美国国家公共电台 NPR--In Afghanistan, why are some women permitted to work while others are not?

In Afghanistan, why are some women permitted to work while others are not?

Transcript¹

When the Taliban took power nearly a year ago, many Afghan women found their rights had changed — as well as their status among male co-workers. How work has changed for women in Afghanistan.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We've been asking who's included in the Taliban's Afghanistan. Yesterday on All Things Considered, we heard how the media fit in. It's a democratic institution trying to stay in business under an undemocratic regime. One reporter we met was Toba Walizada, who's 23.

Why did you stay in journalism²?

TOBA WALIZADA: (Through interpreter) Because I would like to continue my struggle here. It's very hard for me to leave behind everything and go. I mean, if I leave, who will be the voice of Afghanistan?

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

INSKEEP: This morning we look at Walizada from a different angle. We heard how she is included as a journalist, but how is she included as a woman?

WALIZADA: (Through interpreter) As you know, humans cannot struggle alone, and us women - we are especially alone for the struggle.

INSKEEP: When the Taliban took power one year ago this month, they sent home many women from government jobs. They weren't allowed to share offices with men. Yet here's Toba in a private workplace. Just as with Afghan girls - some in school, others not - women's careers vary from office to office.

Since the Taliban took over, has anyone told you that you should not be working because you are a woman?

WALIZADA: (Through interpreter) Yes, many times. In the early days when I joined this station, there were lots of protests of women, and I was there to cover them. A large number of Taliban foot soldiers were asking me, why are you here? And they detained me in police headquarters.

INSKEEP: She said the soldiers asked why a daughter, a girl, would be a reporter, but they let her go, and she returned to work.

Do you have any conservative members of your own family who have said you should not be doing this work?

WALIZADA: (Through interpreter) Not my immediate³ family, but some in my larger family don't approve. My aunt and uncle are not aware that I am doing this work.

INSKEEP: She says those relatives sympathize with the Taliban. She thinks they'd be ashamed if they turned on the TV at the wrong time. Her voice goes out in her reports, but she rarely does a stand-up that would show her face.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WALIZADA: (Non-English language spoken).

INSKEEP: The provisional government seems not to have settled on many firm rules for women working or not working. That leaves space for Toba Walizada, but it's had a different effect on Muzda Noor. She's from a family where the women have worked for generations.

MUZDA NOOR: My mother was a teacher. Also, my brothers and sisters - all of them were educated and went to university.

INSKEEP: Muzda Noor attended college and eventually came to teach in one, and we spoke⁴ with her while driving in a car across Kabul. She told her story of living in a rural mountain province far to the east of the capital. Where did you grow up?

NOOR: Badakhshan.

INSKEEP: In Badakhshan?

NOOR: Yes.

INSKEEP: How long have you been a university professor?

NOOR: Almost 11 years.

INSKEEP: Those 11 years mostly coincided with the old republic, which promised rights for women. The country was divided, and the Taliban attacked, so she loved teaching about the American Civil War and how the United States unified⁵ afterward⁶. Eventually, she became the dean of social sciences at Badakhshan University. She was overseeing 19 male professors.

How did the men feel about having a woman as their boss?

NOOR: At first they could not - as you know, Badakhshan is a rural province and also most of them are very religious men. And at first they didn't accept me.

INSKEEP: But she showed them a letter from the Ministry⁷ of Higher Education confirming her authority. She says she paired that letter with a friendly, reassuring⁸ attitude, although she dressed as she wanted.

NOOR: I could lead them and manage their fears about three years.

INSKEEP: For three years?

NOOR: For three years, yes.

INSKEEP: But then one year ago the government changed, and so did her male colleagues. A new chancellor⁹ took charge, a professor she'd known in past years from the religious law faculty¹⁰.

NOOR: And he said to me, you are my former colleague, and also we should have friendly relations, but I should say to you that now it's your job that press students to cover, black hijabs.

INSKEEP: She was supposed to make sure that female students covered themselves and also make them come to campus only in the morning. Muzda herself, as a woman, should abstain¹¹ from faculty meetings, even though she was a dean.

NOOR: You can send your deputy dean like this.

INSKEEP: You could not attend meetings that were all-male.

NOOR: Yes. And they were very serious, very serious. I thought that my chancellor - his personality was completely changed before the Taliban, after the Taliban.

INSKEEP: Really - the same person?

NOOR: Yes, and his behavior with me. Before that, he was friendly with me, and sometimes we talked with each other. But after that, no, he was a very dictatorial¹² person.

INSKEEP: Dictatorial?

NOOR: Yes. Yes.

INSKEEP: We get out here?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes.

INSKEEP: OK.

At the end of the car ride, we sat outside to talk a little more about what changed one year ago this August. Her colleagues at the university were all the same people. She'd known them for years. The rules under which they operated have not entirely¹³ changed. But she says their attitudes have.

NOOR: Most of my colleagues - they completely changed now. They think they are very powerful, and this government is their government, and also they have the right to push down others, to govern others and manage others. They think like this. And in the past they were a little good, like my chancellor - that he had a good behavior and also treated as a friend with me. But after the Taliban, they didn't like this.

INSKEEP: After a few months, she felt unsafe in Badakhshan and says she tried to get a transfer to Kabul. She took leave, but the university dismissed her for missing work. She cannot say she was officially fired for being a woman, only that she's been fired. Now, the onetime dean of social sciences is looking for another job. And like other women we met, she is applying to foreign NGOs. She feels her chance of being hired by Afghan men is less than it was one year ago.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Our colleague Steve Inskeep, who visited Afghanistan nearly one year after the U.S. troop withdrawal¹⁴ and the Taliban takeover.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

3 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

6 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

7 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

8 reassuring   

a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的

参考例句：

• He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
• With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。

9 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

10 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

11 abstain   

v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免

参考例句：

• His doctor ordered him to abstain from beer and wine.他的医生嘱咐他戒酒。
• Three Conservative MPs abstained in the vote.三位保守党下院议员投了弃权票。

12 dictatorial   

adj. 独裁的，专断的

参考例句：

• Her father is very dictatorial.她父亲很专横。
• For years the nation had been under the heel of a dictatorial regime.多年来这个国家一直在独裁政权的铁蹄下。

13 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

14 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。