“The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is… honouring International Women's Day.” — The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, March 2013 It was former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson who is said to have said that “a week is a long time in politics,” referring to the speedily shifting sands of political priorities. If a week is a long time, then 12 years is a millennium. Remember the deluge of political concern over the subjugation of Afghan women at the time of the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001? The tsunami of documentaries, articles and books on their plight, contributing to the justification of another invasion, was actually intended to assist in seizing control of trillions of dollars of minerals, a geographically strategic country and an oil pipeline. It is salutary to recap a few of the statements that were made at the time. In November 2001, the then US first lady Laura Bush gave the president's weekly radio address, stating that the fight against terrorism was “also a fight for the rights and dignity of [Afghan] women.” The US State Department marked her broadcast with an 11-page document on the Taliban's “war against women”. Hillary Clinton wrote of “a post-Taliban” country “where women's rights are respected.” The then United Kindom prime minister Tony Blair talked of aid to Afghanistan being conditional on the restoration of rights to women and girls. US General Colin Powell stated that “women's rights will not be negotiable.” Eight years later, UK politicians still said publicly that women's rights were a justification for the war. Mark Malloch Brown, former minister of state in the UK foreign office with responsibility for Africa, Asia and the UN and subsequently administrator of UNDP, said in 2009 that “the rights of women was one of the reasons the UK and many in the West threw ourselves into the struggle in Afghanistan. It matters greatly to us and our public opinion.” In a major speech in the same year, the then UK foreign secretary David Miliband stated that the UK's relationship with Afghanistan was a “partnership”. Fast forward, then, to 8 March, 2013, International Women's Day, for which the UN has declared this year's theme to be “the Gender Agenda Gaining Momentum”. On the eve of Women's Day, the Kabul Girls' Boxing Team, which was to participate in various events marking the Day, was refused entry to Britain by the UK border agency. Organisations that had long planned events and raised funds for the visit of three remarkable young people who had overcome the restrictions of the most conservative type of Afghan culture expressed their frustrations. It was a supreme irony that it was not the mullahs in Afghanistan who forced disappointment and the curtailment of the team's movements, but the mullahs in Whitehall, the UK's seat of government. Ironically, the supreme mullah at the UK border agency is now a woman, the Interior Minister Theresa May. On 7 March, the East London Fawcett Society, a branch of the UK's leading equality campaign, wrote to those involved with the initiative saying that “we are very sorry to be sending this e-mail to update you that the three boxers on their way to the UK for Saturday's event “Fighting for Freedom — Afghanistan vs UK”… have been refused entry visas and will thus not be here for the bout with UK rivals on Saturday. This event is now cancelled. On the eve of International Women's Day, we are thinking of our inspiring sisters in Afghanistan and around the world.” The UK border agency in Delhi had, for the second time, refused entry visas to the UK for Sadaf Rahem, Fahima Mohamed and Shabnam Rahman. The three boxers were on their way to the UK to train and fight as guests of the Women in Sport Foundation to mark International Women's Day. The decision was lambasted as “utterly ridiculous” and “at odds with the ideals of the 2012 Olympic legacy,” which the UK government's Department of Culture, Media and Sport had declared would make Britain a great sporting nation, inspire, and show off London's multicultural heritage. The young women had had, for a second time, to travel all the way to the UK border agency in Delhi to get their visas. History does not relate why it is beyond the UK embassy in Kabul to issue such visas, avoiding considerable expense to people from a war-torn country where living for most is exceptionally hard. All requested documentation, identification and a letter of support from the Centre of Peace and Unity, their long-term supporters in Afghanistan, were presented, and rejected. The girls had expected to obtain their visas and head for the airport and London. Instead, they dejectedly returned to Kabul. So much for the aims of the “Olympic Legacy” and “multicultural heritage”. Margaret Pope, founder of the UK's Women in Sport, which raised funds for the visit, commented on her “extreme disappointment”, adding that “we are made to believe that avenues, especially here in the UK, are opening up to people such as Sadaf Rahem, Fahima Mohamed and Shabnam Rahman, who are trying to pursue their sporting dreams. There has been much talk of the legacy of the Olympics and rights for women in sport, but today it is not the case for these women.” Despite it being made clear to officials that the purpose of the visit to the UK was sport, and that the women, all of whom were students, had financial support from Women in Sport for the duration of their trip, they were refused entry based on their being unable to illustrate their financial circumstances in Afghanistan and concerns from the UK High Commission that they might not return to Afghanistan after their visit to the UK. Melanie Brown, a former aid worker and maker of the documentary Fighting for Peace about the women, said that “I know how many challenges they have had to overcome in pursuit of their sport. They have continued boxing in the face of these, reaching excellence and representing their country internationally. However, in the face of [UK] bureaucracy they are powerless. This visa refusal will come as a bitter disappointment to them. They may as well have a big tick box saying are you from Afghanistan? Then don't bother.” Rahimi, Mohamed and Rahman were also to train with Britain's first licensed female boxer, Jane Couch, and to attend a charity auction in London to raise money for their gym in Kabul. Couch slammed the decision to deny them visas as “absolutely unbelievable. They are just trying to make a change.” The Women in Sport Foundation is down but definitely not out and “remains committed to bringing them here to the UK this year and fighting for freedom.” Margaret Pope added that “one of the justifications for Britain's military involvement in Afghanistan was to help improve the terrible situation for the country's women. It is therefore a bitter irony that when there is a clear opportunity to assist some of the bravest, talented and most inspiring young Afghan women, bureaucratic delays are quashing their dreams.” Melanie Brown said that “making Afghans who request visas travel to a third country in order to receive them and then wait weeks to hear if they have been successful could cynically be seen as a way of discouraging all those but the very wealthy from visiting the UK.” She has a point, for just a week later on 14 March a Guardian newspaper headline read that the interior minister “Theresa May relaxes immigration rules for senior executives and elite graduates.” In September 2010 at the United Nations in New York, the UK prime minister David Cameron said “let's be clear — you can't build strong economies, open societies and inclusive political systems if you lock out women.” UK Foreign Secretary William Hague also said that “women must not be forgotten.” Just after the invasion of Afghanistan, the then UK prime minister, Tony Blair, said on television that “we will not walk away as the outside world has done so many times before.” But Britain has clearly walked away from Afghan women, slamming the door and locking them out as it did so. The writer is a freelance journalist specialising in social and environmental issues.
