Afghanistan:
New War Puts Women's Rights In Peril (New York, October 29,
2001)
Afghan
women are likely to face further
suffering at the hands of warring factions in Afghanistan
and to endure some
of the most serious humanitarian consequences of the U.S.-led
military
action, Human Rights Watch said today.
In
a new report , Human Rights Watch documents the catastrophic assault
on women's human rights during a decade of conflict in Afghanistan,
and under the repressive rule of the Taliban. The 27-page report,
"Humanity Denied: Systematic Violations of Women's Rights in
Afghanistan," urges the international community to protect
women's rights during the conflict and include full respect and
protection for women's human rights as an integral part of any post-conflict
reconstruction in Afghanistan Humanity
Denied: Systematic Violations of Women's Rights in Afghanistan Human
Rights Watch Report, October 2001 is available
online "Women
have borne the lion's share of human rights abuses in Afghanistan
throughout the conflict, and they are in particular danger now,"
said LaShawn R. Jefferson, executive director of the women's rights
division of Human Rights Watch. "Any future political arrangements
in Afghanistan have to take special account of what women have suffered
- and how that can be remedied."The Taliban's restrictions
on women's movement, dress, and association may be preventing women
from fleeing for safety or getting access to humanitarian aid, Human
Rights Watch said. Women are forced to wear a chadari, a head-to-toe
enveloping garment that literally makes it difficultfor them to
move quickly. Since women are not allowed to travel outside the
home without a close male relative, widows and women who head households
face a particularly serious humanitarian crisis. Both Taliban forces
and forces now grouped in the United Front have sexually assaulted,
abducted, and forcibly married women during the armed conflict,
targeting them on the basis of both gender and ethnicity. Thousands
of women have been physically assaulted and have had severe restrictions
placed on their liberty and fundamental freedoms. "The
Taliban have sought to erase women from public life through widespread
discrimination. They punish women with public beatings," said
Jefferson. "Any political solution in Afghanistan must not
bargain away accountability for this systematic violence and discrimination."
Human
Rights Watch called on all parties to the conflict to commit to
respect international human rights and humanitarian law and to investigate
and hold accountable personnel responsible for violations. The international
monitoring organization urged the Taliban and the United Front to
cease violations of humanitarian law, in particular gender-specific
violations against women, and urged the donor community to ensure
the inclusion of women both as recipients of aid and as equal partners
in decision making regarding development and aid projects in Afghanistan.
The
following are testimonials from the report "Humanity Denied:
Systematic Violations of Women's Rights in Afghanistan:"
Zafia
Akil, a widow who worked as a seamstress in Kabul: The Taliban asked
my customers, "Why are you going to her house. Are you going
to gather and make plans against us?" I had a board outside
which read, "Tailoring for women and children." Three
times they came and warned me, and I told them, "I am a widow,
what should I do?" The third time they took my board down and
said that if I do not stop this work they will kill me. They accused
me of making plans against the Taliban. They said, "Everyone
should sew their own clothes; our wives sew their own clothes. God
will assist you, if you do everything as God wishes." It was
the Religious Police, and I was forced to close four months ago
and leave for Pakistan.
Shokeria Ahmed, a medical doctor in Kabul:
My husband hailed a taxi to take my child and me to the hospital.
Five minutes later, a Religious Police car stopped the taxi. He
made me get out of the taxi. I was lucky my husband told the taxi
driver I was a doctor. The taxi driver told the Taliban that he
was taking me to the hospital. There were three Taliban. One of
them beat the driver with a yellow cable that was pretty wide. I
was scared. He asked me why the holes in my chadari were so big?
Why are you alone in the taxi? I asked, "Are you going to beat
me?" I put my child away in the car and told them, "Beat
me, but do not hurt the child." He beat me. I hid my face.
He hit me several times - on the back and arms. I had bruises.
WOMEN'S
RIGHTS WATCH NIGERIA IN
COLLABORATION WITH ROOTS AND FRUITS WOMEN FARMERS SOCIETY OF NIGERIA
(RUFARM) AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS LEGAL AID CLINIC THE
FIRST NIGERIA INTERNET INTERACTIVE CONFERENCE ON THE ECONOMIC RIGHTS
OF NIGERIAN WOMEN Web
page:
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