Don’t silence Afghan women

© Sandra Calligaro / Picturetank

Nargis, 18 - “My parents agreed to get me married to a 40 year old married man, who has four children my age. He is very rich and promised to give my parents money and a house. I was very unhappy, I wanted to carry on studying and didn’t want to marry an older, married man.

I shared my problem with my history teacher at school, Ms Latifa, who is also a committee member at the Afghan Women’s Resource Centre (AWRC). She came to speak to my family about forced marriage. She told them about other young girls who had been forced to marry older men and the problems they had faced.

Ms Latifa didn’t give up, and after many discussions, my parents have changed their decision about the marriage. For now I am allowed to continue studying and I hope I won’t be forced to marry in the future.”

Protect the future of Nargis and girls like her 

Womankind has been working with women’s organizations in Afghanistan for seven years, and we’ve seen the damage that has been done to women’s rights, but also the positive changes in ordinary women’s lives won by our partners and by brave individuals like Nargis.

Today 2.5 million Afghan girls are reported to be enrolled in school and 25% of women are working. Women are claiming their rights and beginning to demand an end to violence and harmful traditions.

Why we are acting now

On 5 December 2011, representatives from 90 countries are meeting in Bonn, Germany for a conference that will shape Afghanistan’s future.  In 2010 important conferences were held in London and Kabul, and at each just one woman was invited to speak.

We are campaigning with others to ensure that women are active partners in the discussion at Bonn. If Afghan women are not at the negotiating table with a strong voice and international support, their hard-won rights are at stake.

In just a few weeks over 1,000 people signed our petition calling on the UK government to ensure that: 

• the voices of Afghan women are heard at Bonn
• any agreements made protect and don’t undermine women’s rights in Afghanistan

Thank you everyone who signed. Nargis and millions of women and girls like her want peace. But they also want to be safe, and equal. Don’t let them down.

AWRC classroom © Sandra Calligaro / Picturetank

The Afghan Women’s Network, a network of women and women’s NGOs working to empower Afghan women and ensure their equal participation in Afghan society, is asking the international community to:

1. Use their influence to ensure women have an effective voiceand role in all levels of the peace process: at the national, provincial and district levels.
2. Work with the Afghan government to ensure that all the human rights in the constitution are upheld in any peace settlement. These include women’s right to an education and the right to participate in political life with a guaranteed 30% female quota in parliament.
3. Increase support to development programmes that promote women’s rights and wellbeing in political, social and economic spheres.