The image of Afghan women wearing police and army
uniforms is meant to inspire pride and hope for a future where the
rights of women will be protected in Afghanistan.
So why would female police officers in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif be ashamed to admit they wear the badge?
"Except
my very close family members, no one really knows that I am a police
officer," said one woman at a NATO training session.
The
woman, who asked not to give her name, says she tells most of her
family that she works with a foreign aid organization. That's because
the rumors about sexual abuse in Mazar-e-Sharif's police force are so
widespread that many of these women are ashamed to say they're cops.
Protection
of women's rights in Afghanistan remains a focal point for the West —
and American officials regularly tout the fact that the Afghan security
forces now include hundreds of women. In northern Afghanistan alone,
about 300 women are serving in the police force.
But
in a culture that is not fully comfortable with women working outside
the home, these women face significant risks. An NPR investigation in
the city discovered disturbing allegations of systematic sexual coercion
and even rape of female police officers by their male colleagues.
The
women at the recent training session at a huge base outside
Mazar-e-Sharif hardly looked like victims as they assembled and loaded
assault rifles. But none dared to give their names as they alluded to
what is an open secret in the city.
"Some women are being promoted only if they agree to give sexual favors," said one female officer.
Most
of the female police have many children, and most are poor. Though they
say they'd like to serve their country, just as many say they joined
the police because the pay — about $300 a month — is better than working
as a maid or a teacher. The threat of job loss is a powerful one.
None
of the policewomen on the training course — which consisted of a mix of
men and women — would admit to being victims of sexual coercion.
But privately, several told of terrifying experiences.
The women agreed to speak on the condition that their names be withheld,
and the only place they felt safe enough to talk with a reporter was in
a car moving around the city.
"It's a fact. Women in
the police are being used for sex and as prostitutes," said Ann — not
her real name — who is in her mid-30s.
"It's happened
to me. Male cops ask for sex openly because they think women join the
police just to work as prostitutes," she said.
In
Afghanistan, even in modern cities like Mazar-e-Sharif or Kabul, the
capital, a wide array of supposedly "immoral" conduct can get a woman
called a prostitute. Anything from wearing the wrong clothes to sitting
in the front seat of a car, or simply working outside the home can cause
dangerous rumors.
The law reflects that. With sexual
assault, the woman is as often sent to jail as the man, the assumption
being that any woman who puts herself in a situation to be vulnerable to
rape must be immoral.
That seems to apply even to
police officers: Women interviewed for this story said that if cases of
rape are exposed, the woman always gets the blame.
Ann says that's why she never reported the worst attack.
She
says on one occasion her house was invaded by a group of men who stayed
all night, raping her in front of her small children. Ann, who is
married, recognized some of them as police. She didn't report the
incident for fear of public disgrace, and because she believes the
police chief already knew.
A second woman in her
mid-30s, Jane — also not her real name — says she was also raped by her
superiors on the force after the threat of losing her job — the only
income supporting her several children.
"Put it this way: If there is a young woman, and she wants to remain in her post, she accepts being used this way," said Jane.
A Type Of Sexual 'Trafficking'
The
women say abuse is widespread across Mazar-e-Sharif's police force and
that female officers are practically "trafficked" when they are
transferred from one district to another. Pay and promotion depend on
sexual favors. Ann says she would never encourage a woman to join the
police.
"I have daughters of my own, and I would never ever want them to join the police force," she said.
Another
woman, in her late-30s, arrived for an interview hiding her police
uniform under her burqa. She says that after almost 10 years on the
force, police officers stopped demanding sex from her but forced her to
procure prostitutes.
"Anywhere you ask for a job in
the police force, they either ask you to give yourself or bring them
girls," she said. She named several policewomen who act as madams for
cops in the city.
Official Denial
Afghan officials in Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul denied all the charges made in this story.
"The
women police are working closely alongside their Afghan brothers. I
totally reject any report that they are being abused by their male
counterparts," said Sadiq Sadiqi, the spokesman for the Afghan Interior
Ministry.
But advocates in Kabul say the problem is not limited to Mazar-e-Sharif.
"We've
received many reports of abuse of Afghan women police in many parts of
the country," said Georgette Gagnon, director of human rights for the
U.N. mission in Afghanistan. "We are very concerned."
Gagnon
says the U.N. is currently trying to gauge how widespread the problem
is — especially as the international community draws down and starts
handing over control to Afghan forces.
"Violence
against women in Afghanistan is at very high levels. One of the
solutions put forward is for more females to join the police force to
address this issue," she said. "It will be very difficult to take this
seriously when females join and are themselves abused by other officers
within the force."
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