Kabul calling

For an American woman earning her bread and butter in one of the most conflict-ridden zones in the world, Afghanistan can throw up a plethora of problems. For one, Lia Gladstone cannot ever walk on the road. Wherever she goes, a driver must always escort her in a well-covered car.

The sexagenarian has to face questions from her own group of male students at the university in Kabul about whether it is really right to allow women to participate in public gatherings. The badgering never ends.

Lia, who was in India to participate in the 8th International Women Playwrights Conference, insists that she prefers to remain unfazed by such incidents. The playwright narrates, “I was working in Alaska for the Legislature, till I decided to take up a teaching position in Kabul. Post 9/11, I had done a play about Afghan women that impressed the university and I got a job to teach academic and creative writing to 20 students in my class.” Among the 20, Lia informs there were only two women.

But teaching Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap was not enough. Soon Lia began working with a human rights organisation AHRDO to teach theatre to adults. “It’s been our effort to take theatre out to the community,” states the playwright. But involving women in theatre is a big challenge, she adds. Lia gives us something to ponder on — the playwright actually mentions a law signed by president Hamid Karzai that allows a man to have sex with his wife anytime he wants. Lia sounds exasperated, “The only humans you see on the roads of Kabul are men. Even the women in my theatre group have to be behind closed doors by 8 pm.”

The disparity is so stark that in class, Lia says the women are too reluctant to voice their opinion. But, the playwright feels that there is hope behind the dark clouds.
Despite day-to-day life being rigorous, people are humble. Lia's voice is thick with emotion as she says, “They obliterate the bombs and the raids out of their minds with a single smile on their face.”