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ÝæäÏíÔä JALAL
FOUNDATION |
Afghan
Women-Led, Women-Focused Organization
Statement on
Elimination of Violence against Women in Afghanistan
Jalal Foundation with its member’s of the
civil society organizations, scholars, intellectuals, influential and elite
people strongly condemn all forms of violence against women and ask for justice
to be done against horrific crimes against women. We ask for justice for Sitara
whose arms and hands were broken, knocked semi-unconscious and stabbed in the
head with a knife by her husband. Still not satisfied, he cut off her nose and
upper lip and threw them to the floor, leaving a triangle-shaped hole in her
face.This act is against human dignity; the perpetrator must be arrested and
charged. It can’t be an excuse that the perpetrator has run away, police must
take this seriously, investigate the case and capture the culprit. It is a
disgrace to the country if the police force does not have the ability to
capture criminals.
We women rights movements are extremely
disappointed with the increased number of cases of violence against women in
2014 which has risen by 24.7% compared with last year; a staggering increase of
incidents of violence against women. The judgment against ChamanGul’s case,
where she was raped by a group of local police two years back is extremely
shocking. The following are a few cases reported which have failed to obtain
justice:
Ø Two
women were found hanged in Logar province,
Ø Two
women were killed over a family dispute inFaryab province by their sons,
Ø A
father-in-law killed his daughter-in-law and two grandsons (aged 8 and 10) in
Ghazni,
Ø 17
years old Shakila was shot in the face by her husband in Kabul
Ø Shooting
of a boy and a girl in Baghlan,
Ø Through
informal justice, a mother attacked and killed by her son with a knife in
Herat.
In spite of all the gains and efforts made
towards promoting women’s rights in Afghanistan, social and legal protection of
women is deteriorating, which raises concerns over the roles, responsibilities
and commitments of the Afghan government.
It is a pity that severe violence against
women occurs in provinces which are under government control. These violent
cases are not investigated seriously in a transparent process by the law
enforcement agencies at both a national and local level.
The dreadful incidents of violence against
women remain only in news headlines.
We call on the Afghan Civil Society and
Communities to closely monitor the cases of violence against women from
investigation to judgment at a national and local level. We ask the Afghan
Civil Society and Communities to play an active role in coordinating and
sharing timely and accurate information regarding violence against women with
relevant stakeholders.
We call on the International Community to
consider the urgency of their support in terms of ending violence against women
in Afghanistan. We ask on practical measures to implement commitments made
under Tokyo Mutual Accountability Framework towards ending violence against
women. We ask the international community for provision of special funding to
support the severe case of violence against women.
We call on Afghan government to prove their
commitments towards law enforcement agencies to investigate and follow up on
the recent cases of violence against women immediately and conduct public trials
in order to prosecute the perpetrators and their supporters. The government has
to increase the accountability of its law enforcement and judiciary. We also
urge the Afghan government to provide immediate life-saving support to victims
of violence against women across the country.
We criticize the government’s failure to
prosecute the perpetrators as well as religious clerks for their total silence
in the face of increasing violence towards women. These clerks waste no time
when it comes to proposing restrictions on women’s rights and freedom to work
and travel and rarely use their perch to promote human rights for women. In a
country where the religious Ulema Council considers women second class
citizens, it’s not surprising that men feel they can commit these crimes
without any fear of prosecution. The Afghan government should pay serious
attention to these cases and not observe silence. It is the job of the
government to act upon the nations concerns; man or woman. We want to
avoid a repeat of the case of SaharGul a child bride whose brutal torture
shocked Afghanistan. Just months later, her tormentors were set free by the
very lawmakers who had promised her justice.
Parliament has failed to use legislation in
eliminating violence against women (which was enforced by a Presidential
Decree). There is also a lack of access to education in Afghanistan for women,
it is known that 90% of women are illiterate and there is also a lack of
healthcare. In order to tackle the problems the government needs to look at the
following:
Ø Annul
all discriminatory laws against women, in particular the Marriage Law, the
discriminatory provisions of the Penal Law and the Property Law, the
discriminatory traditional laws and the Law of Personal Status of the Shiite;
Ø Take
measures to put an end resort to mobile informal courts and guarantee women’s
full and effective access to the formal justice system;
Ø Enhance
the implementation of the Law for Elimination of Violence against Women, in
coordination with the Prosecutor-General’s Office throughout the country;
Ø Continue
to improve women’s access to social rights, e.g. health and education, and
combat illiteracy among women nationwide;
Ø Always
extensively consult the civil society organizations to draft government reports
to the UN committees, in particular the Committee for Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), to implement their concluding observations
and the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women.
Ø Afghan
government should eliminate all sorts of violence, force, pressure and
discrimination against women and we urge the International community to provide
full cooperation and support to end Violence against Women in Afghanistan.