gender, violence and power in Afghanistan

240 Pages·2013·0.84 MB·English

Wimpelmann, Torunn (2013) The price of protection: gender, violence and power in Afghanistan. 
PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London 
http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/16802

Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other 
copyright owners.  
A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior 
permission or charge.  
This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining 
permission in writing from the copyright holder/s.  
The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or 
medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. 
When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding 
institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full 
thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination.
The Price of Protection
Gender, violence and power in Afghanistan

Torunn Wimpelmann

Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in Development Studies

March 2013
Department of Development Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London
Declaration for PhD thesis

I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of
Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented
for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any
other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or
unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present
for examination.

Signed: ____________________________ Date: _________________
Abstract
This thesis examines contestations over gender violence as points of entry into an analysis of
gender, politics and sovereign power in contemporary Afghanistan. It explores the evolving
parameters of what ‘counts’ as violence against women in Afghanistan, articulated in legal
frameworks and practices, in public and media debates and in the interventions of political
leaders, diplomats and aid workers. The thesis asks whether violence against women has
become a governance issue in Afghanistan and what this means for the position of women and
for broader relations of power. These questions are investigated through an examination of the
origins and fate of a new law on violence against women, a series of controversies over
women’s shelters, attempts to bestow recognition on informal justice processes and the
trajectories of individual episodes of violence as they travelled through different and
sometimes competing legal forums. I show how the outcome of these struggles have the
potential to redraw boundaries between government and family domains, and to subordinate
women to kinship power, or alternatively, constitute them as independent legal persons.
The thesis further analyses negotiations over and interventions into violence against women
as revealing of shifting domains and claims of sovereignty, of projects of power and of
political technologies. The processes detailed in the thesis illuminate a landscape of plural and
competing legal regimes that in specific times and places presided over individual episodes of
gender violence The thesis also shows that far from operating as a singular bloc, Western
forays in Afghanistan produced multiple and contradictory effects on women’s security and
protection.
Contents

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ 1
Abbreviations ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 4
I. ‘The President is selling the people’s honour’ ............................................................................ 4
II. Situating the thesis ..................................................................................................................... 10
III. Chapters outline ......................................................................................................................... 13
Chapter 1: Gendered violations and sovereign claims ..................................................................... 15
I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 15
II. Gendered violations and sovereign power ................................................................................ 16
III. From gender relations to broader fields of power ..................................................................... 19
IV. Governmental assemblages, and their limits ............................................................................. 25
Chapter 2: Research on shifting ground ........................................................................................... 31
I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 31
I. Afghanistan during fieldwork: a snap survey of the political landscape ................................... 32
II. The extended case method ........................................................................................................ 39
III. Doing research in Afghanistan: Research trajectories, data access and ethics .......................... 41
Chapter 3: Intrusions, invasions and interventions: Historical lineages of gender, justice and
governance in Afghanistan ................................................................................................................. 56
I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 56
II. Gendered boundaries and hierarchies ........................................................................................ 56
III. The emergence of a centralized legal system in Afghanistan ................................................... 66
IV. Legal reform after 2001............................................................................................................. 79
IV. International gender activism: post-2001 Afghanistan as a site of international gender
expertise ............................................................................................................................................ 85
Chapter 4: ‘Good women have no need for this law’. The fortunes of the EVAW Law .............. 89
I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 89
II. The legal framework prior to the EVAW law ........................................................................... 91
III. The trajectory of the EVAW law ............................................................................................... 96
IV. ‘What is the basis for this law?’ Discursive strategies and hierarchies ................................... 101
V. Political ambiguity and discreet lobbying ............................................................................... 113
VI. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 119
Chapter 5: Between sanctuary and surveillance: The women’s shelters ..................................... 123
I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 123
II. The “run away woman” as a transgressor ............................................................................... 125
III. The Supreme Court directive on “running away” ................................................................... 130
IV. ‘What have been run by NGOs now belongs to the government.’ Attempts to “nationalize” the
shelters: ............................................................................................................................................ 133
V. ‘What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan’: Bibi Aisha .......................................................... 135
VI. Nasto Naderi’s campaign against the shelters ......................................................................... 137
VII. Victory for the shelters ........................................................................................................... 140
VIII. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 145
Chapter 6: Seeking the “real” Afghanistan: The informal justice agenda ................................. 148
I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 148
II. Defining informal justice ......................................................................................................... 150
III. The ‘National Policy on relations between the formal justice system and disputes resolution
councils’ (and its discontents) ......................................................................................................... 151
IV. Expert authority and Afghan reality ........................................................................................ 156
V. Rendering informal justice governable, administrable … and profitable ................................ 159
VI. Enter the military: Informal justice as counterinsurgency ...................................................... 164
VII. The informal justice assemblage unravels .............................................................................. 168
VIII. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................ 171
Chapter 7: The Politics of Shame: violations that matter ............................................................. 175
I. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 175
II. The politics of shame .............................................................................................................. 177
III. The killing of Fereshta ............................................................................................................ 184
IV. Violations that matter .............................................................................................................. 187
V. Counter-discourses of violation ............................................................................................... 194
VI. The ‘state’ as an arena for contestation over resources ........................................................... 197
VII. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................ 205
Conclusions: protection at a price? ................................................................................................. 208
References .......................................................................................................................................... 219
ANNEX 1: List of interviews ............................................................................................................ 230
ANNEX 2: List of Violence in the EVAW law ................................................................................ 234
Acknowledgements

When carrying out this research I benefitted from the support, insight and inspiration of
numerous people. I am grateful to the Research Council of Norway for financially supporting
this PhD work through the grant Violence in the Post-Conflict State (project number 190119)
Chr. Michelsen Institute, where I have been employed as a PhD researcher throughout
research has been great institutional home and I wish to thank my colleagues there for their
encouragement and help. My debts and sense of gratitude to Astri Suhrke for her advice,
enthusiasm, and mentoring are enourmous. In more than one way, this project could never
have been realized without her. Arne Strand first introduced me to Kabul and gave me the
confidence to carry out fieldwork in Afghanistan again and again. Karin Ask provided
invaluable suggestions at important junctures of this work.
At SOAS, Deniz Kandiyoti has been an immensely generous, inspiring and thorough
supervisor. I cannot thank her enough for agreeing to take on this role, for her many pieces of
crucial advice and for her close reading of my drafts.
In Afghanistan, numerous people shared their time, knowledge and company. Above all, I
want to thank Mohammad Jawad Shahabi for his research assistance. Without his insights,
skills and efforts this research would have been very difficult. The Cooperation for Peace and
Unity ( CPAU) and Peace Training and Research Organization ( PTRO) were ideal places to
be based and their staff great colleagues. I am grateful to Mirwais Wardak for his help in
facilitating my stay at both places and for numerous stimulating conversations. Of the many
people who in various ways generously offered their time, help and knowledge I would like to
particularly thank Obaid Ali, Phyllis Cox, Sandy Feinzig, Alexandra Gilbert, Ismaeil Hakimi,
Zia Mogballeh, Shinkhai Karokheil, Abdul Subhan Misbah, Soraya Sobhreng and Royce
Wiles.
A number of people read and offered valuable comments on parts of or entire drafts of this
thesis; amongst them are Liv Tønnessen, Nefissa Nagib, Sippi Azarbaijani-Moghadam, Gilda
Seddighi, Frode Løvlie and Hilde Granås Kjøstvedt. Jonathan Goodhand and Tania Kaiser
gave me important response at the early stages of the research. Naqeebullah Miakhel
compiled helpful information on the implementation of Hadd punishments.
Both in London and in Kabul, Orzala Ashraf and Aziz Hakimi have been terrific friends and
colleagues. Our many discussions and their comment on my work have helped me question
my assumptions and filled some of the gaps in my knowledge.
Finally, my deepest thanks to my family for their unfailing support and love.

1
Abbreviations

AIHRC: Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission
AWN: Afghan Women’s Network
CLRWG: Criminal Law Reform Working Group
DFID: Department for International Development (UK)
DOWA: Department of Women’s Affairs
ISAF: International Security Assistance Force
MOWA: Ministry of Women’s Affairs
PDPA: People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan
TLO: The Liaison Office
UNAMA: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
UNIFEM: United Nations Development Fund for Women (merged into UNWOMEN in 2011)
UNODC: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
USIP: United States Institute of Peace
WAW: Women for Afghan Women

2
Note on Language

The languages of administration, and those most widely spoken in Afghanistan are Dari ( a
dialect of Persian) and Pashto . Both contain a number of Arabic loanwords.
For words that have become common in English; such as sharia, ulema and mullah, I have
used the established form. Words less common in English appear in italics throughout the text
and with a brief explanation the first time they are used.

3
Introduction

I. ‘The President is selling the people’s honour’

In the spring of 2008, Sayed Noorullah of Sarepul province started a public campaign to get
the Afghan government to punish his niece’s rapists. His teenage niece had been tricked into a
house and raped by two young men, one of them the son of a powerful former commander
and currently an MP in the province. When attempting to report and pursue the case in his
home province of Sarepul, he had been beaten and intimidated by local government officials.
However Noorullah was not one to give up easily. He appeared on the national media,
demanding that the government take action. But the threats continued. Upon the intervention
of local human rights workers the case was eventually moved to Kabul, where the man again
spoke on national TV, accusing President Karzai, the head of Parliament and the Chief Justice
for failing to address the case. Meanwhile, another family from the same area also went on
TV, and in a disturbing TV clip, recounted how their young daughter had been raped by five
government officials.
The cases were becoming a major embarrassment for the President, who swiftly fired senior
police officials in the province and summoned the uncle for an audience, where he promised
to personally follow up the case. Eventually the son of the MP was sentenced to 20 years in
jail at the primary court in Kabul. The case, however, was not over. As it was coming up for
second instance in the courts, the uncle reported continuing intimidation and interference, and
continued his media campaign. Eventually senior parliamentarians and confidantes of the
president brokered a deal. The families of the victim and the perpetrator were to reconcile.
Declaring himself exhausted by the threats, and for the sake of his family’s safety, Noorullah
agreed. In return, he would get a baad – a girl given in compensation, who was to marry the
uncle’s son, a guarantee on his life signed by the elderly leader Mujadiddi1 and according to
rumours; a substantial amount of money. Against this, the families would be declared
reconciled and the uncle would stop pursuing the case. In the two following appeals in the
secondary court and at the Supreme Court, to the surprise of human rights advocates and
supporters who had involved themselves in the case, Noorullah was no longer present in

1 Sighbutullah Mujadiddi was a former mujahedin (resistance fighter against the Soviet and the communist
government during the cold war) and a personal friend of President Karzai. He held a number of high-level
official positions during the post-2001 period, including leader of the Upper House of Parliament.
4