'Living Female In Afghanistan', D3 Systems, 14 July 2008
EXCERPT: "Survey research has a role to play in providing Muslim women with a public voice where custom and culture do not permit them their own. It can be used to inform and shape empowerment policies from the perspective of each population. The Women In Muslim Countries (WIMC) study is designed to measure women’s empowerment in actual daily practice, providing a deep look into the oft-perceived gap between current public policy and empowerment initiatives and actual practice on the personal and local level. The answers are intended to yield a metric for promoting excellence in public policy by informing policymakers on women’s attitudes about the affects of policy initiatives, as well as a measure of the degree of effectiveness of those policies. Afghanistan is perhaps one of the most extreme cases of a country where custom and culture do not permit women a public voice, beginning with interviewing for the survey itself. Interviewing women in Afghanistan is limited to other women accompanied by a male escort. In some places it is restricted to daylight hours in proper attire. Though burdensome, the advantage to this approach is that it eliminates hesitation on the part of the interviewee to share her thoughts."
To continue reading the survey, click here.
