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TERI University

Department of Policy studies

AN ESSAY ON

Gender and Development in Afghanistan

Under the subject of

Integrated Approaches to Sustainable Development Practice, MPD 101

Submitted to

(Dr. Nimisha Jha)

Submitted by

Abdul Wahab “Azad” (Role No: 1301 MPD)

Past

Current

Still struggle for

Gender equity

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Gender and Development

The situation of women in Afghanistan has been dismal for many years. Their status was

undermined during the Soviet occupation and under subsequent regimes; in fact, the violation

of Afghan women‟s human rights is considered to have been “at its worst during the civil war

when Mujahedin leaders fought for control of Kabul” in the early 1990s. However, “human

rights abuses and crimes against women failed to attract interest beyond Afghanistan”,

women‟s rights were further eroded when the Taliban came into power in 1996.Yet the plight

of Afghan women was largely ignored until the terrorist attacks on the United States on 11

September 2001 drew strategic interest toward Afghanistan. (ClaraMorgan, 10 January 2008)

After the fall of Taliban regime there has been important commitments by the democratic

government for providing gender equality in Afghanistan:

December, 2001: The “Bonn Agreement” is signed recognizing the necessity of

female participation in public life to promote women‟s rights and women‟s status in

the peace and reconstruction process.

January, 2002: President Hamid Karzai signs the “Declaration of the Essential

Rights of Afghan Women” that affirms the equality between men and women, their

equal protection under the law, their equality in terms of education, freedom of

movement, speech, political participation and the right to choose whether to wear the

“burqa” or not. ((Burqa=scarf)).

2004: The Government of Afghanistan commits itself to pursue achievement of the 9

“Millennium Development Government of Afghanistan” (MDGs) by 2020,

among which are gender-specific targets in the fields of education, economics, health

and political participation.

November, 2004: The Government of Afghanistan develops the “National Strategy

for Children at Risk” to develop a network of services and programs to protect

children and support their families.

February, 2006: “Afghanistan Compact” that contains the Government of

Afghanistan‟s vision until 2020 for gender equality is framed. Principle 5 states that

the Afghan government and the international community will “build lasting Afghan

capacity and civil society institutions, with particular emphasis on building up human

capacities of men and women alike.”

2008: The “National Action Plan for the Women of Afghanistan 2008-2018”

(NAPWA) is adopted as a 10-year policy framework to assure continuity and

consistency with Government of Afghanistan‟s efforts to protect and promote Afghan

women‟s rights.

2008: The Government of Afghanistan publishes the “Afghanistan National

Development Strategy 2008-2013”(ANDS) which is “an overarching framework that

synthesizes the critical measures to be pursued through all ANDS sectors to fulfil the

Government‟s commitment to women‟s development as embodied by the

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Constitution, Afghanistan MDGs, Afghanistan Compact, I-ANDS and international

treaties such as CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action”.

August, 2009: The Government of Afghanistan adopts the “Law on the Elimination

of Violence against Women” (EVAW law) which mentions 22 different forms of

violence against women.

July, 2012: “Tokyo conference” agrees to a Monitoring and Evaluation framework

wherein Government of Afghanistan/donors have agreed to keep women‟s

empowerment as a key indicator of progress in Afghanistan.

Despite some tangible achievements, Afghan women continue to face a number of problems

according to a range of sources. For instance, The Guardian cited a 2011 survey by the

Thomson Reuters Foundation which identified Afghanistan as the most dangerous place for

women. The survey found that high mortality rates, limited access to doctors and a lack of

economic rights were among the dangers faced by women, in addition to “continuing

conflict, NATO air strikes, and cultural practices”. UNIFEM says that 87% of women face

abuse and violence in Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that, in areas

under Taliban control, women are facing constant threats, intimidation and violence. Girls‟

schools - and girls themselves - have been targeted along with female political leaders and

activists, several of whom have reportedly been murdered.

The following figure shows the female vs. male participation in the public sector of

Afghanistan during 2010: (AhmadKhan, February 2012)

Still women in Afghanistan face various problems only because of being a female and these

problems relate to:

1. Leadership, civic engagement, and political participations

The efforts of women activists working towards equality for women in Afghanistan are

continuously undermined by the corruption and sexist discrimination present at every level of

the justice system. Violence against women is widespread and comes from many sources,

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including family, armed groups, community leaders and agents of the state. Women who

experience violence have little recourse. There are few shelters to turn to, and there is a lack of

will to prosecute violence against women in the justice system, where they may face further

discrimination and violence.

Since 2005, a push has been made to encourage women to take part in national politics due to

pressure from the United Nations and the Ministry of Women‟s Affairs. In the directly

elected lower house of the National Assembly, 68 of the 249 seats are reserved for women in

the House of the People (Wolesi Jirga). In the upper house the same situation is going on.

(FAO, 11 March 2011)

2. Education

Afghanistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. Only 14 percent of adult women

are literate, with some literacy rates in rural areas as low as 4-5 percent. Education for girls was

severely restricted under the Taliban rule. Since then, girls‟ education has been provided

through home schools, often run by private individuals or communities or NGOs. The Afghan

Ministry of Education is currently working to increase education and raise literacy levels and

some progress has been made. 1.2 million Girls have enrolled in Afghanistan‟s primary schools

since 2002, but more than 1 million primary school age girls are still not attending classes.

(Alison Luke, Sofi Khwaja, Lina Rahman, Keely Hunter and others, NA)

But with new efforts by international organizations and foreign countries to negotiate with

the Taliban, progress might be in the works. In the beginning of 2011, the Afghanistan

Ministry of Education reported that Taliban leaders had informed elders in rural regions that

girls could now attend separate schools as long as they and the female teachers wore the hijab

and that the curriculum respected cultural and religious values. Schools have since been

reopened and Najibullah Ahmadi, the director of education for the Kandahar Province, claims

that thousands of girls have since enrolled. Even if the Taliban respects this commitment, the

country still has to face other problems: lack of funding to reopen schools, shortage of female

teachers, ensuring security and shifting traditional parental views towards educating girls.

(WikiGender, NA)

3. Health

As „The Guardian‟ stated Afghanistan as the most dangerous place for women; an important

reason behind this statement is the low level reach of clinics and hospitals by the women in

Afghanistan. Today in Afghanistan, every 29 minute one woman dies from pregnancy

related complications which means that women in Afghanistan are facing many health

related problems.

Due to international funding and supports, hundreds of hospitals and clinics have been

established all around Afghanistan which would surely decrease the health related

problem of women in Afghanistan.

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4. Gender based violence (street harassment, sexual violence, kidnappings,

severe beating, forced marriage, etc.)

According to a nationwide research in 2008, Global Rights Afghanistan concluded that 87.2

Percent of Afghan women and girls are faced with at least one form of sexual, physical,

economical, psychological abuse in Afghanistan.

Reported cases of violence against women have increased 100 % between 2008 and

2009 ranging from domestic abuse to honour killing to rape to self-immolation and

exchange of women to solve communal disputes. Up to 80 % of marriages are forced

marriages on girls and 57 percent of girls are forced into marriages without their

consent. Afghanistan‟s Supreme Court does not have a women member in its

Executive Council, with only 4 per cent of women as judges in different courts around

the country. Women‟s access to education is dire; one girl per two boys in primary, one girl up

to four boys in secondary and eventually only 1 per cent of girls make it to the higher

education.

However, another perspective will indicate that the past 8 years have been the

„golden years‟ for Afghan women, as described by a prominent Member of the

Parliament, Shukria Barakzai. As she says, Afghanistan has the region‟s progressive

women‟s quota (reserved seats) in both houses of the parliament, approximately 27

percent, for the first time in the history; the country has a Ministry of Women‟s

Affairs as part of the Bonn agreement that marked the new era for the women of

the country. 6 million children going to school, out of which 35 percent are girls.

There is a flourishing women‟s movement advocating for women‟s political and

social inclusion, the recent approval of the Elimination of Violence against Women

Law as a recent example of struggles against violence on women and girls. (AfghanWomen,

2009)

According to reports the gender related problems are still existing in Afghanistan, but it has

been decreased through strategies implemented by Afghan and international institutions after

the Taliban government collapsed, which means that development of gender equality in

Afghanistan has been adopted through strategies to educate women, provide health services

for women, give the right for political participation of women, and also fighting against the

gender based violence on women through different national and international institutions.

I strongly believe that Women are as important as men for development of a war-torn country

like Afghanistan, and I want to conclude my essay with the following statements made by

Barack Obama and Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

“The best judge of whether or not a country is going to develop is how it treats its women. If

it‟s educating its girls, if women have equal rights, that country is going to move forward.

But if women are oppressed and abused and illiterate, then they‟re going to fall behind.”

(Obama, Sep. 2008)

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"Your country is now embarking on a process to create credible and accountable institutions

in which all Afghans are represented. These are decisions for Afghan men and women to

make. The role of the United Nations is to assist and encourage this process. But, I would like

to take this opportunity to say to all Afghans: there cannot be true peace and recovery in

Afghanistan without a restoration of the rights of women." (UN, 2001).

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References:

AfghanWomen. (2009). Gender – based Violence in Afghanistan. Kabul: Afghan Women’s Network.

AhmadKhan. (February 2012). Women & Gender in Afghanistan. Retrieved 11 07, 2013, from

AFGHANISTAN RESOURCE DESK:

https://www.cimicweb.org/cmo/afg/Documents/Afghanistan-

RDPs/CFC_Afghanistan_Women-and-Gender_Feb12.pdf

Alison Luke, Sofi Khwaja, Lina Rahman, Keely Hunter and others. (NA). Women’s Equality in

Afghanistan. Retrieved 11 10, 2013, from http://www.iwrp.org/pdf/afghan_paper.pdf

ClaraMorgan. (10 January 2008). Afghanistan: The Status of Women. Retrieved 11 06, 2013, from

Parliament of Canada : http://www.parl.gc.ca/content/lop/researchpublications/prb0734-

e.htm

FAO. (11 March 2011). Political Empowerment . Retrieved 11 06, 2013, from Gender Equality in

Afghanistan: http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/Gender_Equality_in_Afghanistan

Gender Equality in Afghanistan. (NA). Retrieved 11 06, 2013, from Wiki Gender:

http://www.wikigender.org/index.php/Gender_Equality_in_Afghanistan#cite_note-2

Obana. (Sep. 2008). BARACK OBAMA QUOTES. Retrieved 11 06, 2013, from BARACK OBAMA, Ladies'

Home Journal, Sep. 2008

UN. (2001). THE SITUATION OF WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN. Retrieved 11 09, 2013, from

http://www.un.org/events/women/2002/sit.htm

Sources for the Pictures in the Cover page:

http://www.feminist.org/afghan/taliban_women.asp

http://www.feminist.org/afghan/aboutcampaign.asp

http://www.afghanwomennetwork.af/Gender%20based%20Violence%20in%20Afghanistan.pdf