Afghanistan
VNC: Secure the independence of women's shelters in Afghanistan.
Uphold the rights of Afghan women and girls to be freed from gender-based violence. Secure the independence of women's shelters in Afghanistan.
The Global Campaign to Stop Violence against Women in the Name of ‘Culture’, an international network of women’s human rights defenders and advocates, fully supports our sisters in Afghanistan in resisting their government’s attempt to put the country’s women shelters under State control.
If the Afghan government proceeds with this proposed legislation, it will invite serious risks to the already-fragile security of women and girls who are in desperate need of protection from gender–based violence in their country. This development is alarming and deserves the attention of the international community.
Afghanistan: Proposal Would Clamp Down on Women’s Shelters
KABUL, Afghanistan — After her parents threw her out of the house for refusing to marry a 52-year-old widower with five children, Sabra, 18, boarded a bus that dropped her, afraid and confused, in downtown Kabul. She slept in a mosque for days, barely eating, until a woman took pity on her and put her in touch with human rights workers, who escorted her to a women’s shelter.
That journey — terrifying enough for a young woman who had never ventured beyond the corner bazaar — would become harder still under new rules being drafted by the Afghan government that women’s advocates say will deter the most vulnerable women and girls from seeking refuge and are placing shelters under siege.
Afghanistan: Police pledge justice for Taliban stoning
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville: ''For Siddqa, the hole where she stood is now her grave''
The men who stoned a couple to death in north Afghanistan will be brought to justice, say officials, came to light.
Afghanistan: Violence and tradition keep millions of Afghans from school
KABUL, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Worsening security and enduring conservative Islamic customs prevented almost five million Afghan children from going to school in 2010, a government official said on Saturday.
The strict Islamist Taliban were ousted from power by U.S.-backed Afghan forces nearly a decade ago, but many women are still not able to work outside the home and girls are prevented from attending school in remote parts of the country.
Afghanistan: Harmful traditional practices that violate women's rights widespread. Speedy implementation of the law on elimination of violence against women needed
Widespread harmful traditional practices – child marriage, giving away girls for dispute resolution, forced isolation in the home, exchange marriage and “honour” killings – cause suffering, humiliation and marginalization for millions of Afghan women and girls. Such practices are grounded in discriminatory views and beliefs about the role and position of women in Afghan society. Many Afghans, including some religious leaders reinforce these harmful customs by invoking their interpretation of Islam. In most cases, however, these practices are inconsistent with Sharia law as well as Afghan and international law, and violate the human rights of women.
Foundation of Solidarity of Justice
About
Foundation of Solidarity for Justice (Victims Network) is the first organization that works with the victims of war for the past three years in Afghanistan. The Victims Network was established for the first time to help and raise the voices of the Victims of the conflict in Afghanistan by providing them psychotherapy services, awareness raising workshops, sharing the stories and experiences of the victims through print and electronic media, documentation of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Victims Network for the first time in the history of Afghanistan established Victims Shuras (Councils) in Kabul.
Afghanistan: Widow Burnings, Violations
HERAT, Afghanistan — Even the poorest families in have matches and cooking fuel. The combination usually sustains life. But it also can be the makings of a horrifying escape: from poverty, from forced marriages, from the abuse and despondency that can be the fate of Afghan women.
Facing social pressures, families disguise girls as boys in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Six-year-old Mehran Rafaat is like many girls her age. She likes to be the center of attention. She is often frustrated when things do not go her way. Like her three older sisters, she is eager to discover the world outside the family’s apartment in their middle-class neighborhood of Kabul.
Afghan Women's Movements Deserve More From the West
Time magazine's is a tribute to their heroism and silent suffering. However, the poignant images and story fail to reflect the determined achievements of a women's movement that has battled cultural and Islamist misogyny. They deserve more from the West.
Ironically, women in Afghanistan had greater opportunities for education and employment under colonial rule, including that of the Soviets. Tribal traditions and a male-dominated reading of Islam have produced a deeply rooted ideology of women as temptresses, who must be kept under control to avoid "fitna" or social strife, thereby safeguarding the "peace of Islam." In this patriarchal society, a man's honor, bound by the behavior of his female relatives, may be defended with violence. Girls are traded to settle family disputes, and rural tribal courts dispense summary justice that can overrule central authority.
Crime (Sex) and Punishment (Stoning)
It may be the oldest form of execution in the world, and it is certainly among the most barbaric. In the West, death by stoning is so remote from experience that it is best known through Monty Python skits and lurid fiction like Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery.”
Yet two recent real world cases have struck a nerve: a young couple were stoned to death last week in northern Afghanistan for trying to elope, in a grim sign of the ’s resurgence. And last month, an international campaign rose up in defense of an Iranian woman, , who had been sentenced to death by stoning on adultery charges.