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ZNet | Vision & Strategy
RAWA: a Model for Activism and Social Transformation
by Sonali Kolhatkar
June 01, 2006
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
(RAWA) rose to international prominence after the attacks on
the US on September 11th, 2001. Despite interviews with
Larry King Live, and promotion by Oprah, few mainstream
media outlets examined the radical nature of RAWA's
political vision and strategy, or their organizational
structure. Sadly, many on the left have also overlooked the
lessons we can learn from this extraordinary women's
movement, choosing instead to relegate support of RAWA to
mainstream feminist groups.
Within the context of on-going brutal war, that such a
political organization of women exists and thrives, is
reason enough to study RAWA. Additionally, their political
vision is basic and non-sectarian, espousing universal human
rights, women's rights, economic democracy, and a
progressive education policy. They create and distribute
their own media and have successfully harnessed new
technologies to further their goals. RAWA is an
extraordinarily resilient organization that uses a
horizontal structure with an emphasis on the collective over
the individual, and employs practical and democratic
decision-making and internal conflict-resolution. In fact,
RAWA has been operating in a manner that progressive
political organizations in the West could only dream of.
What can Western social movements learn from RAWA?
To answer this question I draw heavily from my own personal
experience of working in solidarity with RAWA for the past 6
years, supplemented with information from the book, "With
All Our Strength" by Anne Brodsky, (New York: Routledge, 2003).
Historical context
Afghanistan's brutal history of war naturally shapes RAWA
dramatically. The 1970s were a time of intense student
activism and protest. In 1977, a young Kabul University
student named Meena founded RAWA to struggle for women's
rights. RAWA was born into a nation on the brink of imperial
war, occupation, and reactionary forces from which it has
yet to emerge. A year after RAWA's formation, the Soviet
Union invaded Afghanistan and began a ten year long
occupation. RAWA's initial goal of women's emancipation, was
broadened to include national emancipation. They
participated in the nation-wide non-violent resistance, or
jihad, against the occupation. But RAWA was also seen as a
threat by the fundamentalist, misogynist forces which the US
chose to work with. In fact, RAWA's work was increasingly
threatening to both Soviet imperialists and Islamic
fundamentalists. In 1987, Meena was assassinated by a
collaboration of both forces -- KHAD (Afghan secret police,
controlled by the Soviet government), and Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar (the largest recipient of US financial aid).
Rather that destroying the organization, Meena's
assassination drove RAWA underground and actually provoked
them to broaden their goals even more. Since then, they see
imperialism and religious fundamentalism as twin injustices
to be resisted and eradicated. Meena is seen as a martyr by
RAWA members. Her photograph adorns the otherwise bare walls
of RAWA houses, classrooms, orphanages, hospitals, and
clinics. Because RAWA members operate incognito, Meena's
face has essentially become RAWA's face.
Political Vision
RAWA's underlying philosophy sees women's rights as integral
to the struggle for human rights, democracy, and national
sovereignty. Because women are the main victims of war,
religious fundamentalism, and economic globalization,
women's rights are crucial markers of injustice worldwide.
As in the US, leftist Afghan women like Meena realized that
the men in their movements paid lip service to women's
rights but did not see it as important as class, or other
struggles. Women were told that their freedom would
automatically follow from other social changes and that it
was not necessary for women's rights to be central to their
struggles.
RAWA has not adopted any specific economic or social
ideology. They do advocate "economic democracy," and
secularism. While most RAWA members are Muslim, as are the
majority of Afghans, they have seen Islam being used as a
political tool of oppression by fundamentalist warlords in
government positions.
Excerpts from RAWA's Charter (twice revised since its
inception, to address socio-political changes), define their
main aims[1] as:
(1) women's emancipation, "which cannot be abstracted from
the freedom and emancipation of the people as a whole,"
(2) separation of religion and politics, "so that no entity
can misuse religion as a means for furthering their
political objectives,"
(3) equal rights of all Afghan ethnic groups,
(4) "economic democracy and the disappearance of exploitation,"
(5) commitment to "struggle against illiteracy, ignorance,
reactionary, and misogynistic culture,"
(6) "to draw women out of the incarceration of their homes
into social and political activity, so that they can
liberate themselves economically, politically, legally, and
socially,"
(7) to serve and assist "affected and deserved women and
children, in the fields of education, healthcare, and economy,"
(8) establish and strengthen relations with other
pro-democracy and pro-women's rights groups nationally and
internationally, with such relations "based on the principle
of equality and non-interference in each others affairs,"
(9) "support for other freedom and women's movements worldwide."
RAWA bases their struggle on universal principles of human
rights and democracy, consistent with the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. They are not bound by the
inevitable dogma that results from sectarianism and "the
party line."
Additionally, RAWA realizes the importance of connecting
their struggle with those of other groups worldwide. They
regularly express international solidarity in their
statements, such as this one:
We declare our unequivocal and unreserved support and
solidarity with the struggles of the people and the
pro-democracy and progressive forces of Iran, Palestine,
Kashmir, Kurdistan, Sudan and other fettered peoples of
Asia, Africa and Latin America fighting for their rights
against reactionary and anti-liberty states and powers.[2]
Strategy
For the formation of a free, independent and democratic
Afghanistan the joint striving and struggle of pro-liberty
and democratic forces is indispensable. This objective can
only be achieved through relentless struggle, not through
compromise and capitulation.
-- RAWA statement on 50th anniversary of Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, December 1998.
RAWA's strategies, like their political aims, are broad.
They are a balance of long-term and short-term strategies of
political agitation and humanitarian aid.
Education
Education is seen as part of RAWA's long-term struggle and
is considered their most important strategy. Education of
women in particular, is based on the understanding that when
women are empowered through literacy and skills, they are
more inclined and better equipped to fight for their rights.
However, RAWA also educates boys, providing a practical
alternative to the brain-washing of religious madrassas.
They believe that male domination is a social phenomenon
that can be eradicated through education for both boys and
girls.
RAWA's educational projects range from full-fledged schools
for girls and boys, all the way down to home-based literacy
courses and skills training for adult women. Many women and
girls who discover RAWA through these institutions choose to
become members. Education also includes skills training for
adult women who are struggling to raise families. RAWA
teaches women embroidery, sewing, handicrafts, etc. They
also teach women farming skills like raising hens for eggs,
fish farming, and goat farming. Such courses are labeled
"income-generating projects." The goal is to enable women to
become financially self-sufficient.
RAWA's educational policy (see Appendix A) evolved over the
years through trial and error. It is based on principles of
freedom, peace, non-violence, respect for the environment,
as well as gender, ethnic, and religious tolerance. Anne
Brodsky observes that "Paolo Freire's groundbreaking work on
emancipatory education . . . speaks to some of the very same
approaches that RAWA espouses." RAWA members are not
familiar with the highly influential Pedagogy of the
Oppressed by Freire and have developed their own methods
based on an intimate understanding of their communities.
Health Care and Humanitarian Aid
Despite much-touted progress, Afghanistan still suffers from
shockingly high rates of infant mortality and maternal
mortality. In 2005, Afghanistan ranked 173 out of 178 in the
UN's Human Development Index. With so much suffering around
them, it is impossible for RAWA to speak of human rights and
women's political rights, without also addressing the lack
of access to food and health care, which are prerequisites
to other rights.
RAWA runs clinics and mobile health teams both inside
Afghanistan and in Pakistan's refugee camps. In many cases,
the people they serve have no other access to health care.
When the need arises, RAWA conducts emergency relief
operations alongside their political and educational work.
They often assist refugees during harsh winter months with
blankets, food, and medical aid.
Because of the large numbers of orphans in Afghanistan, RAWA
runs several orphanages for boys and girls in Pakistan and
Afghanistan. (They do not, however, offer Afghan children up
for adoption in Western countries and urge instead urge
Western supporters to sponsor orphans so that the children
can remain in their own country while having access to
education, shelter, etc.)
Media, Documentation, and Technology
From their inception RAWA realized that they needed a means
of spreading news from independent sources throughout the
country, as well as a way to convey news of their activities
and achievements.
Payam-e-Zan (translated as "Woman's Voice) is RAWA's main
publication -- a magazine that first published in 1981, only
four years after they were founded. Payam-e-Zan started out
being produced by hand, with several hundred mimeographed
copies stealthily passed across the country. Some issues,
produced during the most dangerous years, were published in
miniature, to make them easier to hide. According to
Brodsky, Payam-e-Zan "operates as an educational vehicle
through which literacy skills as well as political
consciousness are cultivated. The magazine is also a highly
effective recruitment tool" for RAWA, "serv[ing] as a place
to document RAWA's concerns and standpoints, and as a
vehicle to present these ideas to a wide audience."
As the casualties of US-backed fundamentalists mounted in
the early 1990s, RAWA, realizing that the world had moved on
from Afghanistan, decided to document the rampant human
rights abuses through still photography and video.
Photographs documenting the victims of the fundamentalists,
or in some cases, violence in action, are published on their
website and magazine, along side reports by the RAWA members
with details such as the date, time, names of victims, and
perpetrators, etc. Digital cameras have made RAWA's
documentation much easier and also enabled RAWA to share the
images of human rights violations more easily with an
international audience via their website.
Videos of human rights abuses are circulated to news media
and documentary film makers, and added to RAWA's own
archive. The most famous example of RAWA's video
documentation was the 1999 public execution of a woman named
Zarmeena, by the Taliban in Kabul stadium. After 9/11, this
video was viewed all over the world, despite the fact that
it was more than 2 years old. When initially offered to news
media in 1999, no one would touch the gruesome footage until
it was politically convenient. The footage was also used in
Saira Shah's widely acclaimed documentary, Behind the Veil,
which was re-aired repeatedly on CNN after 9/11.
he advent of the internet catapulted RAWA into the
international like no other new technology. Wisely seeing
the potential for international solidarity, and drawing
world attention to a forgotten crisis, RAWA launched
http://www.rawa.org in late 1996. One member explained:
We never imagined the internet would bring such a positive
result for us. It is very important and something that now
we can't imagine we could work without . . . At the time I
remember it was kind of amazing. The first email from the US
that we got, we all called each other to come see this and
our eyes were so big . . . [3]
Most of the relations between RAWA and their international
supporters have developed through their website and e-mail.
I too first discovered RAWA through their website and wrote
to them expressing my solidarity.
RAWA's website is the perfect portal for them to express
their political views and publish their documents while
preserving the anonymity of their members. Additionally,
large amounts of material can be published and archived with
little additional cost.
While Payam-e-Zan is still RAWA's primary outlet to reach
the majority of Afghans -- who live in a poor country with
little internet access, RAWA's website is the main method of
communicating with the outside world.
Political Demonstrations
RAWA organizes public protests up to several times a year to
mark various dates: March 8th, International Women's Day;
April 28th, the "black day" when the fundamentalists entered
Kabul in 1992; and December 10th, International Human Rights
Day. According to Brodsky, "demonstrations are one of the
large-scale non-traditional ways that RAWA educates and
enlightens people."[4] They are usually held in Pakistan, as
Afghanistan is still too dangerous. Thousands of women are
bussed in from across the border to march with signs and
banners. Sometimes the women carry sticks for self-defense,
or are accompanied by male supporters who walk beside the
march. The demonstrations often culminate in a rally in
front of the United Nations Office in Islamabad and elsewhere.
One member of RAWA explains the importance of demonstrations:
When a demonstration happens, some in backward places can't
even think a woman can stage such a thing. Our mission is to
change that mentality and let women know they are human
beings and equal to men.[5]
RAWA's demonstrations also highlight events in Afghan
history that either are forgotten or have been re-written.
For example, the bloody events of fundamentalist infighting
and civil war that followed April 28th 1992 are resurrected
each year on RAWA's signs and placards.
The women in RAWA's demonstrations march militantly with
faces uncovered and fists in the air. Their signs are
explicitly pro-democracy and anti-fundamentalist. As such,
the public demonstrations also challenge pervading
assumptions among Westerners who were obsessed by images of
mute, burqa-clad, helpless looking Afghan women, after 9/11.
Organizational Structure and Decision making
While RAWA had adopted a committee structure from the
beginning, their founder Meena operated as a de-facto
President. Her tragic assassination in 1987 highlighted the
organization's vulnerability with having a high-profile
"leader" who could be easily targeted. After Meena's death,
RAWA changed its structure so that no single member could
assume a leadership role. Their goal was to "create a
leadership structure that was democratic, collective, and as
non-hierarchical as possible, thus promoting the equality
and democracy that RAWA seeks for Afghanistan at large."
[6]This manifested itself in the form of a "leadership
council" of 11 members. These members are elected every two
years by the entire membership.
The election of the Leadership Council is to my knowledge,
unique among "subversive movements." Because of RAWA's
underground nature, its members are geographically dispersed
and cannot communicate with one another frequently.
Consequently there are no nominations or election campaigns.
Members simply submit in writing 11 names of members that
they think ought to comprise the Council. The top 11
vote-getters are then elected.
Leadership Council members simply continue in their daily
functions as RAWA members, while taking on the
responsibilities of that particular committee. They meet
several times a year to oversee RAWA's operations and author
RAWA's standpoints and statements in a way that reflects the
membership's sentiments by conferring with the spokespeople
from all the underlying committees. Their names are never
revealed outside the membership for security reasons. RAWA's
structure is consistent with their philosophy of the
collective being more important than the individual.
The remaining RAWA members join any one of the following
seven standing committees (see Appendix B). These are:
1. Education
2. Social (humanitarian)
3. Finance
4. Reports
5. Publications
6. Foreign Affairs
7. Cultural[7]
Each committee has a number of sub-committees focused on its
various responsibilities. All committees, including the
Leadership Council, are composed of an odd number of members
to avoid deadlock in decision making.
Each committee has a "mas'ul" which is Persian for
"responsible person." The mas'ul functions like a
spokesperson for the committee, to whom members can turn for
mediation, or to make complaints. They are also responsible
for communication between various committees. Brodsky
elaborates: "Overall, RAWA's committee structure can be
thought of as having branches in which each mas'ul is the
sole connection between the committees and members she is
responsible for and the next level up in the committee
structure." This fosters the "relatively independent
operation of each committee," and ensures projects that are
"locally responsive."[8]
As any serious activist knows, committees cannot function
without regular meetings, and RAWA members have their fair
share of frequent meetings. One of RAWA's most interesting
type of meeting is a mechanism that enables them to deal
with internal conflict: the "jelse entaqady" or "mistake
meeting." This is an "evaluation and correction mechanism
that operates at all levels of the organization in order to
facilitate RAWA's distributed decision making style, and
address mistakes, problems, and differences of opinion."[9]
Differences of opinion or disagreements are directly
addressed with the people involved. The committee mas'ul is
often a mediator in such meetings, and an odd number of
attendees ensure that there can be no deadlock.
Secrecy is a huge factor in RAWA's operations because of the
dangerous nature of their work. As a result most members
often know only a small number of other members personally
at any given time. RAWA's dispersed committee structure, and
its members' belief in the collective having more importance
than the individual, ensures the organization's continued
functioning.
Only Afghan women based in Afghanistan or the refugee camps
of Pakistan and Iran can be RAWA members. Men are not
allowed to be members. However, many male relatives of RAWA
members are dedicated to supporting the organization in any
manner available to them. Male supporters often help with
security at public events, escorting foreign supporters,
passing out RAWA literature, etc.
What we can learn from RAWA
RAWA's approach to activism is very practical and tailored
to suit the needs of their situation. Their political vision
is simple, yet adheres to some basic fundamental truths such
as the universality of human rights and democracy. While
this may make some Western leftist ideologues scoff, it is
an approach that, at the very least, works in a country like
Afghanistan which has lost so much and is struggling to
preserve the most basic of rights.
However, RAWA's simple political vision enables it to be
flexible to situations as they arise. For example, RAWA does
not denounce capitalism. Rather they call for "economic
democracy." This enables them to train women in marketable
skills through their "income-generating projects." The
practical short-term goal of enabling economic independence
for a poor struggling, often illiterate woman, is achieved
in this manner. RAWA does not engage in micro-lending
however, preferring to grant women the basic foundation they
may need to start up an operation, free of charge.
RAWA's organizational structure is also quite practical,
having preserved the organization for nearly two decades
after Meena's death. Rather than strain to achieve some
idealistic but impractical notion of absolute participatory
democracy, they have instead conceived a structure that has
limited hierarchy (the Leadership Council), which is
outweighed by ample democracy through simple and functional
elections and committee membership.
RAWA's emphasis on the collective over the individual is
also a philosophy worth aspiring to. Among Western activists
we have seen an increasing tendency to valorize individual
figures, at the expense of collective action.
Appendix A
RAWA's Educational Policy, from
http://www.rawa.orgWe teach our students:
Recognition of these basic principles and values:
· Everyone must respect all human beings regardless of
language, religion, race, color, etc.
· There is no difference between people; no human being is
superior to any other because of class, color, language,
race, or religion.
· All human beings do not have to think alike or live the
same way.
· It's to the benefit of society that all human beings live
in peace, understanding, and harmony.
Religious Tolerance:
· Respect all religions and their followers.
· Understand that followers of all religions can live in
harmony and peace.
· Do not discriminate against the followers of religious
sects different from your own.
· Understand that religion is a private matter that cannot
be forced on anyone else and nobody should be allowed to
misuse it for any end, it must be kept separated from politics.
· Do not allow criminals in the future to dare to commit
crimes in the name of religion, as did the Jahadis and Taliban.
Ethnic Tolerance:
· Respect all ethnic groups in Afghanistan.
· No ethnic group is superior to any other and no one
should be allowed to look down on others.
· All members of all ethnic groups have the right to speak
their own languages.
· Respect for each language means respect for the culture
of those people who live in different regions and cities.
· Prevent ethnic divisions and the kind of conflicts that,
unfortunately, today have reached their peak because it is
practiced by the criminal fundamentalists.
· To know the history of their own and other countries and
about those who sacrificed their lives for freedom; set them
as an example for themselves.
Gender Tolerance:
· No human being is better than any other because of
gender; contrary to the belief of the fundamentalists who
treat our women as cattle and represent them as mentally
deficient.
· Avoid any kind of behavior that promotes gender apartheid.
· Invalidate antiquated myths stories or poetry wrapped
with religious, traditional or cultural reasons that portray
women as powerless and less equal than men.
Handicapped:
· Respect all people who have infirmity, whether physical,
mental, or emotional.
· Promote a good relationship with the handicapped, and
promote their involvement in society.
· Respect and promote the right of all children to live in
harmony.
Environmental Sensitivity:
· Save mother earth with all its richness.
· Avoid using items that pollute the environment.
· Teach that animals have a right to live and avoid wanton
killing; don't kill them except for food purposes.
· Do not injure animals.
· Preserve animals that are endangered or threatened species.
· Preserve trees and jungles and don't pollute the air and
water.
· A culture of peace is not possible if it does not promote
conservation of the environment.
Violence:
· Avoid harsh treatment of human beings and animals.
· Recognize the causes of anger and actively try to help
diminish the causes.
· Never hurt any human being who is not going to hurt you.
· Recognize the execution and killing of human beings as
unacceptable and cruel.
· Avoid words, programs, toys, entertainment, and movies
that promote and glorify violence and anger.
· Promote an understanding that anger and the exercise of
violence is not the first and only way of solving problems.
Core Values of Life:
· Encourage a respect for the value of life and implement
them in their lives.
· Honesty, decency, simplicity, unity, love, patience,
responsibility, happiness, respect, and help for others are
the values of life that should be inculcated and practiced
routinely by everyone.
· Encourage eagerness in understanding the ideas of others.
Family Values:
· Encourage respect for one's own family and those of others.
· Promote the understanding that everyone, regardless of
where they live (suburb, city, or our country), is part of
the bigger family that we all belong to.
· Respect the wisdom and dignity of the elders in every family.
Partnership Values:
· Encourage listening to the ideas of others.
· Respect teamwork and focus on the success of common goals.
· Engage in the activities of others and involve others in
one's own activities.
· Avoid unilateral decision-making and imposing one's will
on the majority.
· Should not allow themselves to make decisions
individually and impose them on others.
Freedom Values:
· Promote respect for the difference between human beings
and an understanding that all human beings don't have to
think alike.
· Avoid pre judgment.
· Avoid anything that damages and debases the values of
human beings.
· Respect freedom of thought and avoid imposing one's ideas
on others arbitrarily.
· Respect the freedom of all human beings.
· That freedom has real meaning only with justice and
democracy.
· Teach the idea that freedom doesn't exist without justice.
Individual rights:
· Encourage an understanding of one's own rights.
· Understand human rights and respect them.
Peace Values:
· Encourage work for world peace and make peace a priority
over conflict.
· Exercise love for human beings.
· Promote peace by learning other countries' cultures, and
learn that living in peace and harmony is the only right way
for human beings.
· Understand that peace will come to our country only when
there is no sign of Jahadi/Talibi fundamentalists as
military, terrorist and troublemaker force.
· To never let Afghanistan, which today has become a field
for dogfighting and bloodbaths, be a place for the monster
like fundamentalists, Parchami and Khalqi traitors.
Appendix B
From Anne Brodsky's "With All Our Strength" (p. 159)
[1] Anne Brodsky, With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary
Association of the Women of Afghanistan, (New York:
Routledge, 2003), p169.
[2] RAWA statement, Overthrow of Jihadi and Taliban
Criminals is the Only Guarantee of Human Rights in
Afghanistan, December 10, 1998,
http://www.rawa.org/dec10-98.htm.
[3] Brodsky, p160.
[4] Brodsky, p110.
[5] Brodsky, p110.
[6] Brodsky, p153.
[7] Brodsky, p156.
[8] Brodsky, p157.
[9] Brodsky, p170.
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