AFGHANISTAN: Rally to stop violence against women

KABUL, 24 November (IRIN) - On the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, hundreds of women rallied in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to promote their cause.

"Afghan women suffer from violence from the womb of their mothers until the end of their lives," Shukria Barekzai, one of the rally's participants, told IRIN on Wednesday. Barekzai, who runs a weekly women's newspaper, explained that although domestic violence had traditionally been a problem in conservative Afghan society, 25 years of war had fuelled the problem even more so.

~snip~

And while the situation of Afghan women had improved following the collapse of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001, intimidation and violence against them continued largely unabated, with many - particularly in rural areas - feeling their situation had remained unchanged.

Most of the demonstrators IRIN interviewed cited economic hardship, lack of security, domestic violence, illiteracy and maternal mortality as the primary issues affecting women in post-Taliban Afghanistan. "Women do have the understanding to voice their concerns and ask for their rights, but they are self-censored given violence both at home and outside their homes," Wulanga Saafi, a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Education, who participated in the rally, told IRIN.

~snip~

"It comes out of negative practices from Afghanistan's long history that have created a culture of violence against women," Nadir Nadery, an AIHRC member, told IRIN, noting insecurity throughout the country had fuelled further forms of violence, including kidnapping, rape and forced marriages.

more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/32541983eec67b42dd3cd47424774c5b.htm



Wonder if * thinks Abstinence funding would work in Afghanistan for the women that are raped or worse?? :eyes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~snip~

"We don't need a study, if I remember my biology correctly, to show us that those people who are sexually abstinent have a zero chance of becoming pregnant or getting someone pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease," said Wade Horn, the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services in charge of federal abstinence funding.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1021861