UN
Mother’s Day at Kabul's women's-only garden
14 June 2009 - It was the perfect Mother’s Day for Qamar Popal. A mother of five children, two of whom still attend school, she spent the morning at Bagh-e-Zanana, Kabul’s only park reserved for women, stall-hopping at a three-day fair organized exclusively for this day.
She said it was a special day, as she sat down and took a few moments of rest to watch a Dutch theatre group perform a skit for her and 200 other women and children.
“Mothers play many roles in society. But the most important role she plays is to train her children to work for the country,” she said in Dari.
There are two dozen brightly coloured stalls in the park, filled with ethnic clothes, jewellery, foods, and handicrafts.
The area is mostly barren except for a few patches of grass, where few men have set foot.
The stalls, which are NGO and government-funded are also looked after by women.
One of them is run by the Solar Light Company, a small enterprise that deals in solar panels, whose employees are an all-girls team of 12 in Kabul.
Shamila Azimi has been at the stall all morning with a few of her colleagues.
“I haven’t made a sale yet. It’s still early in the day. But it’s good to see so many women here,” she said,
Among the many visitors to the fair is Dr Husn Banu Ghazanfar, Afghanistan’s Minister for Women’s Affairs, who has just arrived after attending another function at a nearby school along with President Hamid Karzai to honour three of Afghanistan’s mothers.
“By celebrating this day, we are renewing our commitment to improving the conditions of Afghan mothers,” she said. “I also want to promise that we have policies and programs for improving their living conditions which we will implement.”
Meantime, Mrs Popal prepares to leave Bagh-e-Zanana, as the curtains fall on the theatrical performance.
“I will now go and meet my mother now and kiss her hand and give her these gift,” she said, her hands clasping bags filled with clothes just bought. “All children, however old, should go and see their mothers.”
By Aditya Mehta, UNAMA
