Afghan actress Strorai Mangal, 51, firmly believes that women and the arts can play a central role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Ms. Mangal, one of the female Afghan experts selected under IOM’s Temporary Return of Qualified Nationals (TRQN) programme, arrived in Kabul last August and completed a six month assignment with Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA).

Funded by the Dutch Government, the TRQN programme assists qualified Afghans residing in the Netherlands to return home and helps to place them in key positions within government, ministries and the private sector. IOM works closely with the Government of Afghanistan to identify positions that are important to the country’s reconstruction and sustainable development plans, but which cannot be filled by nationals already living in Afghanistan.

In today’s Afghanistan, experienced actresses like Strorai Mangal are certainly few and far between. She started her career as a voice actress some 25 years ago and starred in a popular series which the RTA continues to air.  She was also active in directing plays, and her poetry recitals on various radio programmes won her such a mass following that it was once difficult to find an Afghan radio listener nationwide who was not familiar with her unique, translucent voice.

But in the summer of 1998 during the Taliban regime her voice also proved her undoing. Like other professional women she was banned from working and when police officers recognized her voice in the street, despite the fact that she was wearing a burqua, she knew that it was time to leave. “My life was in danger and I had no choice but to escape,” she says.

After fleeing Afghanistan, Ms. Mangal was granted refugee status in the Netherlands, where she continued her work as an actress, mainly for Afghan audiences. She teamed up with other Afghan artists and produced plays, films, dramas and magazines. Some of them were educational products designed to teach Afghan children about the culture of their homeland.

According to the Ministry of Education, an estimated 11 million Afghans are illiterate. It is commonly agreed that the best way to educate the adult population in Afghanistan is not through the books and newspapers, but through other means such as broadcast media. Despite her achievements, Ms. Mangal found life in the Netherlands a struggle, mainly due to limited knowledge of the Dutch language. “It is very difficult to work for Dutch TV without speaking the language fluently and I am too old for that. When I found out about the IOM
programme, I was so happy and applied immediately. I realized that I would be able to work again. It was like I finally found what I had lost in my life,” she says.

Back in Kabul, Ms. Mangal started work on a TV drama about one of the most famous figures in Afghan history - Mirwais Nika. He overthrew the governor of Kandahar in 1709 and successfully defeated the Persians, who were attempting to convert the local population of Kandahar from Sunni to Shia Islam. “Learning about Mirwais Nika is important for all Afghans as he is like a father of the nation and a symbol of unity and solidarity for solving the problems of the Afghan people through Jirga (a traditional assembly of elders),” says Ms. Mangal.

Strorai Mangal not only directed the drama, but also played the roles of four different female characters. This was not to show off her excellent acting skills – it was because finding suitable actresses, allowed to work by their families, is one of the most difficult things about producing films in Afghanistan.

“This has been my complaint against Afghan men all this time. Why do they not allow their wives to work? Islam does not say that women should be kept at home. On the contrary, the acquisition of knowledge is compulsory for both men and women,” says Ms. Mangal.

Ms. Mangal is convinced that TV and radio programmes can only be successful if they include female characters.

“As we reconstruct the country, we need to also reconstruct our minds and re-educate families for a better future – a future in which women participate,” she says.