Villagers rely on coalition, but traditions die hard

Zieraf Village- Up windy roads and farmed terraces, high above Forward Operating Base Kala Gush, I saw a red haired man staring in fascination at the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) loaded with guns, body armor, wearing high tech sun glasses, and traipsing around his village to a inspect coalition-funded road.

I saw him a few hours later down in the base cafeteria mopping the floor, as if he'd teleported from that other world. He might just as well have been looking for faces he recognized. These villagers lead a more complex life caught between U.S. forces and their own traditions, that often run contrary to the coalition's efforts, than at first seems apparent.

In this community of 150 families, the main source of subsistence farming, was poppies, the blooming flower from which heroin is extracted. But the poppies were eradicated in Feb ’08 after the local PRT reported them to the Afghan Army. The villagers then complained to the PRT that they had nothing to live on, so the PRT started to ramp up infrastructure projects in the valley, such as improving reservoirs. It was an opportunity, a representative said.

This year the terraces are mostly green with maize and legumes, a few marijuana plants. Katheryn, a USAID representative who’s spent 26 months in the area working with the PRT, said farming is still at an absolute subsistence level, with a two and a half month growing season.

While goats ran up and down the terraces, and children peaked from stone huts constructed seemingly without mortar, it all appeared to be a land without time, but the villagers knew exactly what portions of the coalition-funded road needed more retaining walls to prevent flooding and exactly what answers to give as to why they needed more money. It's a matter of survival for a population sitting on the fence in a region where tribal law almost always trumps U.S. or Afghan rule of law efforts. Yet most males work on the FOB or on coalition road projects.

“Why have you started to grow poppies again,” Katheryn asked. The malik (village chieftain) denied they were being grown. “When I see the beautiful flower bulbing and you can cut it and a thick liquid comes out, I know that’s poppy,” she countered.





He shook his head. “There’s some men in the other village that maybe still use it to relax."

But there are other problems, endemic to Afghanistan as a whole here. The literacy rate in Nuristan province is reported to be 25% with a female literacy rate as low as 9%.

Katheryn reported one way to confirm the low literacy rate among females is that when she goes to meet with them, they require a village male to interpret because they don’t speak the national languages of Dari or Pashto, but a local dialect of Pashali.

“The women said they like to listen to radio, funded by the coalition and run by local producers, but the programs need to be in Pashali so we can understand," she said. "They don’t need to tell me any more. It’s clear that at worst, the males manipulate the message, and don’t tell the women the whole story...(for example) there are women’s rights programs being broadcast regularly.”

A while ago, the local women complained to Katheryn that they wanted jobs besides collecting fire wood and farming, so she worked to find them a program to get weaving training in Jalabad. At the last minute, a man from the village called to say the woman couldn’t come, that they had to stay at home with the children.

“Twelve women went from Wagala (another village), I want to tell you,” Katheryn reminded the malik today.

There have been some improvements, she said. Zieraf village has a small literacy class for women, which has been allowed because it’s taught by a local daughter in their own homes. It avoids them having to go to another village, which the men say is the primary root of conflicts.

“The disputes in the village are all about women," the malik said. "We want to improve the water pumps so the women don’t have to walk near the other village where the men put bad eyes on our women."

On the subject of the upcoming national elections, Katheryn asked the group of women huddled on carpets in one of the homes if they were going to vote. Some replied that they didn't receive voter registration cards.

“And what do you think about a woman one day becoming president of Afghanistan?”

The younger girls laughed, but the oldest replied, “If God gives me the energy, why not?”