All week has been about gender, the socially determined roles for men and women and the obstacles and constraints that these pose for women’s access to resources, decision making and opportunities to better the lives of their children. For me the gender dimensions was pushed to the forefront because of tensions and misunderstandings that come from separate lives and probably much hurt inflicted .
For us westerners, it can be quite difficult to understand, this awkwardness between the sexes, between men and women.
Tomorrow we are meeting with a team from the US that is coming to look at how we have incorporated (or not) gender considerations into our project. Chris and I are the only two foreign women in our project. A quick scan of our documentation revealed that we have, as a project, not much to show. We scrambled all day to try to present something that is not hollow. I don’t think others understood what all the fuss was about – this gender thing is a loaded topic here.
We think this is the wake of Hillary, especially after her presence at the Kabul Conference. We noticed and advertisement for a senior gender advisor at the US embassy in Kabul; that too we think is part of the wake. During the Kabul conference, and in Hillary’s speech, there was much emphasis on midwifery education, women helping women, taking part in public life. That this is a good thing all by itself is not so obvious here. Sometimes the divide seems just too big.
Chris and her Dutch-born husband David came along to the Dutch embassy ‘borrel.’ A changing of the guard: new faces and new enthusiasm. I met a police woman who trains Afghan police, men and women. She sees a part of Afghanistan that few people see – women in uniform; brave girls with enlightened fathers (or may be starving families).
Sylvia's Journal 
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