Kabul, Afghanistan: More than 20 men and women gathered in a classroom for three days in August to discuss and debate a new concept in Afghan culture: gender.

The gender training was the first to be hosted in Kabul by the Rural Expansion of Afghanistan's Community-based Health Care (REACH) program, a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

REACH invited representatives from the Kabul Provincial Public Health Coordination Committee (PPHCC), including the Kabul Public Health Office, REACH NGO grantees, and other stakeholders in the health sector throughout Kabul province. All are involved in the delivery of health care services, which requires regular interaction between men and women. The gender workshop explored the roles and responsibilities, and rules and regulations, that apply to men and women in Afghan communities. Nation of origin, religion, age, tradition and culture, for example, factor into how gender is defined.

The discussions also spotlighted understandings and misunderstandings about appropriate roles for men and women under Islam.

"We want to foster an understanding of gender in Afghanistan's health care sector," said Miho Sato, gender specialist for REACH. "Women have the right to receive health care. They have the right to nutritious food while they're pregnant. They have the right to make joint decisions with their husbands about family planning."

Although gender is a complicated topic in Afghan culture, workshop facilitator Dr. Ruhila Joya, REACH National Gender Program Officer asked participants to reduce gender to its simplest elements. What is an Afghan man? What is an Afghan woman? How should they act? Who should they be?

"Thinking about gender roles is a new thing in our culture," said Dr. Rabia Sadat, a workshop participant from the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), a REACH NGO grantee, "If we can reach some new understandings about gender, it will help women in the future. Right now, women are still in the dark."

The training curriculum emphasizes that the concept of gender and the belief that perceptions related to gender impact society is not confined to Western thought. Nor are gender issues relevant only to women. Although cultures may perceive gender roles differently, defining roles based on gender is universal. The workshop also pointed out that gender is not the same thing as sex, which is biological. Perceptions of gender can change, depending on definition and stereotype, and sometimes those definitions and stereotypes can result in hurtful, or even violent, behavior toward women, as evident during the Taliban regime.

Dr. Joya has traveled extensively to conduct similar gender training workshops in Afghanistan, leading trainings in all but three of the 13 provinces where REACH NGO grantees operate 313 health facilities using USAID funds. Gender training has not been held in Kandahar, Khost, and Paktika due to security concerns, though representatives of two NGOs delivering health services in those provinces were invited to attend the Kabul workshop.

"If we can get 30% of the participants to change their opinions, we have done something," said Dr. Hamid Alizad, a member of the REACH gender liaison group who helped to conduct the workshop. "We cannot change all opinions, but we can change some."

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