Group plans to teach Afghan women politics

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- When Russian democracy was in its infancy seven years ago, Lynn Hinkle led a group to Russia to show women the fine art of politics. Now she wants to do the same thing in Afghanistan.

"For Afghanistan to actually be rebuilt and have a strong society, you must include women in the rebuilding," said Hinkle, who founded a nonprofit called Women of the World and runs her own public relations business in Kansas City.

There were two women among the 30-member interim Afghan administration sworn in Dec. 22. Sima Samar was appointed minister of women's affairs and Suhaila Siddiqi minister of public health.

Hinkle's objective is to help women move into leadership jobs so that they can have a say in policy.

Hinkle and her organization have begun to reach out to contacts they made in Russia. Some of the women they helped ran a society to aid victims of Russia's former adversary, Afghanistan.

The group also has contacted a California man, who for the past few years has provided wheat, rice, cooking oil and blankets in Afghanistan. He has agreed to identify Afghan women already working in secret for women's causes.

Hinkle made six trips to Russia and the Ukraine. Women of the World trained several hundred women, many of them well-educated, who wanted to become active in politics by running for office or by simply getting attention for issues concerning women and families. Women of the World coached them in American campaign tactics, including public speaking and creating and selling a message.

Women in St. Petersburg who had failed to get the attention of the mayor formed their own party and pushed for his opponent, Hinkle said. The opponent won the race and put one of the women on his Cabinet.

But the group recognizes that Afghanistan may pose more challenges, supporter Janet Baker said.

"The diversity of needs of Afghanistan women is so great, from survival to self-actualization," Baker said. "So we have to figure out where is the right role for Women of the World in that world of extremes."

Shaista Wahab, an Afghanistan native who lives in Nebraska, said that with time Afghan women could regain their rights and former lifestyles.

When Wahab graduated from Kabul University in 1971, the life of her peers mirrored the life led by educated women in the United States. Women in Afghanistan held seats in parliament and jobs as doctors, professors and journalists.

Wahab does not remember any of them wearing burqas, the long body coverings required by the hard-line Taliban militia, or even the traditional head scarfs.

"Basically, I would say women had equal rights as men," said Wahab, who manages the nation's largest collection of Afghan writings at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

The now-deposed Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996, imposing a strict form of Islamic rule. It prohibited girls from attending school after a certain age, and women could not leave their homes without burqas and a male relative. The militia also required men to wear beards.

"I think women in Afghanistan ... paid the higher price under Taliban rule," Wahab said.

Hinkle's proposal to go into Afghanistan intrigued Wahab.

"I think that is a good idea, but on the other hand I also think the interim government will also be taking care of women in Afghanistan," she said. "But both together would work better."