Women for Afghan Women
Press Release
October 21st, 2002

The second annual conference of Women for Afghan Women, the first grassroots women's organization in New York City dedicated to ensuring the human rights of Afghan women, took place on October 19, 2002 at Barnard College, Columbia University. The conference, which was attended by over 200 members of the Afghan-American community, students and faculty of Columbia University, and others, focused on reports conducted by Afghan women directly involved in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and human rights advocacy regarding the achievements and the challenges in securing women's rights in Afghanistan since the signing of the Interim Administration agreement in Bonn, 2001.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Sima Simar, former Deputy Premier and presently Minister for Women's Affairs and the head of the Human Rights Commission in the Afghan Interim Administration. She stressed the need for educating Afghans on international human rights standards, not only in the official school curriculum but in guides and periodicals and, with additional funding, over the radio to reach the almost 80 percent of women who are illiterate. Another pressing task is human rights monitoring and investigation; presently by documenting complaints and abuses and taking them directly to President Hamid Karzai, and in the future by investigating the mass graves produced by various factions in 23 years of war. The program to achieve civil disarmament outside of the Afghan National Army, Dr. Samar stated, is being undermined by the United States' policy of providing more weapons and funding to local warlords, who are presently beyond the control of the small number of trained Afghan army and police stationed in Kabul.

The first panel was devoted to human rights and included renowned feminist theologian Dr. Riffat Hassan, playwright and women's rights activist Eve Ensler, Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal, and Orzala Ashraf, co-founder of Humanitarian Assistance for Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA), a non-profit organization dedicated to education, health care, and economic empowerment of Afghan women. Panelists agreed on the need to promote Afghan women's human rights within an Islamic framework adapted to Afghan culture and religious conviction. "Islam, properly interpreted in a non-patriarchal way, not only does not discriminate against women but protects women's rights," said Dr. Hassan.

The second panel addressed education and health care. Zolaykha Sherzad and Hassina Sherjan, who lead organizations that raise funds for boys' and girls' schools in Afghanistan, explained that while many girls have returned to school and women's literacy programs are expanding, teachers routinely go unpaid, teacher training and materials are woefully inadequate, and classes are held outside in the hot sun and chilling winter, or in tents or the overcrowded classrooms and hallways of buildings shattered by war. Many students lack books and warm clothes and often go without shoes despite having to walk miles to school on unpaved roads in extreme temperatures. Hospitals function without medicine and equipment, and surgery is conducted without sterilization or anesthesia. [Women for Afghan Women advisory board member Fahima Vorgetts, who travels to Afghanistan regularly to bring much needed humanitarian aid, emphasized that it is critical that the international community step forward to provide the estimated $20 to $30 billion needed for reconstruction of the Afghan educational and health systems.

The third and final panel dealt with law and governance. The panelists agreed that the situation outside Kabul remains desperate, and that there is little hope for democratic elections, human rights, or women's empowerment in areas where the warlords hold power and are gaining strength each day through massive funding from abroad and the lucrative proceeds of arms and drugs trafficking. Hangama Anwari, Vice-Chair of the Afghan Women Lawyers and Professionals Association (AWLPA), also described how many innocent women have been jailed for years and undergo rape and abuse without being able to answer the charges against them.

AWLPA will play an important part in enshrining women's rights within the Afghan Constitution to be drafted starting in December 2003, as well as in the criminal and civil law of a rebuilt Afghanistan. Fatima Gailani, a political activist and former spokesperson of the Afghan esistance to the Soviet invasion, stated that she would be very happy if the new constitution revives the 1964 Afghan Constitution's guarantee of equal rights for women, but is "very worried" about the anti-women constitutional provisions advocated by some conservative forces, such as mandatory dress codes for women. The panelists also emphasized that Afghan women must be provided with identification papers and voter registration and education services if the mid-2004 elections are to have any legitimacy.

Women for Afghan Women co-founder Sunita Mehta and program coordinator Masuda Sultan closed the conference with an appeal and pledge that Afghan women's issues will not be forgotten, even as the attention of the United States and the world turns to the war in Iraq.

For more information or to volunteer or make a contribution, please contact Women for Afghan Women at P.O. Box 152, Midtown Station, New York, NY 10018, (212) 868-9360, or info@womenforafghanwomen.org.

Contacts:
Sunita Mehta: Sunitabmehta@aol.com: (212) 260-4446
Masuda Sultan: miakamran@aol.com: (212) 868-9360