After earning her master’s degree in sociology in India, Sunita Viswanath returned to the United States in 2000 and became “obsessed, disturbed, concerned and devastated by what was happening” to women in Afghanistan.

She then went on to help create Women for Afghan Women (WAW), a nongovernmental organization that advocates for women’s rights in Afghanistan.

She spoke at Eggers Hall on Tuesday afternoon to a crowd of approximately 30 people about the issues that women in Afghanistan faced and the help her organization was providing.

Not every victim of women’s rights abuse can tell their story, Viswanath said, but the ones who can should speak for everyone.

“The future is so uncertain, and those girls’ futures are at stake,” she said. “If it goes the wrong way, their futures are going to be nonexistent.”

Viswanath introduced herself as a grassroots activist. She said she wanted the organization to initially be led by Afghan women, which at the time, was rare.

After doing some “informal feasibility studies” to find a community willing to support the cause, she helped establish WAW in Queens, N.Y., in April 2001. What started out as casual discussions on culture turned into full activism five months later — when the World Trade Center was attacked.

“It’s very ironic. 9/11, as devastating as it was, is double edged,” she said. “Because of it, Afghanistan opened up and everything our work goes toward became possible.”

Twelve years later, the organization expects to expand and establish women’s shelters in its 10th Afghan province by the end of this year. WAW has helped protect or rehabilitate more than 8,000 women in the past six years, Viswanath said.

Afghanistan, which has the highest abuse rate for women, does not have a culture where women can reinvent themselves, she added. Instead, the group provides stability for women to continue their lives by holding their abusers accountable, educating children of imprisoned women and helping teach vocational skills. Some even become workers for WAW, she said.

“When they first come, they are broken, you can see that,” said Manizha Naderi, executive director of WAW, in a video shown at the event. “They like nothing, they want nothing…but after a while, you can see that they are a different person.”

The group, in affiliation with other grassroots organizations, gathered in Kabul in 2003 with Afghan women to draft the “Afghan women’s bill of rights,” a list of demands for what they believe should be protected by Afghanistan’s constitution, Viswanath said.

“We did not have to come from outside and say, ‘these are your human rights, these are what you deserve’. They knew.” she said. “As a human being, my gut feeling about human rights was affirmed. People know their rights as human beings.”

Tula Goenka, co-director of the South Asia Center, which sponsored the lecture, said she invites speakers that challenge students both as scholars and as human beings.

“Yes, jobs are really important,” she said, “but it’s also about being a human being and giving back to society in some way.”

Kambic Aminishakib, a graduate student studying public administration and international efforts, said that although he was familiar with women’s rights within the context of Afghanistan, what WAW presented was “very interesting and unique.” He said that spreading the word across campus was the best way to initiate activism.

“Maybe by broadcasting the news, the things that (students) learned, we can talk to other people and find some ways of fundraising for the future,” he said.

Naderi said a global issue such as this will take years of involvement, but hopes the conditions in Afghanistan can be resolved.

“I’ll be very happy when we have to shut down our doors because no woman in this country needs our services,” she said. “That will be our success.”

Published on November 19, 2013 at 11:59 pm