Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs - Presentation on Women's Rights in Afghanistan - 24th October 2006

Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs - Presentation on Women’s Rights in Afghanistan - 24th October 2006
Senator Norris: I salute the courage and integrity of Mary Akrami. It is a remarkable example to us who are privileged not to live in such a disturbed society, particularly one which has been disturbed largely by Western intervention. The tragedy of Afghanistan appears to lie in the fact that it has had a history of having proxy wars fought within it by some of the great powers. I also salute the work of Mr. O’Malley and Mr. Hamilton Rogers because at the Irish end, it is very important to have people like them to bring to our attention the kind of situation that Ms Akrami has worked through.
Many people in Ireland, myself included, had our attention first forcibly directed to the dreadful situation in Afghanistan precisely because of the appalling mistreatment of women under the Taliban. We remembered stories of women not being allowed to have cancer operations because the surgeons were male, which was an utter trampling of the most basic of human rights. We did have a horror of that but the military situation is disastrous. This was confirmed everything I heard this afternoon. Afghanistan has never proved itself amenable to this kind of military intervention. The British ought to have known this. They received a bloody nose in the 19th century. Why are they going back for another black eye? The Americans ought to know. They helped establish the Taliban in the first place, a policy which backfired. Will they ever learn not to start winding up these clockwork Trojan horses and sending them out where they just turn around and whack into their own camp?
The military situation is a mess. In respect of the rural areas and the lack of intervention, there is no control over them. As far as I am aware, the remit of the Government in Kabul simply does not run in these areas, although if I am wrong, please tell me. I would be delighted to think there was a central government but I do not believe there is. I do not believe it is even effective within Kabul. If Ms Akrami had the wonderful human idea of starting a walking club in the grounds of a hotel but was forced to stop even that, this tells its own story. One can add to this the situation concerning the opium poppy and the nonsensical idea that they were going to wipe it out. The problem is worse than ever. The market in the US is sucking it in.
Ireland is a small country even though there is a so-called economic miracle in progress. I do not trust miracles and I hope this one lasts. However, at the moment, we seem to be doing well. We have a certain amount of money at our disposal but we cannot simply splash it around in a way whereby we do not know what the result will be. We should learn some very valuable lessons from what Ms Akrami has said here today. At best, much of the financial intervention is wasteful. At worst, as described both by Mr. O’Malley and Ms Akrami, it is a kind of crisis tourism. People who do not speak the language float in with no knowledge of the culture, are very impressed with their own goodness and then bugger off again, having done nothing. One point that may not have been taken up or was perhaps missed by me was one of the most important things said by Ms Akrami. There is a very efficient way of helping in Afghanistan which would, to use the acronym, be “totally safe” from the point of view of Irish personnel and would not risk anything - only a few thousand euro here and there. No personnel would be exposed to the dangers Ms Akrami so bravely endured. It involves agreeing to train people here. As a result of acting decently and in a humane manner, we establish contacts which may be valuable in the future when a proper civil government is established in Afghanistan, as we all hope it is.
This committee has no remit to spend money, except for the odd old trip. However, the Chairman and the committee have influence. It is an all-party committee that does not break down along partisan lines, which is useful. I suggest this committee carefully examines how we can influence the spending of our resources.
I understand the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre is prepared to train people from Afghanistan.
Mr. O’Malley: Yes.
Senator Norris: That should be encouraged at every possible level and this committee should welcome it as a positive action which will help the human reality of people living in Afghanistan.
It should be done for teachers. I used to teach in Trinity. I do not imagine my skills in interpreting Finnegan’s Wake would be of much use in Kabul but other people may be able to train teachers. We have programmes in other countries. Our former President, Mary Robinson, was involved in training. At present, she is involved in training at Columbia University in New York. Such programmes involve training people from communities such as those we are discussing how to influence the government to gain access to basic human rights. We also have programmes for training legal personnel. Let us conduct that training here.
There was reference to this business of sending 12 SUVs which are of damn-all use and I saw my colleague Senator Henry nodding. The best action we could take would be to spend that money to make skills available through programmes here. I hope the Chairman in his vast wisdom will find a form of words at the end of this meeting whereby the committee can encourage this and recommend it to the Government and universities. UCD has a marvellous programme in collaboration with Birzeit University in the West Bank. Perhaps it is with Bethlehem University. It has had a major effect and I would like to see universities here taking it up.