KABUL, Dec 6: Afghanistan’s fledgling women’s movement on Thursday began drawing up a list of urgent needs to present to the new interim government, declaring the Bonn accord a “first victory” in a long battle.

Security, education and the right to work were priorities which needed immediate attention, said Soraya Parlika, founder of the newly- formed Union of Women of Afghanistan.

“We want to meet with the new government to outline our concerns. There are many lost years to be made up,” she said.

The power-sharing accord drawn up in nine-days of intensive negotiations in Germany includes two women in the 30-member cabinet, both of them doctors.

Simar Samar, who operates health centres for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, is the women’s affairs minister.

Suhaila Sidiq, a highly respected surgeon at Kabul’s military hospital is the health minister.

“We want a meeting with Sima and Suhaila as soon as possible. Then we want to meet every other minister, especially the minister for education,” said Parlika.

“We would like to coordinate with their work, and definitely with (Mir Wais Sadeq) the labour and social welfare minister.

In the Taliban years, women were reduced to mere chattels, denied education and all work except in the health sector, and only allowed out of their homes when accompanied by a close male relative.

Begging provided the only income for the thousands of women widowed during the war years.

UN special representative for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi has acknowledged the Bonn deal did not give equal rights to women.

“But two women in the government is a first victory,” said Parlika. “In the future we will have more because the future of Afghanistan is in the hands of women.”

Suhaila Sidiq has refused all interviews since her appointment, but Parlika described her as a tireless worker who would stay in the operating theatre around the clock when needed.

It was Suhaila who treated Parlika when she was wounded by shards of glass after someone fired a shot through the window of her car on the violent streets of Kabul before the Taliban imposed their laws.

“We still don’t have security. Few women dare show their face, they are scared. Some women were recently attacked by robbers near Jalalabad and women fear that will soon happen in Kabul.”

Two freedom marches planned by the women’s movement after the Taliban fled Kabul on Nov 13 were both stopped by the Northern Alliance forces citing security concerns.

Parlika, a former communist and secretary-general of the Afghan Red Crescent, said no further marches were planned because “we don’t want to disrupt the new leadership”.

On the streets of Kabul, Shakila Kosi, 25, said two women in the government was not enough.

“I’m glad we have someone after along time with no participation by women, but there should be more women in the next government,” she said.

The freedom Shakila wanted most was the right to drive a car.

In a country where women are desperate to achieve equal rights and media resources are just rebuilding, news is slow to reach outlying areas.

Friba Amid Bilal rushed to Kabul from her village, 30km away, on Thursday as soon as she heard universities were enrolling women. Registration started last Saturday.

“I want my freedom, education and a job. I graduated from high school just before the Taliban arrived and I was not allowed to go to university and have never worked.”—AFP