There is a link of Afghan women demanding a role in the new government. There are also links of United Nations organization that is working for the advancement of women's role in many societies. I have not the opportunity to seek all the email addresses. Much appreciation if someone can summarize the email addresses of various departments and organizations that are pursuing for women rights from these links and any other ones (newspapers, BBC, Paknews, etc).
I like to make a suggestion. Perhaps we can put our heads together and draft a letter. First draft can be sent via private message to those of us interested. Each of us can then add and suggest improvements. We can share the final complete draft and each of us can send the full draft or parts of it to various organizations.
I think the new government in Afghanistan would be very open minded. There are Afghan women who are ready to take active role in the new government, and we should make strong effort to support their ambition. If they succeed, it will open a new era, not only in the Muslim world but also in Arabian peninsula, South America, Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, etc. It may even awaken American society.
BTW, I have been impressed by the presence of British women journalists covering the frontline in Afghanistan. I am truly amazed at the bravery of these women.
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Afghan women demand role in post-Taliban administration
Contributed by Chitral_Pundit on Tuesday, November 13 2001 @ 12:23:34 MET
afgha.com
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 13 (AFP)
Afghan women who were among the chief victims of the Taliban's five-year hardline rule are shouting to be heard as plans unfold for a new regime in Kabul.
Forced behind the veil, sequestered in their homes and banned from the classroom and the workplace because of the Taliban's radical interpretation of Islamic law, Afghan women activists complain they are once again being cast aside by the debate on their country's future.
"Of course we're angry," said Khorshid Noori, head of a coalition of relief agencies called the Afghan Women's Network, based in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar.
"Anyone would feel angry if they were forgotten, especially as we have fought side by side with our brothers and endured the suffering throughout so many years," Noori said.
Decades of conflict have exacted an horrific death toll on Afghanistan's male population and, according to some estimates, women now make up 65 percent of the country's inhabitants.
An Afghan Women Peace Summit is due to be held in Brussels in December, when delegates will draw up a list of potential leaders and decide whether to take part in moves to bring back exiled king Mohammed Zahir Shah at the head of a provisional administration.
"The players in Afghanistan, including the US and United Nations, all talk about women's rights but when it comes to action, there is nothing," said Zieba Shorish, a Washington-based Afghan exile and veteran women's rights activist.
Shorish is the director of the Women's Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan, which is helping to organize the summit in Belgium.
"We don't want rhetoric. We want reconstruction, education and inclusion in every aspect of life," she said.
So far, proposals for a post-Taliban administration have focused on the creation of a multi-ethnic, broad-based and representative government.
But until last week, when New York Democrat Louise Slaughter and Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen submitted a resolution to the US Congress urging women to be included "as leaders" of any new government, there had been no mention of female representation in the future set-up.
The last time women had any significant say over Afghan affairs was when they sat on a 1963 constitutional drafting committee established under Zahir Shah.
The 1964 constitution guaranteed equality for men and women under the law, but more than two decades of conflict have rendered the document meaningless.
Years of oppression have left Afghan women among the most downtrodden in the world. Their literacy rate is just 5.6 percent, while tens of thousands die in childbirth every year.
Zahir Shah's aides say they plan to include both genders in a proposed "loya jirga", or 120-seat council of elders, which will choose Afghanistan's post-Taliban government.
"We welcome women to join the loya jirga but we're still in the process of deciding how the jirga will be established," said Sayed Salman Gailani, a royalist and Afghan political activist here.
The Gailani family organized a peace and unity conference here three weeks ago. Some 1,200 men representing Afghanistan's diverse ethnic, religious and political factions were invited, but not a single woman.
Organizers cited security risks for excluding women, but rights activists here said that was an old excuse.
"There were no security risks. The police were present to protect everyone and we were left out for the same reason we always are -- because they don't think our opinion matters and we should not concern ourselves with politics," said a woman leader in Peshawar, declining to be named.
There is a degree of internal disagreement within Afghan women's groups over their country's future.
The radical Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, for example, refuses to entertain the inclusion of even moderate Taliban in talks on a new broad-based government.
The Afghanistan Women Council (AWC) insists that all groups and factions should be included.
One of the frontrunners for an invitation from Zahir Shah to join the loya jirga council is AWC director Fatana Gailani, although she said the ex-king's representatives have not approached her yet.
"Let the men get along first, then we will get involved. Until our country has been rescued, the women's issue is a non-issue," Gailani said.
wfp.org
un.org
un.org
pakobserver.com
un.org
unifem.undp.org
unifem.org.jo
dir.yahoo.com
afgha.com
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