Women’s Rights

Women Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) in its 1st article states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” The second article explains the first one as follows: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights .and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. All UN member States are signatory of this document. It is translated in hundreds of languages.

According to these two articles, no discrimination should be made on the base of sex against women but the history of modern World shows that discrimination against women exist even today, in different degrees in almost all countries. On 18 December 1979, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Among the international human rights treaties, the Convention takes an important place in bringing the female half of humanity into the focus of human rights concerns. . In its preamble, the Convention explicitly acknowledges that “extensive discrimination against women continues to exist”, and emphasizes that such discrimination “violates the principles of equality of rights and respect for human dignity”. Today, 41 years after adoption of the convention, inequality of women, especially in underdeveloped countries is very obvious.

Afghanistan and Women Rights:

Women in every country make up half the population. Although Afghanistan is a founding member of UN and signatory to CEDAW, However, the majority of Afghan women is deprived from their legal rights and is subjected to violence and ill-treatment at home and in the society.

The situation of women in Afghanistan in each period has been subject to the general conditions of the country in that period, including the level of economic and social development on the one hand and the policy towards the prevailing traditional and religious restriction, from the other hand. Generally, Afghanistan, despite its rich history and natural resources, suffers from severe economic and social underdevelopment; illiteracy is more than 70 percent. The religion of 99% of the people of Afghanistan is Islam. Afghan clerics still have a conservative view of Islamic principles that is inconsistent with developments in the modern world. The efforts of the clergy to restrict women’s rights, to confine the social role of women in the traditional position of housewife, and to oppose the development of women as active members of the society stems from this conservative and feudal conception. In the past 4 decades of war, the exported ideology of Political Islam related to Salafist School, has gaining extensive ground facilitated by foreign intelligence services in Afghanistan. They are more fanatic than traditional clergy, as it comes to restricting the rights and freedoms of women.

Efforts have been made to improve the social situation of Afghan women in certain periods of contemporary Afghan history:

§ During the reign of Amanullah Khan, the women’s movement was for the first time established by Queen Suraya. According to her daughter, Princess Hindia, Queen Suraya was the Minister of Education in the Amani cabinet. In this period, an institution called the Women’s Association was established to increase the capacities of women, and the first women’s newspaper called Ershad Al-Naswan was published. Malalai and Zarghon girl’s schools were also established in Kabul.

§ The removal of the hijab took place when Mohammad Daoud Khan minister-president of Afghanistan was, in the 1950s. This is a major milestone in the history of women’s liberation in Afghanistan.

§ The Decade of constitutional monarchy (1963-1974) was also a period of improvement of women’s situation in big cities. Dozens of girls’ schools were established in the capital and provincial capitals of Afghanistan. The girls were admitted to Kabul University and lived in the university dormitory. Three women were members of the cabinet in this period. Several women also entered the House of Representatives. It was common for educated and working women to wear modern Western clothing in cities in Afghanistan.

§ Women’s liberties and their capacity for professional and administrative work continued to grow during the Republic under Muhammad Daoud (1973-1978).

§ In the period after the Saur coup of 1978 and the rule of the People’s Democratic Party (1978-1992) and the Russian invasion (1979-1989), there was a lot of talk about women’s rights in government and party propaganda, but no action was taken. On the contrary, the women’s movement was confined within the framework of party’s daughter organizations and was isolated from the people. However, underground women associations such as RAWA existed outside the control of government and opposed to it. During this period, the ruling party’s slogan was: “Everything at the service of the revolution.” The women and the women’s “democratic “organization was subjected to the governments fight for survival. During its 14 years in power, the only performance of this regime for women was recruitment of women as soldier, policewoman and spy of intelligence Directorate (KHAD) and uses them to suppress its own people and work for the survival of regime. When the Russian support was stopped 1991 by Boris Yeltsin, the bitter end of the pro-Soviet regime inevitable and happened in April 1992

§ Another dark period for women’s rights in Afghanistan started in April 1992, when the Islamic parties backed by the US, Pakistan and Iran came to power. These parties started a brutal internal war for gaining more power in new government. During this war, looting of personal and state property, rape of women and girls happened extensively. It is noteworthy that all the decrees issued by the head of the Islamic State, Mr. Rabbani, were limited to restrictions on women’s rights and freedoms.

§ In September 1996, the Taliban seized power in Kabul. Discrimination against women became official in much of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Women were deprived of the right to study and work.They did not have the right to leave home without the accompaniment of a male family member. Women accused of adultery were punished with 80 lashes in public.Violation of Taliban-rules was punishable by brutal corporal punishment. Even women’s clothing was determined by the Taliban. Women were required to wear a burqa. White socks were forbidden, because the color of the Taliban flag was white. Only female physicians could treat a woman. In the absence of female physician, in rural areas, a sick woman could die because the male doctor was not allowed to touch her and hospitals with female doctors were far away…

§ Post Taliban period under 2004 Constitution:

– The Constitution of the year 2004 approved by Loya Jirga (grand council) formed a modern basis for improvement of women rights in laws and regulations. This Constitution guarantees the equality of all citizens in accordance with the law, including women. Article 83 provides for participation of at least two women from each province in Wolesi Jirga (House of Representatives). Article 84 of the Constitution obliges the President to allocate half of appointed seats of Senate to women.

– Participation of women in the parliament is also guaranteed by Election law. 27 percent of all seats in the Afghan parliament are intended for women. This means 68 out of 249 seats (250 in the next parliament). Currently, women hold 69 seats. Afghanistan ranks 55th in the World in terms of the percentage of female MPs. The presence of 69 women in the Lower House of Afghanistan does not mean the real participation of Afghan women in the political affairs of the country and is mare symbolic. Still, this has played a role in political awareness of women.

– Women play an active role in the media and civil society organizations.

– Afghan women experienced a low level of economic independence in the period from the year 2004 on. Currently, 1,150 businesses are leading by women in Afghanistan. These women, however, have played an active role in the labor market. According to statistics provided by the Afghan Ministry of Commerce and Industries, nearly 50,000 women are working in Afghanistan using these opportunities. This improvement is a good start, but far from enough. Women lead less than five percent of Afghanistan’s trade.

Unfortunately, these positive developments have been implemented in women’s lives under foreign pressure and subsidized by foreigners. They are not based on the natural economic and social development of the country. Hence, there is a risk that the decrease of external pressure and subsidy or the future political developments in the country, will cause its loss.