Wanted - more Afghan policewomen. It's a tough job in a country where some 80 percent of the women are abused in some way or other, including women police officers
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Afghanistan’s police force must recruit more women and tackle the stigma linked to female policing in order to improve access to justice for victims of sexual and domestic abuse, aid group Oxfam said on Thursday.
Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous countries to be a woman or girl in, but the absence of female police officers means women rarely report abuse, said Shaheen Chughtai, Oxfam’s deputy head of policy and campaigns.
Despite recruitment drives, women make up just 1 percent of Afghanistan’s 160,000 strong police force. Those who have joined are often demeaned, discriminated against and even sexually abused by male colleagues, Chughtai said.
“Very few people in Afghanistan have ever seen, let alone met, a policewoman,” he told a session at a global summit in London on tackling sexual violence in conflict.
“This lack of policewomen, and effective policewomen, is one of the main reasons why violence and threats against women and girls in Afghanistan are under-reported. It’s why prosecutions are so rare and it’s why the culture of impunity continues.”
Research indicates that more than eight in 10 women in Afghanistan have been sexually, physically or psychologically abused, but only a few thousand cases are reported each year.
Chughtai said that for cultural and social reasons it is very difficult for an Afghan woman to approach a male officer, and when they do their complaints are rarely handled properly. In some cases the police assault or even rape women who come for help.
Sue Frank, a British police officer who spent a year helping train police in Afghanistan, said one policewoman in a major city had told her that if a woman came into the police station she would be asked for sexual favours.
“The policewomen themselves were (also) asked to provide sexual favours to the police staff … These are senior officers in various police stations who are committing serious sexual offences against members of the public and also the female police officers,” she said.
STIGMA BUT SOME PROGRESS
Creating a female police force was considered an important victory for Western efforts to promote equality after a U.S.-led military coalition toppled the Taliban in 2001.
Chughtai said there had been progress, such as the appointment of a female police chief in a Kabul district this year. But he said there was a major problem in recruiting women because families do not want their daughters to work with unrelated men. Being a policewoman is not considered a suitable job for a woman.
He said policewomen he had spoken to complained they were not given training or basic equipment like handcuffs and were ordered to do menial tasks like making cups of tea. The lack of separate changing facilities, toilets and locks on bathrooms also made them vulnerable.
But Chughtai said hiring policewomen was not only crucial for protecting Afghan women, but good for the whole country.
Some studies in Afghanistan show that policewomen are trusted more than their male colleagues because they are seen as less intimidating and less corrupt.
“By having more female police you can actually strengthen the respect (a) community could have for the institution of the police, so there is a strategic benefit for the institution of the police and indeed for the Afghan state,” he said.
Frank also highlighted the difficulties in tackling domestic violence in Afghanistan, citing the case of one police officer she had trained who had asked why a man could not hit his wife if his dinner was late.
She said there was still stigma around the provision of support and safehouses for abused women.
“During the time I was there I heard refuges and safehouses being referred to as whorehouses and brothels,” she added.
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