Afghanistan: Constitution fails women

26 November 2003
Afghanistan: Constitution fails women

(Washington, DC) -- Amnesty International today warned that the draft Constitution of Afghanistan fails to protect the rights of women. In recent testimony to Congress, the human rights organization has warned that the constitution must explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender and fully acknowledge equality between women and men.

"Last week, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly applauded the role of the US forces in restoring the right to work and education to the women of Afghanistan," said T. Kumar, AIUSA's Advocacy Director for Asia, who delivered the organization's testimony to Congress. "However, such gains are fleeting at best unless the rights of women and children are enshrined in the Constitution of Afghanistan."

In its recent report, "Afghanistan: No-one listens to us and no-one treats us as human beings", Amnesty International described Afghan women's struggles with forced marriage, in addition to other abuses. To defend against forced marriages, AI urges that a woman's right to choose a spouse freely, including forbidding child marriage, should be specifically mentioned in clauses in the constitution that make reference to the family. Similarly, women should also be guaranteed the same rights and responsibilities as men in marriage and at the termination of marriage.

More than 20 years of war have left millions of children orphaned, and many as breadwinners for their family. The Afghan draft constitution does not presently grant the right to food, shelter, and other protection to children. As a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the state of Afghanistan should make its international obligations to this treaty and to all Afghan children clear in its constitution. (more)

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa110272003

even compatible in Afghanistan? I believe that women should have rights in Afghanistan, but we could be stepping on some serious cultural and religious issues. The US should look to Indonesia, a country where women are more or less respected, as a model for Afghanistan.

Forced marriages, particularly when they involve minors, are a violation of international human rights treaties to which we and Afghanistan are signatories. These rights are not negotiable for social or cultural "reasons."

I thought one of the things we went into Afghanistan for was to improve the lot of Afghan women. Women's rights advocates there are certainly calling for constitutional protection. Take a look at some of the documents at the links at the bottom of that Amnesty page.

If "stepping on toes" means standing up to a patriarchal system that brutalizes women and girls, and makes them second class citizens in their own country, then I think we should step. Or at least the US Congress should express its reservations about the constitution for these reasons and push for constitutional guarantees.

On the other hand, the GOP, which has for decades blocked the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to the US constitution, can hardly be looked to for leadership on these issues.

This is a family structure that has been engrained in their culture and heritage. From my perspective, I believe it is immoral. From a human rights standpoint, it is immoral. Is it immoral from their standpoint? I don't know because I cannot answer for them, but I also do believe that they do not want to live under the Taliban way of life.

What did I mean that I didn't want to step on every single toe? Well, if we trash the entire social heirarchy there, they could revert back to that old style fundamentalism because they would feel threatened. The bedouin tribes of Egypt and Libya still practice this style of marriage.

That is why I mentioned Indonesia. They have a female presdient, Megawati Sukarnoputri, and have been very progressive in their policies toward women. As the world's largest Muslim country, I am hoping they can present an "alternative" viewpoint of Islam to the residents of Afghanistan.

Maybe there could be a cultural exhanges between the two countries. Afghan women could attend school in Indonesia and Indonesia could run humanitarian and female counseling programs in Afghanistan. Indonesia could help them with the "long-term" transistion process.

I believe that there needs to be at a minimum some protections for women. They would obviously need to outlaw "honor" killings and other cruel traditions that I may not be familiar with. Maybe 18 could be the standard age in which women and men could get married. I think it is 23 in some Latin American country that I forgot, but an age limit sounds good. It would allow the young woman to mature, think for herself, and be independent. :-)

And what I meant by "Western Style Marriages" is that most women in Afghanistan are married into large families. Their husband could have multiple wives at the same time, something that is rarely seen in Western Society today (except rural Utah). The marriages are usually arranged between the interested male and the father.

behind it. And indeed in the cultures in the USA that have it - India’s Sikh for example - it does not seem to be harmful in result.

Leaving a general "Islam rules" in the law has been used in the past to destroy women's life's -

I'd prefer the "mo law shall violate Islam" clause to be in a document that says women, and Christians and Jews, have rights. Otherwise we allow cultural hate to be redefined as "Islam" in the law.