Country: Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s Women can’t be silenced or ignored (media)
ICHR celebrates this Woman’s Day in honour of the Afghanistan’s woman whom have come so far in resolving compromises on their rights.
Afghan women must have a say in the future of their country, as they have been at the forefront of the calls for peace in Afghanistan.
Despite 17 plus years of conflict, they have taken incredible steps. Today most are lawyers, doctors, judges, teachers, engineers, athletes, activists, politicians, journalists, bureaucrats, run their own businesses and are in the ranks of the military and police.
Taliban’s rules violated women’s rights with impunity. Women were not allowed to freely exercise their human rights, including the rights to freedom of movement, to education, and to work.
Today there is a dedicated Ministry of Women’s Affairs, with departments throughout the country at provincial levels. Afghanistan also has an Independent Human Rights Commission chaired by a renowned woman human rights defender, Sima Samar, and women constitute 27 per cent of parliament and the civil service.
During year 2009 Afghanistan passed the law on Elimination of Violence Against Women, after a hard-fought struggle led by women human rights defenders.
These are all important human rights gains that is the result of the hard work of these heart won advocates. But still Afghanistan’s women are continuing to endure great challenges when it comes to their human rights.
Just last year Afghanistan suffered the highest number of civilian casualties. There were 3,804 deaths and 7,189 people were injured. One in ten of the civilian casualties were women.
Women continue to face other forms of violence, abuse, and disappointingly few prosecutions of violent crimes against women.
It is extremely important that Afghanistan continues to build on the limited but important gains made on women’s rights, and the international community must stand firmly with Afghan women’s rights.