An interview with Seema Ghani, President of the Afghan Family Guidance Association (AFGA)
We spoke to Seema Ghani during her visit to the IPPF London office on 21 February. A volunteer and at times board member of AFGA since 2002, Seema was elected President in December 2022. We asked her about her history with the organization, her background in business and women’s economic empowerment, as well as the future she sees for AFGA and the hope she maintains her country and its people.
- Why did you apply for the role of President of AFGA?
I first started volunteering on the board with AFGA in 2002, with the change of the government in Afghanistan. I was in the media quite a lot and IPPF in London found me and asked if I could
check on my next visit to Afghanistan what happened with AFGA. When I went there, I found out that it had closed down during the Taliban takeover. So my involvement started from there when I found a couple of the old members and we resumed operations. We found a room in one of the hospitals, and I remember we were buying very cheap furniture and things from the hospital. For almost 14-15 years, I was on the board, but never president. But last year, when the General Assembly was coming up, I was contacted by some of our other colleagues including the director who asked me if I was interested in standing as a board member and I agreed to it. So since December, I joined the board again, and they asked me to be the president. I’m happy. AFGA is one of my babies, I’ve always loved to be involved in this sector.
- What motivated you to return to live in Afghanistan and continue doing this work despite the difficult circumstances?
I live in Kabul, but I’m in between London and Kabul now. Since Taliban took over in 2021, I left, along with all my friends and all the women activists. Afghanistan is one of those countries that has been through really difficult governments, periods, conflicts. Those of us that feel that we have energy as human beings to focus on these type of countries and assist and help, invest our time there. Be it Sudan or Somalia or Afghanistan. For me, it’s double the energy for Afghanistan because I was born and brought up there. So I feel that I have that responsibility. And as long as I have that energy, I want to spend or invest it there.
- How have you found your first few months as President during a time of turbulent change with the Taliban back in power?
We’ve adjusted ourselves in the sense that we don’t speak about sexual rights, for example. The terminology, you just have to be careful on how you can do work without saying it out loud. And you have to compromise a little with the current authority. Because the authority doesn’t have a defined policy on rights, especially women’s rights and youth rights. But from practice, we noticed that they’re not very much for women’s rights. They’ve closed schools, universities, so a lot of these things make us think that they might come back to our activities and sexual and reproductive rights at some point. So rather than endangering ourselves or our work in shutting down, we do it quietly.
One of the phone calls I made on the 16th of August 2021 – when the Taliban came into power was to Najib Samim [CEO of AFGA] and I said, “Have you taken all the posters down?” He said yes. I said: “Take the posters down, burn them, take the website down, do whatever you have to do to protect our work.” Now everything is back up, but slightly differently. We’re not saying certain things, but we’re still doing it. You just have to adjust.
- How does your background in business and women’s empowerment help you in your work with AFGA?
I also worked with the government, as a director of budget to begin with – in 2003 followed by becoming Deputy Minister of Finance. And then I did some consulting work on other things, economic empowerment, with major businessmen in the country. I was a member of the Board of Chamber of Commerce, then went back to the government to work on the labour policies as a Deputy Minister of Labour in 2011. And then after that, I managed a joint national and international anti-corruption organisation. I was the head of the Secretariat for a couple of years. And since then, I’ve stopped working with the government and I’ve continued my consulting work on development issues.
My familiarity with budget is useful also for AFGA. That includes brainstorming on ideas of how much things cost and whether we can work with the private sector or with the government on certain things. How can we make sure that the Ministry of Health, through all the other clinics and health services they do, doesn’t forget about the sexual and reproductive health sector? So my background helps me in a variety of ways to find opportunities for us.
AFGA is one of my favourites because of what we do and I’ve seen the results. Like I said, it’s my baby.
- What advice can you offer to other organisations that work in the fields of women’s empowerment and SRHR under oppressive regimes/governments?
What we’ve practiced in Afghanistan, is, I suppose, what I would also advise to others because our work is really important. Anything is possible by Taliban – they could attack us, they could imprison us, they could merely shut us down. We believe in our work so much that we want to continue our work by any means necessary. Someone said that AFGA seems like a very male-dominated organisation – it’s because we have managed to use men to do the work for women. So if you have to do that, let it be that. Our CEO for the last 20 years has always been a man. And it’s because they can communicate easily with the ministries, attend community meetings, talk to the mosques. Traditionally, when you want to work with people in the community, one of the best ways is to approach the men and the mosque. But the mosques do not accept women to go in and meet them. Usually men will be doing that. So we have to have men to do the work for us.
You have to find a way and compromise to do the work. In countries in conflict, a similar approach might be necessary. Be able to change and be flexible. With unexpected circumstances we don’t stop our values, instead it triggers the creative side of us, the innovative side of us to come up with other ways of doing the same thing.
- Do you ever get scared doing this work?
I do get scared. When Taliban took over in August, I was alone at home. I used to listen to the door. There was one day that they came and knocked and I went out and had a great fight with them. They ran away because I was too loud for them. This was right at the beginning when they were actually just coming from provinces and they didn’t have homes and offices. They came hoping that there was nobody here because a lot of people left and they were hoping to intimidate and take over the house I was living in.
I told them that I lived there for 13 years, there’s no way I would allow anybody to come take my house. Bravery is so much, and when I’m in a car, for example, and I see a post with five Taliban standing there on the street and stopping the car, my heart starts beating. I know they’re going to ask what’s my relationship with my driver? Because my driver is not related to me, of course, but if they ask, we’ve actually made a pact, that he’s my nephew. Even then they start asking questions, and trying to intimidate.
But I’m motivated to work in Afghanistan. Our people are left behind and forgotten. We had 20 good years of the international community paying attention and assisting, but now everybody’s forgotten the country. It’s not easy to stay motivated and continue the work – it’s very emotional. But I’m a hopeful person. And I think it’s going to change at some point.
- What is your vision for the future of AFGA?
I’ve always wanted AFGA to be in at least 70% of the country like we were in the late 1960s and 70s. Right now we are formally in five out of 34 provinces, but from time to time, we do some humanitarian distribution to all the country through our 17 clinics. The need is really big across the country. And normally the services we provide have been provided also by the government clinics, but they don’t provide the services that’s really necessary to the public.
- What can you share about Afghan culture/people that you would like the world to know more about?
When a country is at war, you cannot evacuate everybody. We still have just under 40 million people in the country. They still have a life. They may struggle, but they still have hopes. They still get married, have parties, dances and singing. Parents have hopes for their children. I love it when I see these cars decorated with flowers and things for the bride and groom on their wedding. It’s really beautiful to see that. Valentine’s Day was also a big day. In Afghanistan, we didn’t even know Valentine’s in the old days. Nowadays, everybody goes and buys something. Taliban was trying to stop people buying flowers and these red balloons and things but people were still doing it. Because with war, you cannot stop love.
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