Innovation in Action: Brave Afghan Women Clear Landmines, Make History

A team of women, cocooned in thick, powder-blue Kevlar vests and clear protective face shields fan out across the rugged, tawny mountains of Afghanistan’s Bamyan province. They sweep heavy metal detectors over the rocky soil. Kneeling, they painstakingly scrape sharp tools through the loose dirt. These brave women are defying their culture’s rigid gender norms, part of Afghanistan’s first all-female demining team. As they rid their communities of deadly, undetonated explosives—the dangerous legacy of years of war—they forge a new path for women. 

AFGHAN WOMEN PIONEERS

This women-led demining effort, launched and funded by the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), is a milestone in 30 years of humanitarian mine action in Afghanistan. As these Afghan women clear dangerous explosives, they are also serving as powerful role models and decision makers. The program represents a new way the UN is working to advance multiple goals. It is part of the UN’s broader efforts to modernize and reform to better deliver for people around the world.

The UNMAS program offers Afghan women the chance to learn, work, and support their families in a deeply conservative country where the Taliban still has a presence. While there have been some advances on behalf of women’s rights, most women are still largely excluded from Afghanistan’s social, political, and economic life. An Amnesty International poll deemed Afghanistan, where 87% of women are illiterate and 70% to 80% face forced marriage, the worst place in the world to be a woman.

“Society treated us badly at first. It was a taboo to see girls [work] with men,” said deminer Fatima Amiri in an interview with UNMAS. “But my father believed in me and asked me to join deminers. Now, no one says that women are weak.” 

Mine removal projects are generally short-term. So the women deminers receive vocational training in fields including archeology, tourism, and business, providing a stepping stone to long-term careers. To ensure Afghan women’s voices continue to be heard, UNMAS requires as part of its grantmaking process that women be included in community discussions on how best to use territory newly cleared of explosives.

These path-breaking women conduct lifesaving work, and relish their independence and sense of purpose as they make their communities safer. They serve as a powerful symbol to their neighbors of what Afghan women can achieve. “I want to be an inspiration to the young girls in our society,” deminer Nekbakht Hassani told UNMAS. “I want girls to join our cause.”

Fourteen women deminers began work in 2018, clearing mines and educating villagers about the dangers of explosive devices after training from international demining experts through UNMAS. The team, which grew to 16 deminers and two paramedics, labors from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, their tan jumpsuits and protective gear heavy in the midday sun. They have cleared mines and other explosives from 51,520 square meters of land so far, enabling local citizens to farm once again. The women are on track to make Bamyan province in central Afghanistan one of the first regions in the nation to be free of known mines.

“I chose to be a deminer because I wanted to serve my family and people, demine areas, and save people’s lives,” deminer Rabia Hassani told UNMAS.