UN Report: September 2010

Afghan Women Speak

A highlight for me at the recent U.N. meetings to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of Security Resolution 1325 was the panel on Afghan women. David Cortright (husband of WAND Board Chair Karen Jacobs) with his co-author Sarah Smiles Persinger spoke along with Afifa Azim, General Director of Afghan Women’s Network and Sabra Bano, Director of Gender Concerns, International. The Cortright/ Persinger report, “Afghan Women Speak: Enhancing Security and Human Rights in Afghanistan” published by the University of Notre Dame is especially important for WAND members as we support military withdrawal as well as protecting the rights of Afghan women. The report is based on interviews with Afghan women and concludes that they too support the withdrawal of our troops because security for them gets worse as military actions increase. How then to keep the few gains that are being made in such vital measures as educating girls and providing adequate health care for women and girls? The four panel members agreed that international attention and aid would have to continue but they wanted these not to come from the U.S. but be international and U.N. led. Women who are seen as working closely with the U.S. risk their lives. They told us that there are active Afghan women’s groups as well as women participating in politics but that they are too fragile and threatened to be able to move forward without outside help. Depressingly the two Afghan women on the panel said the question of women’s rights inside the country is dismissed as being a distraction and “destabilizing” so pressure and support from outside has to continue.

For the rest of events I attended both inside and outside the U.N. much the same dichotomy exists: remarkable networks of women are functioning and drawing up National Action Plans in countries all over the world but they meet huge obstacles from traditional power structures. Somewhere, perhaps in the day long Security Council debate on Women, Peace and Security, I heard a list of what women want. The ones I wrote down were:

1. Education for their children
2. Access to health services
3. Progress in their National Action Plans
4. Not to be treated as just needy but as partners in rebuilding their societies.

Much to be done but spirits were high and determination impressive.

Sayre Sheldon, NGO U.N. representative for WAND.