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Kandahar Dispatches

When women visit the palace

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Wednesday, March 21, 2007 | 11:25 AM ET

By Laura Lynch

Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean's palace adventure in Kabul several days ago created a stunning picture of today's Afghanistan: how far it's come, how far it still has to go.

Jean is Canada's head of state and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, but at the palace, she was the only woman in sight. Inspecting the troops with Hamid Karzai, dressed in a pantsuit, her head uncovered, she was certainly an unusual sight for the presidential guard in a country where women are still largely unseen and unheard.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai shakes hands with Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean at the presidential palace in Kabul.
(Amir Shah/ Associated Press)

I read a report that Karzai has 25 female security guards among the 400 or so who were trained to do the job. They weren't in view the day Jean came to visit, and they're nowhere near as high profile as Muhammar Qadaffi's crack team of female bodyguards, who are frequently photographed at his side.

At the palace gates

It brought to mind my own palace adventure in Kabul. A few weeks ago, I was there covering the visit of the NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General John Craddock. I was with a small group of reporters travelling with the NATO leaders: CBC, Fox TV News and the Quebec City daily Le Soleil were the only media with them every step of the way.

The Fox News reporter was also a woman, experienced at working in war zones in general and in Afghanistan and Pakistan in particular. But in this case, we both encountered something new at Karzai's palace.

We headed there with a cadre of military and media for a news conference with de Hoop Scheffer and Karzai. Even in the relatively calm city of Kabul, our military escorts stayed close at our sides as we entered the grounds. Security inside was even tighter. Our driver was not allowed to take the army vehicle inside the gate, so we got out and walked with all of our equipment.

Outside the palace itself, we were told to put our equipment on the ground while a sniffer dog approached and snuffled his way through the recording equipment, cameras and tripods.

The thorough searches weren't surprising, given what happened to a previous anti-Taliban leader. Two days before Sept. 11, 2001, two Tunisians, armed with fake Belgian passports and a bomb in their video camera, visited Ahmed Shah Massoud for an interview. The explosion during the first question killed Massoud.

The pat-down

After a few minutes in front of the palace, a man motioned me, the Fox reporter and a female British soldier toward a door. We understood immediately we were being sent to a more discreet place for a body search.

We walked inside to find two young Afghan women, both well-dressed in headscarves, tunics and expertly applied makeup. They smiled, walked over and proceeded to give each one of us, including the soldier, the most intimate pat-down we have ever received. We looked at each other in astonishment, wondering where this training came from.

When they were finished and pronounced us safe to proceed, they smiled warmly. One took out her cellphone, opened it up and looked at us with a bit of mischief in her face. They wanted a photo to keep of the Western women in their midst, the two journalists with their jeans and blond hair and the officer, in her desert camouflage and beret. Exotic creatures, we were. We obliged and posed together, smiling.

Then it was back outside after our secret ritual. As we were led past the gates and into the palace, I saw the two young women leave the room and the palace grounds. It seemed their work was finished for the day. We were probably very nearly their only work that day. When we made it into the room for the news conference, I spotted one other Afghan woman in the audience of perhaps two dozen journalists.

Change is coming for women in Afghanistan. Slowly, but it is coming, it seems, at the palace gates.

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Comments (2)

Christy - Thank you Army brats

Brampton

Prime Minister Harper focus on getting girls into school means a better tommorow for the 15 million women in Afganistan. Several women are in government and the culture is changing and more women are working and allowed outside the house. I think this is part of the reason Canada is now veiwed as number one in the world Human rights for a year now has come before business and now that we have a proper balance our image in the world is increasing. We owe an a very big thanks to our men and women in the Army, and the women in the Army is showing women at work with men giving medicine and overseeing reconstruction. I hope we do more for teenagers in the future and they can get jobs besides drug dealing poppies and opium for the taliban.

Posted March 23, 2007 08:19 AM

John Henry

I have travelled in many islamic countries and I am apalled at the way women are treated. Yet it is an unwritten code of politeness to respect other religions, seemingly regardless of the way that religion treats its adherents. When I think of so called honour killings in Pakistan, or the caste system of the hindu religion ,or the "christian right's" attitudes on abortion rights,it just makes my blood boil. Maybe we need a United nations type Charter of Human rights that makes it illegal to spread fear and terror of supernatural deities through religion; to terrify children that they will burn in hell is nothing short of child abuse.
Religion of course comes in so many different levels in an attempt to appeal to all. From the very ignorant and their idols to the philosophers and their "supreme being, it's all crap and needs to be treated as such then we can all treat each other as equals and get on with our short lives,
yours, etc JH

Posted March 21, 2007 04:03 PM

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