Women’s Rights Losing Ground in Afghanistan

Women’s rights continue to lose ground in Afghanistan, with violence against women increasing in frequency and brutality. The Afghan parliament  has also passed a bill further limiting women’s rights by making it more difficult to prosecute cases of domestic violence and other abuses. As a result, Afghan women express “fear and anxiety” about what the future will hold.

“We are entering a very dangerous period for women. I’m very worried that we will return to those terrible days when the only place for a woman was in the home, doing housework and serving the men” stated Ghazalan Koofi, a 26 year-old woman working in a government ministry.

In 2013, Afghanistan witnessed a 25% increase in incidences of violence against women. There have been increasing reports of abuses against women including murder and assassination attempts, public stoning, mass rape, public rape, being set on fire, acid attacks, and face cutting. Many women also resort to self-immolation in order to escape abusive situations.

Although laws do exist to provide women with some protections, implementation and enforcement are limited and inconsistent with less than 7% of cases going to court. The Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women passed in 2009, providing women with unprecedented legal protections; yet in 2013, numerous parliametarians led a debate calling for the law’s repeal. The law labels several acts of violence against women as crimes, including: rape, physical assault, forced marriage, child marriage, baad (giving away girls as payment to settle disputes) and forced self-immolation.

“The landmark law…was a huge achievement for all Afghans. But implementation has been slow and uneven, with police still reluctant to enforce the legal prohibition against violence and harmful practices, and prosecutors and courts slow to enforce the legal protections in the law,” explained Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Now the Afghan parliament passed a new bill restricting the rights afforded to women by disallowing all relatives from testifying against men accused of battery and other forms of domestic violence. Most violence against women occurs within the family. Men attack their wives, sisters and children with little risk of punishment or accountability. This new law further restricts the options available to women by making it increasingly difficult to successfully punish offenders.

“It makes it impossible to prosecute cases of domestic and sexual violence within the family, forced marriages, child marriages or marriages for the settlement of clan disputes…Signs are everywhere that a rollback of women’s rights has begun,” explained Heather Barr, of Human Rights Watch.

Activists point to the changing political situation in Afghanistan as the reason for the declining human rights situation. With international aid workers and military forces withdrawing from Afghanistan, international attention has waned allowing progress on women’s rights to be reversed.

“The severity of Afghanistan’s human rights crisis in 2013 demands urgent action by both the government and the country’s foreign donors. The failure to make human rights a priority…and the backlash resulting from diminished international attention and support, threaten much of the progress that has been achieved,” stated Brad Adams, Asia Director for Human Rights Watch.

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