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Direct Link to Full 100-Page Human
Rights Watch Report:
December 6, 2009
Afghan women attend a rally for a presidential candidate in the 2009 elections. © Lynsey Addario / VII Network
(
The 96-page report, "We Have the Promises of the World: Women's Rights in
Afghanistan," details emblematic cases of ongoing rights
violations in five areas: attacks on women in public life; violence against
women; child and forced marriage; access to justice; and girls' access to
secondary education.
"The situation for Afghan women and girls is dire and could
deteriorate," said Rachel Reid,
While the plight of women and girls under the Taliban was used to help
justify the 2001 invasion of
"Women are not a priority for our own government or the international
community," Shinkai Karokhail, a member of Parliament, told Human Rights
Watch. "We've been forgotten."
Women in public life are subject to routine threats and intimidation.
Several high profile women have been assassinated, but their killers have not
been brought to justice. When Sitara Achakzai, an outspoken and courageous
human rights defender and politician, was murdered in April 2009, her death was
another warning to all women who are active in public life.
High profile women interviewed for this report say that they feel they are
not taken seriously when they report threats. One member of parliament who,
like some others, spoke anonymously because of the danger they face, told Human
Rights Watch:
"I've had so many threats. I report them sometimes, but the
authorities tell me not to make enemies, to keep quiet. But how can I stop
talking about women's rights and human rights?"
A woman police officer who has received death threats said:
"They told me that they will kill my daughters. Every minute I'm
afraid. I can never go home - the government cannot protect me there. My old
life is over."
One nationwide survey of levels of violence against Afghan women found that
52 percent of respondents experienced physical violence, and 17 percent
reported sexual violence. Yet because of social and legal obstacles to
accessing justice, few women and girls report violence to the authorities.
These barriers are particularly formidable in rape cases. Although women activists
and members of parliament pushed hard and succeeded in putting rape on the
statute books this year for the first time, the government has shown little
willingness to treat each case as a serious crime or to engage in a public
education campaign to change attitudes.
The lack of justice compounds women's vulnerability. One woman who was gang
raped by a well connected local commander found that after a long fight to
bring her rapists to justice, they were freed by a presidential decree. Soon
after in 2009, her husband was assassinated. The woman told Human Rights Watch
that he was killed because he had battled for her rights:
"I have lost my son, my honor, and now my husband," she said.
"But I am just a poor woman, so who will listen to me?"
Surveys suggest that in more than half of all marriages, the wives are
under age 16, and 70 to 80 percent of marriages take place without the consent
of the woman or girl. These practices underlie many of the problems faced by
women and girls, as there is a strong correlation between domestic violence and
early and forced marriage.
A 13-year-old girl who was forced into marriage explained to Human Rights
Watch that after she dared to escape she was hunted by her husband's family:
"They came and asked for me to come back. I said no; they kept coming. I
always say no... I can't go back. They want to kill me." Women activists
who gave the girl shelter were denounced in parliament. Years later, the young
woman is still fighting for a legal separation from her illegal marriage.
This case is just one in the report that illustrates the fundamental
problem faced by women and girls of lack of access to justice. Studies suggest
that more than half the women and girls in detention are being held for
"moral crimes," such as adultery or running away from home, despite
the fact that running away from home is not a crime in Afghan law or Sharia.
But whether it is a high-profile woman under threat, a young woman who wants to
escape a child marriage, or a victim of rape who wants to see the perpetrator
punished, the response from the police or courts is often hostile.
"Police and judges see violence against women as legitimate so they do
not prosecute cases," Dr. Soraya Sobhrang of the Afghanistan Independent
Human Rights Commission told Human Rights Watch.
Law reforms that protect women's rights are important, but leadership is
also required to help shift attitudes and prevent abuses, Human Rights Watch
said.
"The government needs to take its responsibility to protect women and
girls seriously," Reid said. "President Hamid Karzai has a lot of
work to do to restore his reputation as a moderate on women's rights."
After the destruction of many girls' schools by the Taliban, education for
girls became the most symbolic element of the international donor effort in
The diminishing status of women's rights in
"We welcomed the international community's words on the Shia law -
really - they said many beautiful things, as they did in 2001" said Wazhma
Frogh, women's rights activist. "We have the promises of the world. But
still we wait to see what more they will do."
Karzai should revise the law to protect women's rights fully and appoint
women who have been active defenders of women's rights to positions of power,
Human Rights Watch said.
"The Shia law provided a timely reminder of how vulnerable Afghan
women are to political deals and broken promises," Reid said. "Karzai
should begin his new presidency with a clear signal to women that his will be a
government that wants to advance equality."
Key Recommendations of "We Have the Promises of the World: Women's
rights in
·
The government and donors
should make the promotion and protection of women's rights a main priority of
the country's reconstruction and a central pillar of their political, economic,
and security strategies.
·
The government, with the
support of donors, should embark on a large-scale awareness campaign to ensure
that rape is understood to be a crime by law enforcement agencies, judges,
parliament, civil servants, and the Afghan public. The campaign should also aim
to reduce the stigmatization of victims of rape.
·
The government should make
marriage registration more widely available and compulsory.
·
The president should order
the release of, and offer an apology and compensation to, all women and girls
wrongfully detained on the charge of "running away from home."
·
The government, with the
support of donors, should increase the number and geographic coverage of girls'
secondary classes by building more girls' secondary schools, and ensure the
recruitment and training of female teachers is accelerated.
·
The government, with the
support of the UN and other donors, should prioritize security for women
candidates and voters in planning for the 2010 parliamentary elections.
·
International donors and the
United Nations, in conjunction with the Ministry of Women's Affairs, should
conduct a full gender audit of all spending in
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