Network Women's Program Supports New Oral History Research on Afghan Women's Organization

The following text contains reflections on a recent field research trip from Anne Brodsky, an assistant professor of psychology and affiliate assistant professor of Women's Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus. In January 2002, the Network Women’s Program (NWP) provided Brodsky with a grant to conduct research on the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Routledge plans to publish her book on RAWA in early 2003.

Aided by the support of the Open Society Institute's Network Women’s Program, I recently spent seven weeks in Pakistan with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). I stayed with RAWA in refugee communities throughout Pakistan, and spoke with refugees, RAWA members, students, male supporters, family members, and Pakistani and Afghan supporters about RAWA's 25 years of work as an independent, humanitarian, and politically active Afghan women's organization. This experience will serve as the basis for a book I am writing that will explore RAWA as a community model of women’s resilience and resistance.

I’ve worked with RAWA for the past two years as a volunteer U.S. supporter, helping them raise awareness about the lives, concerns, and needs of Afghan women who have been struggling for peace, freedom, and human rights through 24 years of war. A little over a year ago, it occurred to me that as a clinical/community psychologist researching resilient women’s communities, I might be able to help them through my professional work as well. This began an extended conversation about how an academic study of RAWA as a model of women’s resilience might be useful to them and to other women throughout the world who are looking for ways to respond to crises. A two-week visit with RAWA in Pakistan last summer confirmed the final details of this project. At that time, I met a variety of Afghan refugees whose lives had been touched by RAWA. I also spoke with many more RAWA members than the three I had met during earlier RAWA visits to the United States. These conversations helped me develop a deeper understanding of the scope and community core of this unique organization. The portraits of individual RAWA members that most western journalists commonly produce do not begin to capture the rich cultural context of Afghanistan and the communities that sustain RAWA's work.

The terrorist attacks of September 11 occurred shortly after I had returned from my summer visit and had laid the groundwork for this project. The attacks added urgency to this study, as stories on Afghanistan and Afghan women became front-page news. In addition, the unpredictable outcome of the ensuing war in Afghanistan prompted me to return to Pakistan and RAWA while I still could. Because RAWA had been so effective in documenting atrocities committed by the Northern Alliance when it last held power from 1992-1996, some elements of the alliance hate and fear RAWA as much as they do the Taliban. We did not know then, and we still do not know now, what the future will bring to Afghanistan, RAWA and the region.

As a qualitative, feminist researcher, I conducted formal and informal interviews as well as lived, ate, worked, and relaxed with RAWA members. I was in a RAWA community, watching BBC-TV with them when Hamid Karzai was sworn in as head of the interim government; I was teaching an English class for RAWA members at the stroke of midnight as an earth-shattering 2001 turned to what we could only hope would be a more peaceful 2002; I was in a refugee camp with RAWA when a member based in Afghanistan offered us samples from a daily humanitarian ration she had collected during the bombing; I was one of 1700 participants in the ceremony in Peshawar, Pakistan marking the 15th anniversary of the assassination of RAWA's founder, Meena; a week earlier I had watched children from RAWA schools and orphanages rehearse songs and poems they had written for the anniversary.

From each of these experiences I learned something different about RAWA. I saw the incredible tug of both hope and fear among RAWA members as Karzai was sworn in, promising a new day for Afghanistan, yet surrounded by men who represented a very scary period of time for most Afghan women. I heard first hand stories about the bombing in Afghanistan, and also saw RAWA members from different countries and contexts come together to share stories about their communities, their activities, and the refugee crisis. And I saw the behind-the-scenes community efforts as children were readied for a public commemoration that represents the heart of the organization, the tragic and inspiring loss of Meena’s life, an event that brings tears to the eyes of women who have confronted the Taliban head on.

The experiences I had living and working with RAWA and its members during my recent seven week visit have provided me with 400 pages of interview transcripts, participant observation and field notes; 900 memos, and 45 codes. In the following months, my task is to use these tools of qualitative research to accurately portray RAWA and the hundreds of people who shared their lives with me and trusted me with their stories. Giving voice to this community and drawing out the lessons that may inspire and inform resistance and resilience in other women’s communities is a task I look forward to with great excitement as well as a great feeling of responsibility.