Police in Tehran ordered to arrest women in 'un-Islamic' dress

Women and girls continue to suffer from discrimination and restrictions. Only 35 percent of school-age girls are in school. According to 2005 U.N. and Afghan government figures, most marriages continue to involve girls below the age of sixteen, many of them forced.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/afghan12266.htm

Feminist Daily News Wire
April 17, 2006

Report Shows Continued Violence and Discrimination Against Afghan Women

A new report on the current status of Afghan women and girls issued by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) demonstrates that Afghan women and girls continue to face extreme obstacles and discrimination as they seek to exercise their rights. The “Evaluation Report on General Situation of Women in Afghanistan” states that despite the Afghan government’s constitutional obligation to “observe and respect women’s rights” and the numerous human rights treaties Afghanistan has signed, women face many problems in all aspects of their lives.

The report cites the practice of forced marriage as one of the “main causes of women’s rights violations” throughout the country. Shockingly, an AIHRC survey found that more than 38 percent of women were “wedded off against their will and consent.” Another appalling indication of the dire situation of Afghan women is the finding that more than 50 percent have been subjected to domestic violence. In addition to the physical and mental effects, the AIHRC stated in the report that domestic violence in Afghanistan frequently is the cause of suicide, self-immolation, forced prostitution and addiction to narcotics. Despite the magnitude of the problem, according to the report, “no serious action” has been taken to deal with domestic violence, and the problem is exacerbated by the fact that the law is not clear in this area and the civil code and the constitution are inconsistent on the issue.

Among the many inequities outlined in the report is a major disparity in the numbers of girls and boys attending school. The researchers report that more than twice the number of boys than girls attend schools. In the Zabul region, girls make up only 3 percent of the school population, even though there is little difference in the numbers of school-aged girls and boys in the area. Lack of security was cited as a primary reason why girls do not attend school in Zabul, which is in southern Afghanistan. The United Nations has reported that most of the 300 schools set on fire this year were in southern Afghanistan, according to the AIHRC. In addition to the lack of security, reasons given for the low number of girls attending schools included: “widespread gender discrimination in society’s customary practices; family poverty; and lack or shortages of female schools.”

The AIHRC has included comprehensive recommendations to address the severe problems outlined in their report, including a focus on gender in all government actions and that the government “struggle against improper tradition aiming at ensuring of women’s rights and ensuring of family well-being through legislation, provincial councils and religious scholars.”

http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=9619

Afghan Legislator Calls for Enforcement of Chaperones for Women

Afghan women would be forbidden to travel without a male chaperone if a male member of the Afghan parliament has his way. Al-Haji Abdul Jabbar Shalgarai called the participation of two women members of parliament in a major donor’s conference “un-Islamic” and a violation of the law because they traveled without their husbands, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Shalgarai cited sharia law, which allows women to travel for more than three days only if they are accompanied by a male relative.

Shalgarai invoked the protection of women as the purpose for requiring male chaperones, saying, “If someone else’s woman is sitting in the same row of seats as you, well, human beings have different drives, including sexual drives. Sometimes these cannot be controlled...,” reported the Christian Science Monitor.

Although women’s rights are guaranteed in the Afghan Constitution, there is a constitutional provision stating that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.” The Feminist Majority and other women’s rights and human rights advocates raised concerns about this provision and other language that leaves issues not addressed in the constitution or by law to adjudication by religious laws.

“Women’s rights in Afghanistan are still fragile,” said Norma Gattsek, deputy policy director at the Feminist Majority. “They remain vulnerable to the same extremist Taliban-like interpretations of religion which were used to take away all of their rights.”

http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=9531