Afghanistan – The Challenges of Defending Women’s Rights in Kandahar
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: October 30, 2006
October 24, 2006
The Challenges of Defending
Women’s Rights in Kandahar
The killing of Safiye Amajan by the Taleban on 25 September 2006 again
highlights the dangers facing women human rights defenders (HRDs) in
Afghanistan. Safiye Amajan, the head of the Department for Women?s Affairs
(DoWA) in the southern province of Kandahar, ran a school from her home during
the period of Taleban rule. She subsequently led DoWA projects in Kandahar
province that included the establishment of schools and the provision of
education to hundreds of girls and women. She opened vocational training centres
that enabled women to develop skills previously beyond their reach.
Women HRDs in Kandahar — and elsewhere in Afghanistan — are caught between
a near-total lack of personal security, resurgent Taleban attacks and the
killing of civilian men and women resulting from military action undertaken by
the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
On 3 October, a prominent woman HRD in Kandahar wrote to Amnesty
International (AI) describing ?the challenges of defending women?s rights in the
southern Afghan province of Kandahar?. She said:
??in advocating women?s human rights, one of my goals is to let the
civilised world know about realities in this part of the world. But please
make sure that my name is not mentioned? you better say ?a woman HRD in
Kandahar?. This is necessary for my own security in this volatile situation.?
In her letter, she wrote:
?Despite the severely deteriorating security situation in Kandahar
City, I continue to work for women?s rights in a circumspect manner and amidst
real threats all around me. Struggling for women?s social, economic and
political rights, we hold our meetings in private houses to at least be able
express and discuss some of the core issues in regard to our civic rights and
search for the few ways possible to secure them.“What really threatens women in Kandahar province these days is their
overall security and safety while outdoors; safety amid terrorist threats from
the extremist and regrouped Taleban and the ongoing fighting between
government forces and militants in the region. For this reason, women do not
dare come out of their homes and send their girls to schools. On the other
hand, job and food insecurity for women has further weakened their state in
this conservative society.“Almost every day there are suicide attacks, bomb blasts and fighting
that always results in the killing of civilians in large numbers, including
women and girls. In my recent meetings with displaced families of Panjwaie
district ? an area that has been the scene of intense fighting between Taleban
and the government and foreign forces – I have come to know that a number of
families from Pashmol village have lost their girls in chaos while escaping
heavy aerial bombardment. Though the heavy fighting is now over, their girls
are still missing and they don?t know who may have taken them.“In another brutal incident in Zangawat village of Panjwaie district, a
whole family of 22 members was killed in a mistaken air strike by NATO planes.
Among the dead were seven women including pregnant females and a mother who
was giving birth at the time of bombardment. In the past three months, scores
of women and children have died as a direct result of fighting. Girls’ schools
in rural areas are either being burnt down or closed due to continuing threats
from Taleban. People in the war-torn areas now say ?we now both (sic) hate
Taleban and Government/ Coalition?.“I have also confirmed reports from the city districts that in the past
nine months, seven women have been found dead in different parts of the city
with no-one claiming responsibility for their killings. In most cases, the
suspicion goes to domestic violence and the recent terrorist killings by the
Taleban in order to stop women from coming out of their houses to work for
their livelihood.“In my struggle to raise awareness amongst Kandahari women about their
rights and make government hear their voices, I have taken the above issues on
several occasions to local authorities and the governor. They say, ‘we are
working hard both militarily and politically to overcome the security
situation and once the security problems are solved then every thing will be
better’. This often repeated government statement is now viewed as not being
credible amongst locals because of its proven failure.?So far as my personal security is concerned, I’m still on my own. I
have no armed protection from government nor can I keep private guards to
accompany me all the time. In the past few months, I have been receiving phone
threats from unknown numbers and people threatening me if I don?t give up
working for women?s rights they will kill me. As a precautionary measure, I am
trying to keep my profile as low as possible these days and until it?s a bit
safer to move around.?
Tragically, this human rights defender?s experience is not unique. Safiye
Amajan?s counterpart in the neighbouring province of Helmand, also in southern
Afghanistan, had received death threats, some of which were renewed following
the killing of Safiye Amajan. It has been reported that the provincial heads of
DoWA in the provinces of Nimrouz, Farah, Zabul, Khost, Uruzgan, Paktia, Logar
and Paktika provinces have all faced death threats from unidentified armed men.
Taken together, these provinces account for the whole south, as well as parts of
the centre and east of the country.
Safiye Amajan?s colleague in the eastern province of Nuristan told AI that
she had faced threats to her security. These have been made by mobile phone,
“night letters” — messages posted on the walls of public places at night — and
by messages delivered by hand to her place of work.
Providing practical protection to women HRDs — including government
employees like Safiye Amajan — throughout Afghanistan is complex. In an
environment where the government is unable to guarantee the rule of law or
provide effective protection to human rights defenders, it has been left to
defenders themselves to determine how best to protect themselves.
Women HRDs, including those in government posts working to advance women?s
rights, live amongst those they work with and are amongst them on a daily basis.
They are exposed and no security measure can ensure protection 24 hours a day.
They are confronted with the prospect of needing armed guards to ensure their
protection and this is a great cause for concern amongst the HRD community in
the country.
Some measures may serve to increase their public profile and thereby increase
the risk. In the context of Kandahar, providing for the security of one woman
HRD in an environment where armed opponents to the government are active is
hardly a viable option. The provincial authorities in Kandahar have reportedly
tried to ensure that the concerns of women?s groups are heard and have suggested
that their meetings could be held at government facilities. Women?s groups in
the city, however, fear being seen at government buildings. As the woman HRD in
Kandahar observes, if they are seen at these places, ?they will soon face the
fate of Safiye Amajan.?
Afghan women seeking to peacefully defend their own rights or the rights of
others have been the targets of harassment, intimidation and attacks over
decades in Afghanistan. Afghan armed groups have been particularly intent in
targeting women human rights defenders. The recent wave of attacks against women
HRDs show the vulnerability of these women in Afghanistan. In Amnesty
International?s view, armed groups who have been the main perpetrators of this
cycle of violence against women HRDs have an undeniable responsibility to end
it.
AI is therefore, in the first instance, urging all armed groups in
Afghanistan to stop using violence against women HRDs at all times regardless of
their own political programme or ideology.
Amnesty International is also calling on representatives of the international
community in Kabul, in consultation and collaboration with the Afghan Government
and Afghan HRDs, to facilitate a new approach in developing and implementing
practical measures that can be used by the Afghan Government to extend its
protection of HRDs and by HRDs to find better ways of protecting themselves in
the absence of other forms of protection.
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