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Author: Devyani Rao
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May, 14, 2007
Devyani Rao reports from Kabul on an Afghan woman's struggle against orthodoxy
In a country where women have long been denied their rightful due, Mina Hosseini was among the few who chose to fight for what she believed in, and face the consequences whatever they be. At the age of 13, her mother married her to a man she considered suitable, fearing that if she stayed home longer, she would eventually be married off to someone of her father's choice - like almost 40 per cent of women in Afghanistan. Given her father's violent and unpredictable nature, his choice was likely to be wrong. Little did her mother know that the boy she had chosen had another side to him.
During the Taliban rule, Ms Hosseini and her family moved to Iran. Following the death of her father, she became the caretaker for her mother and two young brothers, as well as her husband and two children. She began working with a film-producing company in Tehran, much to her husband's dissatisfaction. He was not happy with her work, but did not say anything.
When they returned to Kabul a year-and-a-half later, Ms Hosseini started working with the local private television channel, Tolo TV, as one of the few camerawomen in Afghanistan. Her husband was not happy and told her to quit the job and return with him to Iran. She, however, stuck to her guns. One night, after a heated argument over the matter, her husband attacked her while she was asleep. He brutally stabbed her thrice on the face and the head and then fled, taking with him the little gold and money she had. She was taken to the German Hospital of the NATO troops in Kabul. That was three years ago. "I think he may have returned to Iran. I have never heard from him again," she says.
Ms Hosseini recovered and has continued her work as a camerawoman, now with the Afghan private network, Ariana. But the scars of that brutal betrayal, both internal and external, remain. "I was ashamed of the way I looked and I tried to hide my face with chadar (veil)," she says. "But because of the heat, by face started breaking out and I had to abandon it. Now I no longer try to hide it. My job demands that I interact with several people, and I can't do that with my face covered," she says.
Ms Hosseini, her mother and her two young sons survive on the monthly income of $200, half of which is spent on rent. "The situation is better now than during the Taliban time, because now at least I can work. But still things are not easy. I often have to work till late at night and that earns me a bad reputation in this conservative society," she says. Yet, she considers herself fortunate. "I have a relative who had a similar situation with her husband and who was stabbed by him 17 times, until she gave in. I am still lucky to be able to work. Other women who have similar situations and don't have the option of working, end up killing themselves."
According to a recent report by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, as many as 150 cases of self-immolation were identified in the western zone and 34 such cases in the south-eastern zone of that country in 2006. The report also states that 50 per cent of women in Afghanistan face domestic violence, both in rural as well as urban areas, leading to a high rate of suicide, with the Western province of Herat alone registering almost 200 cases last year.
"I often wonder that if something were to happen to me and prevent me from working, what would become of my family? How would they survive," Ms Hosseini says. She has been a camerawoman for five years now, currently employed by Ariana TV. She is a regular figure at press conferences in Kabul, standing her ground firmly. Her dream is to have a house of her own and undergo surgery to remove the scar on her face, so that she can start her life anew and rid all visible signs of the struggle she has valiantly fought and won.
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