Muslim Women challenging Islamic Fundamentalism

Muslim Women challenging Islamic Fundamentalism

Dr. Sima Samar

Dr. Sima Samar

Dr. Sima Samar has been selected as this year's John Humphrey Freedom Award recipient for her efforts to strengthen the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan and in refugee camps on the Northern border of Pakistan. It will be presented in Montreal on Monday, December 10, 2001, International Human Rights Day.

Then and now!
L-R: Queen Suraya of Afghanistan, 1920s; Women in Afghanistan 2001-Photo Saeed Khan AFP Photo

Women in Afghanistan were never forced to wear a burqa (the head-to-foot shroud) or a veil until the Taliban came along. All along, women had access to University education, parents sent sons and daughters abroad for higher education, women were an important part of the work force, they wore what they chose to – jeans, dresses, trousers or traditional clothes. They dated and went out with boy friends and chose their own partners to marry. Then one September day in 1996 , the Taliban changed it all.

In the face of repeated death threats, Dr. Samar defies the ruling Taliban's edicts that deny women and girls their basic rights to education, employment, mobility and medical care. From the time the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 1996, Dr. Samar has been running schools for girls and health clinics in many of the provinces of Afghanistan as well as in the refugee camps in Quetta, Pakistan.

Talking to Sally Armstrong in Quetta a couple of years ago (Border town in Pakistan), Dr. Sima Samar, had said "I have three strikes against me,- I'm a woman, I speak out for women and I'm a Hazara, one of the minority tribes." She studied medicine at Kabul University after her marriage. While she was still at University her husband was arrested by the Communists and never seen or heard from again. She nevertheless persisted with her studies and began working in the rural areas of Afghanistan. She was appalled by their health and their lack of education and turned her attention and energies towards both. When Taliban took control of Afghanistan and passed the various fatwas (decrees) against women, she challenged the Taliban dress–code for women and refused to wear a burqa or a veil and carried on voicing women’s rights. She moved across the border to Quetta in Pakistan where she runs a school and a clinic for Afghan refugee women and within Aghanistan she supports the running of several small schools for girls – all run without the blessings of the Taliban. Sima also has a medical clinic in Kabul. "Almost every woman I see has osteomalacia," Samar says. "Their bones are softening due to a lack of Vitamin D. They survive on a diet of tea and naan because they can't afford eggs and milk and, to complicate matters, their burqas and veils deprive them of sunshine. On top of that, depression is endemic here because the future is so dark." She is also part of the international network Women Living Under Muslim Laws, a group that hopes to alter some of the Muslim laws, which has links in 40 countries and is a powerful voice at the UN.

Warren Allmand, President of Rights & Democracy, upon announcing the decision of the jury,said

"We hope that this international Award will help provide some form of protection to Dr. Samar who faces a real personal danger in providing health and education services to Afghan women and girls. Her courage inspires us all to continue to struggle for a peaceful resolution to the situation in Afghanistan."

According to Sally Armstrong, Sima Samar receives so many death threats from the Taliban, she simply replies, "You know where I am. I won't stop what I'm doing."