Over the years it has been increasingly embarrassing to be Dutch with regards to asylum seekers. Here’s another example why. I apologise for the bad translation. This is from ‘De Volkskrant’, a major Dutch newspaper on 25 October 2006.

“To have an opinion is not something you can just get rid of”

Afghan asylum seekers who have had their asylum request denied can go back, says Dutch minister Verdonk of immigration. However, Marwa (13) who has been in The Netherlands for seven years says women are considered inferior there. There will be protests.

Hiding for years in a burka mostly resulted in bruises for Asma Abdukahil. “Wearing a bag like that, you cannot see where you are going. I bumped into everything” The 23 year old Afghan woman took off the strict Islamic garment five years ago: “I can’t and won’t wear it anymore”

Life for emancipated women is not easy in Afghanistan minister Verdonk admitted to the Dutch parliament last June. However this is not a reason to have any specific asylum policies for these women. Westernised or not, hundreds of these women can return to Afghanistan.

Tens of women are going to protest against this decision in the coming weeks. They have formed a group and on the first of November will send a burka to any female politician who does not support their cause. They are assisted by Frits Koers, a lawyer from Zwolle.

Two weeks ago Mina Shenware (19) received a negative reply on her asylum request. “Can you see me in Afghanistan?” she says. The vocational student, wearing jeans, tight blouse and an Ipod around her neck throws her black hair back and says: “there I will have to sit at home and marry someone I did not choose”

Her mother confirms that her distant relatives have already ‘sold her’. Mina has a boyfriend and considers herself a European girl after staying in The Netherlands for seven years. “I have my own opinion. Men in Afghanistan do not want that. To have an opinion is not something you can just get rid of”

Since 2003 the UNHCR has confirmed her fears. Women with a lifestyle considered too western are in danger of being persecuted in Afghanistan. After the fall of the Taliban oppression of women has not stopped. They run the risk of being kidnapped or raped says Amnesty International.

Last month women’s rights activist Safia Amajan was murdered in Kandahar. Last year about 150 mixed schools were been burned down. The message: conservative Afghans do not believe in equal rights between boys and girls. “Is it safe in Afghanistan?” says Mina’s mother. “In Kabul itself there are daily bomb attacks.”

Immigration minister Verdonk argues that emancipated women who have lost their asylum appeal would do better to go back to Afghanistan to fight for women’s rights there. This is impossible the protesters argue. Mina says: “I do not speak Afghan let alone write it. Over there I am an illiterate”

Marym Akthari (37) says she might be able to cope in Afghanistan but is worried for her daughters who have been living most of their lives in The Netherlands. “Over there women are inferior” 13 year old Marwa says. Eleven year old Safa reads on the internet about rapes in Afghanistan. “I get really scared” she says.

Abdulakhil is the lucky one in the group of protesters. After two months in the repatriation centre she did in the end receive her asylum status. Regardless of this she will join the protest. “I can understand a man not thinking about this” she says. “But Verdonk is a woman; she should have more understanding for emancipated women.”

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