, to become the leader of the women’s shura. Two weeks ago we were informed that the women’s shura had grown to 30 members!

The political foundation for change has been laid. The road ahead will not be easy, but T.I.E. and the villagers have found a way for both men and women to move forward, and to do so together. This is a major development for the women, achieved with the support of the men! T.I.E. will keep its supporters apprised of the progress of the women’s shura in Lalander.