January 18, 2002	Friday	Ziqa'ad 3, 1422

KABUL: Simi Samara is fed up. The minister of women’s affairs has no office, budget or staff. She cannot afford her telephone bill and she is growing weary of western protestations of support for the oppressed women of Afghanistan.

She is angry: at cabinet colleagues who are suspicious of her mission, at the delays in getting her ministry off the ground, and at the international community for making a cause celebre of Afghan women and then failing to stump up the cash as quickly as she would like.

Samar’s task is daunting. It will be hard to coax women back out, Samar says, while there is no real security on the streets here and roads of Afghanistan. As Afghanistan’s first women’s affairs minister, she inherited no building or staff.

Although persistent lobbying won her space in the social welfare ministry last week, the bureaucrats have refused to vacate, so Samar is operating from the living room of a rented home. She says she can barely afford the rent of $800 a month.

Despite her frustrations, Samar says she has mapped out a clear plan of action for the next five months of the interim administration. She wants to use her new powers to lobby for legislation - including a new constitution - that will enshrine equality for women. She envisages a legal aid system for women undergoing divorce or property battlesand wants to create a network of protection centres. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.