Women, Peace & Governance Newsletter UNIFEM-Afghanistan
The New Resource Centre For Women in Politics Opens! Issue, 1May 2009
providing the women political www.peacewithjustice4afghani stan.blogspot.com . leaders of Afghanistan access to vital tools, dynamic trainings, and In this issue - networking opportunities. The
center features a library, a The New Resource 1 computer room, a policy research Centre for Women in Politics Opens unit, and professional meeting Sitara Achekzia, 1 spaces for both large and small Women’s Human gatherings. Designed as a Rights Defender: supportive space for women Murdered outside her Home in Kandahar political actors, the center
provides an ideal environment for Afghan Women Defy 2 women leaders to learn from one Odds to Gather in their Closed temporarily due to security related 1000’s to call for Peace another, debate important issues, concerns, the UNIFEM-Administered Resource with Justice in and work together productively to Afghanistan Centre for Women in Politics officially reopened enhance the status of Afghan Shia Personal Status in February 2009. 3 women in all sectors and from all Law Debate Succeeds in Galvanising Men and Based in the heart of Shahr-e-nau, The Resource walks of life. Women Around Center for Women in Politics is dedicated to Women’s Rights
324 Women File to Run 4 A Tribute to Sitara Achekai: Afghan Women’s Human for Provincial Council Seats, while 2 Women Rights Defender. Stand for President
On March 17th Sitara daring to prove that struggle, women and men Achakzai, an Afghan women can be leaders for of Afghanistan must work woman’s human rights peace, change and together to demand JOB VACANCIES defender and Provincial equality. women’s rights, and that Council member from equal power would never Sitara was one of three 2 National Kandahar, Afghanistan, was be achieved without a founders and a leader of killed outside her home for struggle. She described Internship Positions, the 2008 and 2009 ‘praying peace as a calm in which for peace with justice’ Women, Peace and the rule of law can be action, leading 1000’s of implemented justly, and Governance Unit: Gain women in Kandahar and described a true leader as a nationally to publicly call invaluable experience, person with a vision for for peace with justice (see equality and change. costs covered. For pg 2). The first time we Throughout our three days more information met Sitara, who returned with Sitara in February of to Afghanistan from please contact this year, she astounded us Germany in 2004, she with her bravery, courage registry.unifem.af@unif discussed her country in and strength. Article depth. She told us that em.org Continued., Page 2— while it would be a long Sitara Achekai, Women’s Human Rights Defender: Murdered outside her home in Kandahar Continued from front page— ‘In other countries, day by day, human rights develop. But in Afghanistan, sometimes it feels like they move backwards.’ Despite this challenge, in 2008 and 2009 she and two friends gathered 2,000 Kandahari women in the heart of Kandahar to call for their vision – a vision of peace with justice, and to hold those in power accountable to the voices of women. Her killing was a cold-blooded act of cowardice, a means of refusing to engage in debate and dialogue, of silencing a powerful majority of the country through fear and violence. Sitara symbolized what Afghan women leaders pose nationally – a vocal minority, asking for change, asking questions about the role of women in Afghanistan, and demanding inclusion in the reconstruction and development of their homeland. The killing of women like Sitara not only has tremendous personal ramifications for family and friends, but profound social repercussions that cannot be understated. Her killing silences the voices of thousands of other women and men in Afghanistan who believe that human rights are not a western imposition, but are central to their understanding of Islam, and to their beliefs and cultures. The remaining people who continue to bravely speak out in defense of human rights, both men and women’s, are crucial to the future of Afghanistan. Attacks on their lives are not spontaneous. They are premeditated and forewarned. Weeks and months before Sitara’s death she was telling anyone who would listen of her fears. An attack on women and men like Sitara is an attack on all human rights defenders. Brave women and men willing to stand up and be heard on issues of human rights must be supported and they must be protected. Violence with impunity must not be allowed to continue, and the Government of Afghanistan and the international community must join in holding the perpetrators of Sitara’s murder accountable to this standard. UNIFEM-Afghanistan, April 13, 2009
Afghan Women Defy Odds to Gather in their 1000’s to Call for Peace with Justice in Afghanistan March 8 th , International Women’s Day - On the same day that U.S. President Barak Obama announced his willingness to en- gage in talks with Taliban moderates, 11,000 Afghan women across the nation came out of their homes in a public prayer for peace with justice in Afghanistan. Wearing blue scarves as a symbol of the need to keep human rights central to any peace settlements, the women stood in solidarity with a unified vision in a nation torn by long-standing and volatile ethnic, tribal, and linguistic divisions. The scarves challenged the world to see “beyond the burqa”—the image most familiar to the world of Afghan women—to recognize the agency of women and their right to claim a public presence for peace. “We are the victims of war, but more importantly we are the messengers of peace,” read the public statement of the women peace activists. “We must be included in building peace in our “Afghan women are tired of being subject to egregious acts of violence, country. Only the bird with equal wings can fly.” we are tired of watching our family and friends killed, and we refuse to Peace talks with the Taliban have thus far excluded women from accept the pervasive political, cultural, and economic violence which the negotiating table. Given the gender ideology of the conser- woman face on a daily basis both in our homes and in our pursuit to vative Taliban, women’s human rights are feared to be negoti- participate in public life,” said Rangina Hamidi, an activist from Kanda- ated away as means of ending the insurgency. har. “We cannot gain peace only through guns, through bombs, and This year, young and experienced grassroots Afghan women peace ac- through killing people. If that were the case, we would have had tivists gathered to plan and strategize how to spread the peace action peace by now. Real peace relates to security, but it also relates beyond the confines of southern Afghanistan, to indicate to the coun- to equality, justice and access to services,” said a young woman try and the world that women are ready to be equal partners for peace. peace activist from Mazar. The action defied all expectations, erupting in seven provinces of the country, bringing together 11,000 Afghan women. The action began in 2008 in Kandahar, the spiritual heartland of the Taliban and one of the most violent part of the country, ‘Participation was higher than we ever expected. I cried when I saw all where last March 8 th a large crowd of women came out of their women united, many who had come a long way, to show their solidar- homes to pray for peace. In Afghanistan, something as simple as ity to their fellow women, and to the world,’ said Aziza, one of the or- coming out of your home can be deadly dangerous if you are a ganizers in Herat. ‘This action is the beginning of a movement of Af- woman, as the recent public beheadings of two women in ghan women—we will no longer be silent, still, invisible,’ added Nabila Ghazni province and the acid attacks on a group of school girls in of Mazar. The action is yet another testament to the fact that Afghan Kandahar, demonstrate. women are ready, willing and able to take their rightful role in the de- velopment of their country. Shia Personal Status Law Debate Succeeds in Galvanising Afghan Women and Men Around Women’s Rights
The signing of a controversial Shi’a Personal Status Law by President Hamid Karzai in March 2009 has created a firestorm of national and international outrage, while also succeeding in galvanizing women and men around issues of women’s rights in Afghanistan. Article 131 of the Afghanistan Constitution allows for a separate code of family law for the Shiite sect, which makes up approximately 10 percent of the population of the post-conflict country. The majority of the Shiite population supports such a law, and there is no dispute as to their right to such a law. Yet, the bill signed by the President includes controversial provisions that human rights advocates—Shi’a activists leading the charge—cried foul, highlighting that the law includes provisions not in conformity with Islam, the Constitution’s equality clause, or international treaties to which Afghanistan is a signatory, including CEDAW without reservation. Described by many as a staggering setback for the women of Afghanistan, the law would place severe restrictions on a woman's freedom of self- determination, denying her the right to leave home without her husband’s permission and requiring her to meet his demands for sexual intercourse, among other provisions. Supporters argued that the law simply represents the realities of many cus- tomary household practices in Afghanistan, which confine the freedom of women to male discretion. Yet, human rights advocates have claimed, codifi- cation of such customary practices enshrines into law discrimination against women in the areas of marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance and ac- cess to education—with potential impacts on all women, Shi’a and Sunni. While civil society activists and women parliamentarians had advocated for amendment to the proposed bill for more than a year, most of their sugges- tions went unheeded. When news broke that the bill had been signed by President Karzai with controversial provisions still intact, international objections were swift, with U.S. President Barak Obama calling the law “abhorrent.” With the law in the international limelight, a nationally-led civil society movement quickly grew, calling for revisions that reconcile women’s rights with Shi’a law. The advocacy efforts galvanized civil society and women’s movement, highlighting a common platform for human rights advocacy and recognizing the bravery and courageousness of Afghan women and men fighting for equality across reli- gious, ethnic and tribal differences. Organising for Gender Equality The international outcry over the law, once signed, helped to create the space needed for Afghan civil society to organize and come to- gether under a common message. Afghan women and men leveraged new attention to the law to coordinate, organize and bravely pub- licly debate the complex and highly charged issues surrounding the most controversial of the law’s articles. From people in rural commu- nities to men and women in Parliament, a dialogue on the centrality of women’s human rights to a developing democracy took center stage. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the Civil Society & Human Rights Network, the Afghan Women’s Net- work, Rights & Democracy and Global Rights are only some of the many organizations who have rallied against the laws anti-human rights provisions. Feminist movements from as far as the United States to as near as Iran have issued statements in support of the efforts of the women of Afghanistan to dismantle a false dichotomy between human rights and Islam. Afghan women parliamentarians, who lobbied for change in the Parliament with little support from their peers, were instrumental in leading, guiding and supporting the call for change, as it emerged from all corners. Coordination meetings to discuss amendments to the law repeatedly attracted over 50 people from different organizations, meetings with the Government created alliances between previ- ously disparate groups, and press conferences united high-level decision makers with grass roots activist in taking a stand against the controversial provisions of the law. Of particular note, a protest was held in Kabul on April 15 th , spearheaded by a group of young Shi’a women. More than 200 women gathered in front of madrasa of Ayatollah Mohseni’s , the cleric who wrote the law, to highlight that of the law did not represent Shi’a family relations, nor Shi’a law. A counter protest quickly developed, and the women were pelted with stones, spat at, and accused of being infidels. The women were escorted with the protection of riot police to the nearby Parliament for their own safety. The demonstration was organized by a group of young and courageous Shia women, how had previously not been en- gaged in politics. In turn, it was support by high level women in Afghanistan. Shinkai Kharohol, one of Afghanistan’s 68 female MP’s, de- scribed the demonstration as a ‘wonderful occasion. It was the first time in the history of Afghanistan that women were aware of their rights’, she said. ‘It was a fantastic statement that women will demand equal rights’. (quote taken from Guardian article, April 17th…) The activity surrounding the controversial provisions of the law has provoked important discussions about the role of women in Islam, the interface between religion and the State, and the relationship between Islamic laws and women’s human rights. The open forum in which many of these discussions are taking place is a bold and new development. Such open debate can be potentially dangerous, dem- onstrated by stone-throwing reception of the young women protesters, as well as the unrelated assassination of women’s rights activist and Provincial Council member Sitara Achakzai during the same week. Article Continued, Page 4— Shia Personal Status Law Debate Succeeds in Galvanis- ing Afghan women and Men around Women’s Rights Continued from Page 3—
The result of the widespread advocacy has been productive: the President has publicly committed to a new review of the law be- fore it is enacted. Most importantly, the gains from the coordi- nated advocacy efforts have demonstrated the power of civil soci- ety to hold the government accountable to keeping its commit- ment to women’s rights and human rights more generally, as codi- fied in the Afghanistan Constitution and the international treaties to which it is a party.
Resource Centre for Women To contact the in Politics Newsletter. Resource Centre for May 2009 Women in Politics, please email Issue 1. [email protected]
The space is available for use to all women in Picture Above: Library and Resource Room in the Resource Centre politics. for Women in Politics, Kabul.
324 Women File to Run for Provincial Council seats, 2 women stand for President, 7 women stand as Vice President.
Throughout the candidate filling collecting period earlier this month, a record voter registration card numbers and number of women registered to signatures, and where necessary, run for both President and financially supported other women. This Provincial Council seats in the 2009 support is particularly important given elections. that in many parts of the country This was not luck, but was achieved collecting registration card numbers and through the hard work and signatures is very difficult for women organizing of women throughout given constraints on their movement. Afghanistan networking and Moving forward it is important that supporting each other. Assisting women candidates are given support their sisters, women politics actors and access to resources in their from Kabul and beyond went into campaigns for election, and post the field and led efforts in election.