Working for women in Afghanistan.(working for women's rights)

IT'S DAY SIX OF A SIX-DAY LOCK DOWN, with all U. N. staff restricted to essential movement, and then only in scarce armored cars. If you follow the security advisories on a map of Afghanistan, you quickly discover the insurgency is not only closer, but has virtually surrounded the capital. Barely a week after the assassinations of four international aid workers with the International Red Cross, "specific and credible" intelligence has been intercepted that the U. N. may well be the next target.

Here at the guest house where I am staying (living with four other women and two men, all U.N. workers from various agencies) we debate whether the Taliban is stronger or more aggressive. Of course, it could be both. It's hard to know within the confines of this house, even if we are situated in the heart of Kabul.

English-language newscasts with local reporting don't exist, and neither does daily newspaper delivery. All we have to work with are cryptic text messages from our respective directors forwarded from U. N. security. Reconnaissance helicopters fly overhead every few hours--we all look up, and some of us wave--but otherwise, it's another painfully quiet summer day in our overgrown backyard, morning glories climbing up the mud wall, around the U. N. -mandated, double row of barbed wire.

The seven of us are here to do development work, and that means we are considered "non-essential staff." If an evacuation is called, we're among the first on the plane. For some of us, that's a relief. For others, like me, who work on advancing women's human rights within the framework of U. N. SCR 1325, it's a nightmare.

A month ago, my director asked that I design a new unit around women's participation in governance, peace, and security. I've completed the work plan, neatly compartmentalized and diagramed around the "3 Ps"--Prevention, Protection, Participation--and organized through capacity building and technical support. My outputs, targets, and outcomes are impeccably aligned in three distinct columns. The concept note outlines the EVAW law the women Ministers of Parliament will pass, the CEDAW report the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will submit, and the election campaigns grassroots women will organize. I imagine how crisp, sensible, logical, and inevitable this proposal will appear when printed on clean white pages.

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