Rally to stop violence against women

On the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, hundreds of women rallied in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to promote their cause. "Afghan women suffer from violence from the womb of their mothers until the end of their lives," Shukria Barekzai, one of the rally's participants, told IRIN on Wednesday. Barekzai, who runs a weekly women's newspaper, explained that although domestic violence had traditionally been a problem in conservative Afghan society, 25 years of war had fuelled the problem even more so. "Verbal violence is just a common practice. For example, insulting and using strong language against women is not considered bad in many families," the mother of three said. But it was the issues of physical and sexual violence that were most telling. For example, in areas under the control of gunmen and warlords women were often forcibly married. And while the situation of Afghan women had improved following the collapse of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001, intimidation and violence against them continued largely unabated, with many - particularly in rural areas - feeling their situation had remained unchanged. Most of the demonstrators IRIN interviewed cited economic hardship, lack of security, domestic violence, illiteracy and maternal mortality as the primary issues affecting women in post-Taliban Afghanistan. "Women do have the understanding to voice their concerns and ask for their rights, but they are self-censored given violence both at home and outside their homes," Wulanga Saafi, a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Education, who participated in the rally, told IRIN. Saafi maintained that traditional values and complexities had become entrenched in many parts of the country, with women deprived of their most basic rights. As part of Wednesday's peaceful demonstration, participants prepared a 12-article resolution addressed to all concerned bodies. The elimination of any kind of violence against women, the struggle against gender-based discrimination, and designing social and cultural programmes to combat violence against women, were among those listed, Saafi said. Meanwhile, rights activists at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) confirmed that despite some progress over the past three years, the cycle of violence endured by many women continued. "It comes out of negative practices from Afghanistan's long history that have created a culture of violence against women," Nadir Nadery, an AIHRC member, told IRIN, noting insecurity throughout the country had fuelled further forms of violence, including kidnapping, rape and forced marriages. According to the activist, the human rights situation inside the country had not improved in the past year. "The level of violence is still very high. Over the past six months we had more than 2,000 violations of human rights, which is a big number," he said. However, there had been a decline in the number of forced marriages. "We see that forced marriages, land grabbing and torture have reduced from the beginning of the year," he said. But in contrast, arbitrary detention and arbitrary killing had increased. "Arbitrary detention constituted only 10 percent of the rights violations early this year, but now it appears to be more than 40 percent, which includes detentions by the US-led coalition forces as well.” According to AIHRC, the top human rights concerns were land grabbing from farmers by local commanders, arbitrary killing and torture, and the general state of impunity. The commission also said that there was yet to be any judicial follow up of these violations. “The judiciary either ignores them or is unable to bring perpetrators to justice,” Nadery claimed. Citing the massive turnout of women in October's first ever presidential elections as a major development, much more was needed to safeguard the rights of women nationwide, the activist explained, noting: "There is a strong need for developing a national policy for improving women rights within the context of Afghanistan."