women and peace

Afghanistan

2005

International supporters can help women's projects in Afghanistan: See the Australian Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan site http://www.sawa-australia.org/: All funds raised will go to RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) projects, so fundraising activities will run with minimum costs and as much sponsorship as possible. See www.rawa.org for more information on RAWA projects.

July: Hope lives on... Erica Ahmed writes about the Khewa refugee camp for Afghanis located on the outskirts of Peshawar.
http://jang-group.com/thenews/jul2005-weekly/you-05-07-2005/index.html

..."For the youth, especially school-going girls, life in Afghanistan is characterised by paralyzing physical danger. As a recently released report by Amnesty International explained, violence against females in the country is such that "Daily Afghan women are at risk of abduction and rape by armed individuals. The government is doing little to improve their condition." Acts of violence against women are rarely investigated or punished.

Only few schools destroyed during the Taliban-era and subsequent American invasion have been rebuilt, meaning that very few girls have educational institutions near their homes..."

31 May: Amnesty International report: "Women in Afghanistan live daily with the threat of sexual violence, abduction, forced marriage and murder, Amnesty International (AI) charged in a new report. The research was issued just days after Shaima Rezayee, the 24-year-old female host of a Western-style television program that had drawn condemnation from religious conservatives, was slain in Kabul—allegedly with the involvement of her brothers. In the report, Afghanistan: Women Under Attack, AI underscored that violence against women in the country remains entrenched and pervasive and that the criminal justice system not only is ineffective in stopping violence, but often compounds it..."

Elayne Clift: AFGHAN WOMEN FADE FROM VIEW AS MEDIA TOUTS DEMOCRACY

The Violence Continues: reports from the RAWA website "RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan since 1977." See more on RAWA at their English language website.

Afghanistan: Violence Surges
Human Rights Watch, (New York, May 24, 2005) --
Afghanistan’s security situation has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks, with a spate of political killings, violent protests, and attacks on humanitarian workers, Human Rights Watch said today. The instability comes as President Hamid Karzai visits the United States this week.

The recent violence includes the assassination of a parliamentary candidate in Ghazni two weeks ago, the murder of three female aid workers, the kidnapping of an aid worker in Kabul, and clashes between armed factions in the northern province of Maimana. Read full report here.

Three Afghan women found dead with warning note
Reuters, May 2, 2005 KABUL, May 2 (Reuters) - Authorities have found the bodies of three Afghan women, one of whom worked for an aid group, who were raped, strangled and dumped with a warning for women not to work for such groups, an official said on Monday.

Aid workers in Afghanistan have been the target of Taliban insurgents, especially in the insurgency-plagued south and east of the country, but the three women were found in the northern province of Baghlan, where Taliban rebels are not active. Read full report here.

April 2005 - From the Afghan Women's Mission:
Media in the United States have greatly exaggerated any victories for women's rights, and downplayed the conditions of warlordism, oppression and poverty that still flourish. In a recent trip to Afghanistan, Co-Directors of the Afghan Women's Mission, Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls found that the situation of women and girls was extremely dire and that little had changed since the fall of the Taliban.
Read their report: What the News Media Don't Tell You About Afghanistan

Students at the girls' school at Sarandj/Nimroz Photo: Mariam Notten

2003: Two years after the start of the US war on Afghanistan: “No justice and security for women” In a study released on 6 October 2003, “Afghanistan: No justice and security for women”, Amnesty International reports that: “The international community has failed to fulfil its promises to bring freedom and equality to the women of Afghanistan, Amnesty International said in a report released today. ’Nearly two years on, discrimination, violence, and insecurity remain rife, despite promises by world leaders, including President Bush and US Secretary of State Colin Powell, that the war in Afghanistan would bring liberation for women,’ the organization emphasized… read the full report at: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA110252003