Cautiously Optimistic, Afghan Americans Say

California’s Afghan immigrants watched with unaccustomed optimism as Prime Minister Hamid Karzai took office Saturday amid promises of a multiethnic government for a country long troubled by war.

Afghan women, who fared worst under the harsh form of Islamic rules promulgated by the Taliban regime, were nearly ebullient over the new government, particularly since it now counts the international support that previous regimes lacked.

“We are so excited and very hopeful. Hopefully, everything is getting better,” said Kawky Anwar of Simi Valley, one of the founding members of the Afghan Women Association of Southern California.

“We lost our country. We lost everything,” said Anwar, who taught and served as vice principal at a leading high school in Kabul. “We hurt so much, and now for the first time, we have a big hope.”

Anwar said she is especially optimistic about the fact that the interim government includes two women, one of whom, Minister of Public Health Suhaila Seddiqi, attended high school with her.

“We have a lot of smart women,” Anwar said. “Hopefully, the government will put them in good positions so they can work for the country.”

Under the Taliban, women were not allowed to attend schools and were subject to such severe restrictions in their jobs they were effectively relegated to staying at home.

That women and other ethnic groups now will help write the new rules of society in Afghanistan gave high hopes to Maliha Zulfacar, a sociologist at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a former professor at Kabul University.

“As far as I remember in the history of Afghanistan, we never had such an inclusive and broad-based government,” she said. “And the two women chosen are the most deserving women. They decided to stay in Afghanistan and help when others left.”

Still, Zulfacar cautioned that change will not come quickly for women in a mostly rural, male-dominated society. “Talking about equality and the rights of women is noble, but we need to think about ways to make the changes materialize,” she said.

Zaman Stanizai, a Los Angeles political scientist who worked on previous failed peace efforts for his native Afghanistan, also cautioned against expecting change to come too rapidly.

“I’m very, very cautiously optimistic, and I think that most people in Afghanistan are accepting of this, not because they are happy, not because it is the best situation, but because they want to give him [Karzai] a chance,” Stanizai said.

Although he shares the majority Pushtun ethnic background of Karzai, Stanizai worried that the new government’s most powerful ministries--interior, foreign affairs and defense--will be run by members of the Tajik minority.

Stanizai said he fears Tajiks and other groups that have been members of the Northern Alliance will rule from behind Karzai and slant to their favor an interim government that will be chosen in six months as well as national elections that are supposed to be held in two years.

That, said Stanizai, smacks of Soviet-era ethnic baiting. “We keep claiming we have learned from the mistakes of the Russians in Afghanistan,” Stanizai said. “Maybe militarily, but politically, we’re doing the same thing. This doesn’t spell stability, but disaster.”

‘The Job They Have Is a Very, Very Tough One’

But among vocal advocates of the new government, support for Karzai assumed almost bellicose tones--a reflection of the widespread feeling that the new leadership may be the nation’s last chance for peace.

“I am going to fight all the people who are not supporting this process,” vowed Waheed Momand, president of the Afghan Coalition, a powerful alliance of Afghan groups in Northern California.

“We have such great human resources. We have so many Afghans around the world who once helped build the infrastructure of the country,” said Momand, a Pushtun who taught electronics at a technical college in Kabul. “We have to be useful, to do something. So let the government build roads and schools. We’ll help take care of some other social issues such as taking care of all the widows and orphans,” he said.

For others, simply seeing someone other than the Taliban in power was enough to elicit joy.

“A lot of people can’t believe it because it’s such a great step forward within the legal and political framework,” said San Diego activist Hekmat Sadat, a writer for the Web site https://www.afghanmagazine.com and a PhD candidate at Claremont Graduate University. “They finally see people who are not bearded, gun-carrying militia.”

A. Tawab Assifi, a former gov

ernor of the western Afghanistan city of Herat who lives in Orange, said Karzai will need significant help from the United Nations.

“Six months is not a very long time, and the job they have on their hands is a very, very tough one,” he said.

Under a deal brokered in Bonn, Karzai will serve for six months, after which a commission appointed by his 29-member multiethnic cabinet will organize a transition to a new executive and legislature. They will then rule for two years, until full elections can be held.

Barna Karimi, a 27-year-old Los Angeles rug store owner who fled his native country seven years ago, said world backing for the new regime will make all the difference.

“In the past when we had

agreements, they were not backed by the United Nations or the international community,” he said. “This time, the United States, the world, is involved.

Like other Afghan Americans, Karimi has been watching TV and surfing the Internet around the clock for the latest news.

“For the first time,” he said, “I feel that I have a hope of going back and belonging to a country that I can really be proud of, a country where people are really working for peace.”

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Times staff writer Kimi Yoshino contributed to this report.