Afghanistan

RIWPS Annual Brochure 2013

The Research Institute for Women Peace and Security (RIWPS) was formed by Afghan women activists after the first Consultative Peace Jirga in Afghanistan in 2010, based on a need for a specific organisation working on issues of women, peace, and security. RIWPS are committed to women's meaning participation in conflict resolution, conflict management, and their presence in peace processes.

This interesting brochure documents the work of RIWPS over the yaer 2013, you can read it by downloading the pdf.

SIGN THE PETITION: President Hamid Karzai: We call on you not to sign the new Law on Criminal Procedures

The law would prohibit the justice system to question relatives of criminal defendants. It will deprive Afghan women and girls access to justice against relatives who commit domestic violence, forced them to marry or even sell them. Only the President can stop this law that has already been passed by the Parliament from being enforced, and he is due to sign it in the coming days.

New Afghanistan law to silence victims of violence against women

A new Afghan law will allow men to attack their wives, children and sisters without fear of judicial punishment, undoing years of slow progress in tackling violence in a country blighted by so-called "honour" killings, forced marriage and vicious domestic abuse.

The small but significant change to Afghanistan's criminal prosecution code bans relatives of an accused person from testifying against them. Most violence against women in Afghanistan is within the family, so the law – passed by parliament but awaiting the signature of the president, Hamid Karzai – will effectively silence victims as well as most potential witnesses to their suffering.

CHILD BRIDES IN AFGHANISTAN: Overview of Situation, Challenges and Options

Betrothal of girls is pervasive in Afghanistan. According to the Ministry of Public Healths Mortality Survey that was conducted in all provinces of the country in 2010, 53 percent of all women in the 25 to 49 age group were married by age 18, and 21 percent were married by age 15[2][2]. A report on Child Marriage in Southern Asia conducted by the International Center for Research on Women, Australian Aid and UNFPA states that 57 percent of Afghan girls are married before they turn 16 and 60 to 80 percent of them were forced into such unions by their families[3][3].

Violence against Women in Afghanistan

Conclusions:

As shown in this report the recorded statistics on violence against women during the first six months of the current year has reached a shocking number of 4154 cases.

This figure indicates an increase of nearly 25 percent compared to the number of violence against women recorded in the first six months of the previous year. However, this increase could be due to increased public confidence in the AIHRC’s offices, but can be caused by other factors such as increased violence against women and the public's distrust of judicial authorities as well.

In any way, this high figure of violence against women in the first half of this year is very shocking and a matter to be pondered upon. Especially when we see that over 30% of the figures are physical violence, especially beating, slapping, kicking and throwing stones, the issue becomes more and more worrying because physical violence against women is the naked (harsh) form of violence against women.

Afghan Authorities Annul 7-Year-Old's Marriage-For-Money, Launch Investigation

Authorities in the Afghan province of Jowzjan have annulled the marriage of a 7-year-old girl whose father admits giving her away in return for the equivalent of $2,000.

An investigation has also been launched against the father, Ramadan, who like many Afghans goes by one name, as well as the groom and the cleric who reportedly presided over the ceremony.

The father blamed his action on poverty that has plagued his family.

Day 8/16 Why I'm Optimistic About the Future for Women in Afghanistan

A couple of months ago I went back to my native Afghanistan after a year living in Britain. From the sedate surroundings of York University I've found myself back in bustling Kabul - back to the traffic jams, the construction projects and the crazy rush hour. Quite a change.

What has amazed me most upon my return is the massive difference between the realities of life at home and the way that Afghan women are more often than not portrayed in foreign media, which tends to focus on the sorrows, failures and victimised faces of Afghan women.

Afghanistan: Reject stoning, flogging, amputation and other Taliban-era punishments

Afghanistan’s proposed reinstatement of atrocious punishments would mark a dangerous return to legalized state brutality, Amnesty International said today as it urged the authorities to reject such plans.

Public stoning to death, amputation of limbs and flogging are among the brutal punishments being put forward as draft amendments to the Afghan Penal Code.

“Stoning and amputation are always torture, and so is flogging as practised in Afghanistan. All these forms of punishment are strictly prohibited under international human rights treaties which are binding on Afghanistan,” said Horia Mosadiq, Afghanistan Researcher at Amnesty International.

Public stoning consideration is latest setback for Afghan women's rights

Twelve years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan's government is considering bringing back a gruesome spectacle that became synonymous with Islamist cruelty: the use of public stoning as a punishment for sex outside marriage.

The sentence for married adulterers, along with flogging for unmarried offenders, appears in a draft revision of the country's penal code being drawn up by the ministry of justice.

It is the latest in a string of encroachments on hard-won rights for women, after parliament quietly cut the number of seats set aside for women on provincial councils, and drew up a criminal code whose provisions will make it almost impossible to convict anyone for domestic violence.

Afghanistan: Dismantling Human Rights in Afghanistan: The AIHRC facing a possible downgrading of status

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) “has been until now”, said Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), “a critical, credible institution.” That ‘until now’ is significant: Pillay was visiting Afghanistan partly to discuss the risk to the Commission of losing its ‘A status’ when it comes up for international accreditation in November. The problem is the flawed way new commissioners were appointed earlier this year. Pillay said she had received no assurances from President Karzai that he might revisit those appointments. AAN’s Sari Kouvo and Kate Clark report.