WUNRN
NRC – Norwegian Refugee Council - http://www.nrc.no/?did=9194479#.VWDTfXkw_mJ
AFGHANISTAN – PLIGHT OF WOMEN & GIRLS INTERNALLY
DISPLACED TO AFGHAN CITIES
By Hanne Eide Andersen - 23.03.2015
Displaced Afghan females face significant constraints to accessing education, health and employment opportunities, according to a new report by NRC. 7 out of 10 say they have never attended school.
Direct Link to Full 44-Page 2015 Report: http://www.nrc.no/?did=9194479
Report Summary, Key Findings & Recommendations: http://www.nrc.no/arch/_img/9194506.pdf
The testimony of women and girls
presented in the report paint a grim picture of the dire conditions facing
women and girls displaced to Afghanistan’s cities, and sheds new light on the
disproportionate risks they face being increasingly marginalized and isolated.
Many of them find themselves kept in ‘prison-like’ seclusion, and are not
permitted to venture outside their homes and unable to seek much needed
assistance.
“We are imprisoned in our tents and we don’t have permission to go out. What is
this sort of life worth?” says a 24 year-old woman from the Helmand province,
internally displaced in Kabul and one of the respondents in the report.
Displaced women and girls across Afghanistan’s cities are also at increased
risk of forced and early marriage. Representing a form of income, they are
increasingly married off to older men who are able to pay bride wealth/dowry.
“We are being sold in exchange for money like animals. Our rights are ignored;
we are often sold to widowers, blind men, disabled or old men and we have no
choice to refuse marrying them”, says a 23 year-old woman from the
Muhammad Aghai district in the Logar province, now living in a camp for
internally displaced in Kabul.
“This report provides a voice for
some of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups of IDPs and should act as a
sober reminder of the need to go further in order to meet the needs of women
and girls living in appalling conditions in Afghanistan’s cities”, says Prasant
Naik, NRC Afghanistan Country Director.