Hamida Barmaki
Ass. Prof. Hamida Barmaki (MiDIC) was a renowned Afghan law professor and human rights activist. She was killed in a suicide attack together with her entire family on 28 February 2011.
Academic Career
Hamida Barmaki was born in Kabul on 4 January 1970. After visiting the Ariana High School in Kabul (1977-1987) she studied law at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Kabul University. Her excellent results opened her the possibility oa a career in the judicial service as one of the first women in Afghanistan. In order to learn more about the practice of law she attended the postgraduate training course ("stage") of the Attorney General's Office 1990-1991 before returning to Kabul University as a law professor (1992-2011).
Her main area of interest as an academic were the fundamental issues of civil law. Hamida Barmaki belonged to the few Afghan scholars who had in depth studied both the Islamic and the Romano-Germanic sources of law which form the basis of the hybrid Afghan legal system. Her works include numerous journal articles and books in Dari language, including an academic thesis on the "Interpretation of Statutes" (Kabul University, 2002) and a master thesis in English language (University of Bologna, unpublished, 2004). Her last work, an large volume on the law of obligation, is being completed by academic friends. Hamida Barmaki's academic work aimed at a thorough understanding of the difficult Afghan legal system. For this purpose she used not only the classical methods of interpretation of Islamic and secular law; she also relied on comparative legal analysis as a tool to find solutions for legal problems from other legal systems. She studied the necessary literature in Dari, English and Arabic languages. At the university her students and colleagues admired her analytical capacity and patient and friendly behaviour with anyone.
Besides a grade from this own faculty, Professor Barmaki had obtained a Master Degree on Development, Innovation and Change from Bologna University, Italy.[1] In December 2010 she had received a PhD scholarship from the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Private Law.
The upcoming, first-ever LL.M. program at Kabul University is seen as Hamida Barmaki’s most important legacy to the law faculty where she had taught since 1992. Hamida Barmaki saw this program as a unique chance for the development of an elite of excellent lawyers inside the country, and convinced all necessary actors to combine their efforts for its realization.
Political Work
Besides her academic career, Hamida Barmaki was engaged for human rights since early age. Already as a juvenile broadcaster with Radio Television Afghanistan (1985- 1987) she developed a special interest in women's rights. In the middle of the Civil War she wrote an essay on "Women’s Role in Social Reconstruction of Afghanistan" (Afghanistan-i-Fardah booklet, 1993). Since then she combined her academic work with non-violent, strenuous political struggle for a the rights of the most vulnerable of the Afghan society. After the fall of the Taliban regime she could work in public and was immediately appointed into relevant positions. Among others, she served as a member of the Women’s Council of Kabul University and as a representative in the Emergency Loya Jirga (2002) and the Peace Jirga (2009). She founded her own human rights organisation, "Khorasan Legal Service Organisation", in 2009. KLSO mainly aimed to raise citizens’ awareness of their rights and to provide free legal assistance to women and other marginalized groups.[2] In the same year her name was mentioned by the Presidential Palace as a possible Minister of Women's Affairs (Afghanistan). Other relevant positions included those of a Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, a researcher at the National Center for Policy Research of Kabul University[3], a legal advisor of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)[4], and a project coordinator of the Institut International Pour Les Études Comparatives (IIPEC)[5].
From March 2008 until her death, Hamida Barmaki worked as a country representative of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (MPIL)[6], a German research institute with extensive activities in support of the judicial institutions and universities in Afghanistan.[7] Together with an Afghan-German team of researchers she permanently initiated and implemented projects aiming at strengthening of the judicial institutions of the country, especially the Afghan Supreme Court, developing of an academic culture in legal sciences on an international level, and improving of the existing legislation.[8]
Child Rights Commissioner of the AIHRC
In 2009 Hamida Barmaki was appointed Child Rights Commissioner of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) while keeping her responsibilities with the Max Planck Institute. With the new position she gained not only country-wide but international reputation. Hamida Barmaki was deeply concerned about the vulnerability of children in war-torn Afghanistan, travelled to many provinces to consult with AIHRC staff and investigate cases, commissioned research and openly criticized the government.[9] One of the results was a study on child abuse which indicated rising numbers.[10] Immediately after its publication, Hamida Barmaki initiated a first common MPIL-AIHRC seminar on women’s and children’s rights in one region of the Afghanistan. Her work to end the recruitment of children by the Afghan police force and the use of boy sex slaves by military officials was just becoming effective.[11]
Hamida Barmaki also took a clear position in the ongoing discussion on the relevance of customary law in the justice system of Afghanistan. Based upon her experience with many human rights cases she strongly advocated for a modern, Western-style court system as it had existed until the Afghan civil war, and opposed proposals to formalize traditional institutions and forms of conflict resolution such as the Pashtun jirgas which are notorious to ignore human and especially women's and children's rights.
Death and Commemoration
On Friday 28 February 2011 Hamida Barmaki, her husband Dr. Massoud Yama (b. 1965) - a medical doctor at the Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan Hospital and employee of the Ministry of Finance - and their four children, Narwan Dunia (b. 1997), Wira Sahar (b. 1998), Marghana Nila (b. 2000) Ahmad Belal (b. 2007) were together killed in a suicide attack on the "Finest" supermarket in Kabul. At least eight further persons died in the incident.[12] One of them was a young female judge called Nadjia, daughter of Siddiqullah Sahel, who knew her from the judical training program organized by the Max Planck Institute (MPIL) and coordinated by Hamida Barmaki in support of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan in 2009. Hisb-e Islami as well as the Taliban claimed responsibility the murderer may also have belonged to the Haqqani network or another terrorist organization. The attack came totally unexpected as such incidents would rarely happen during the Afghan weekend. It is assumed that the unidentified murderer had originally planned to kill a high ranking politician and chosen the supermarket at random when his first plan failed. Commentators sharply criticized the fact that the Afghan government was openly involved in "peace talks" with the organizations who claimed responsibility for this act of extreme violence against civilians.
Hamida Barmaki left her parents Rahimuddin and Anissa, four sisters and four brothers, and her mother-in law, the renowned former Senator and member of the Afghan Constitutional Commission (under Art. 157 AC), Mahbooba Huqoqmal, behind. More than two thousand friends and colleagues came to the Shohada-e Salehin Cemetery when the family was buried on 29 January 2011. More than ten thousand paid their respect to them in a memorial ceremony in Kabul’s large Id Gah Mosque.
The AIHRC organized an impressive mourning ceremony on 1 February 2011.[13] To the memory of Professor Barmaki as an academic of international rank the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences and the Max Planck Institute (MPIL) will together establish a “Professor Hamida Barmaki Library of Comparative and International Law”. Both are also planning for a memorial site on the campus of Kabul University.[14]
Immediately after her death, Hamida Barmaki began to be remembered as a "shahid" ("martyr"). There were however also voices demanding not to use of this term which was likewise employed by terrorist organisations and did not reflect the peaceful and tolerant character of Hamida Barmaki. In any case the discussion over her commemoration shows that she is becoming a symbol figure in Afghanistan.
Selected Publications
2008- Law of Obligations (teaching booklet, Kabul University 2008)
2007/2008- Causes of political instability and possible options for its improvement in Afghanistan (National Centre for Policy Research (NCPR)
2006- Women’s Rights in Islam and Afghanistan statutes (booklet, published in June 2006 by Asia foundation, Kabul).
2005- Women’s Role in Reconstruction of Afghanistan, Women’s integration in the labor market, status in exile and development of ICT, final thesis of Master program, Bologna, Italy).
2007- Women’s political Rights in Islam (Article, published in Hoquq magazine, law and political sciences faculty).
2006- Reba and the reasons of its prevention (Article, published in Adalat magazine, ministry of justice).
2006- Individual contracts (Article, published in Hoquq magazine, law and political sciences faculty).
2004- Violence against Women (Article, published by human rights magazine, Kabul).
2004- Political idioms of constitution and agreement of Bone (National centre of policy research of Kabul University)
2004- Polygamy (Article, published by human rights magazine, Kabul).
2004- Afghan Women’s Political Rights (Article, published by human rights magazine).
2003- Peaceful Approaches of solving conflicts (Article, published by ICRC Magazine, Kabul).
2002- Interpretation of statutes (Academic Thesis, published by Kabul University).
1993- Women’s role in social reconstruction of Afghanistan (published in Afghanistan-i- Fardah booklet).
1991- Robbery in Criminal Investigation (Academic paper, published by Kabul University).
- ^ See, http://bologna.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/02/01/news/addio_hamida_di_uccisa_a_kabul_dopo_un_anno_all_alma_mater-11905567
- ^ KLSO was partly funded by the National Endowment for Democracy. See, http://www.ned.org/where-we-work/middle-east-and-northern-africa/afghanistan
- ^ http://www.ncpr.af
- ^ http://www.areu.org.af
- ^ http://www.iipec.eu
- ^ http://www.mpil.de
- ^ http://www.mpil.de/red/afghanistan
- ^ See, http://www.mpil.de/ww/en/pub/research/details/content19953.cfm
- ^ http://www.ww4report.com/node/8161
- ^ See, http://www.rferl.org/content/Outrage_NATO_Kabul_Childrens_Fears/2228600.html</ref
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/world/asia/30kabul.html?_r=3
- ^ See, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/world/asia/30kabul.html?_r=3
- ^ For pictures see, http://lauralean.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/condolence-ceremony
- ^ http://www.mpil.de/ww/en/pub/research/details/content19953.cfm