Monday, March 29, 2010
By Moayyed Jafri
WOMEN rights activist and writer Dr Fauzia Afzal Khan has said the misery and oppression the Afghan women suffer due to the US troops is greater than that they had to face during the Taliban regime.
In an interview with The News on Sunday, the director of the Women and Gender Studies at the State University of Montclair, New Jersey, said the facts, figures and events reported from Afghanistan clearly showed that the stance of the US regarding restoration of human rights had fallen flat as violence against women and gender imparity had intensified due to the adventurism of the allied troops. She said fighting extremism was not just the responsibility of the government but the civilians should fight extremism by living their lives, rejecting the imposition of the culture of fear.
Pakistan has not been able to deal with the problems that plague our motherland because we have very conveniently adopted the practice of pointing fingers at others instead of focusing on the issues to uproot them from the motherland, she said.
Dr Fauzia, who did her PhD in post-colonial studies, has, in her books, given an insight into the influence of the colonial presence in different parts of the world, including Pakistan. Her first book Cultural Imperialism: Indo-English Novel, 1993, highlighted the seepage of colonial practices and values in the region. Her second book in 2000 was related the post-9/11 scenario and it was titled Preoccupation of Post Colonial Studies. Her love for expression and performing arts got her involved in writing a book, Critical Stage - The Role of Alternate Secular Theatre in Pakistan, in 2005.
Talking about her most recent book, due to be launched on Monday 29, she said her new work was a memoir. In this book titled Lahore with Love she expresses the experiences of her life she had in Lahore and the US in bold fashion.
Dr Fauzia said she had been advocating the stance of the east in the west and had been trying to persuade people of Pakistan to stand up and face their problems rather than playing the blame-game.
Dr Fauzia was recently crowned as the Most Distinguished Scholar 2009-2010 by the State University of Montclair, New Jersey.
źródło: http://afghanistan.unifem.org/index.php
wtorek, 30 marca 2010
środa, 17 marca 2010
afgańska ruletka
W sobotę, dnia 13 marca 2010 r. odbyło się uroczyste otwarcie wystawy fotograficznej pt. „ Afgańska ruletka”.
Autorami ciekawych zdjęć są Jakub Czermiński oraz Andrzej Machera, którzy spędzili kilka długich miesięcy na misji w Afganistanie. Ubrani w kremowe misyjne mundury towarzyszyli polskim żołnierzom na patrolach i wyprawach w głąb prowincji Ghazni. Zwiedzili kawał ziemi afgańskiej na wschodzie kraju. Byli blisko po obu stronach barykady. Towarzyszyli polskim żołnierzom przy wykonywaniu ich codziennych obowiązków poza bazą. To właśnie oni są bliżej afgańskich realiów, niż ci, którzy nigdy nie wysunęli nosa poza biurka. Zderzyli się z trudnościami z jakimi borykają się mieszkańcy Ghazni. Próbowali uchwycić swoimi aparatami codzienne życie Afgańczyków.
Zdjęcia z afgańskiej prowincji Ghazni można oglądać do 10 kwietnia, na ul. Brackiej 18, Foto-Galeria-Cafe Studio 18 w Warszawie.
Kilka zdjęć na zachętę:
Autorami ciekawych zdjęć są Jakub Czermiński oraz Andrzej Machera, którzy spędzili kilka długich miesięcy na misji w Afganistanie. Ubrani w kremowe misyjne mundury towarzyszyli polskim żołnierzom na patrolach i wyprawach w głąb prowincji Ghazni. Zwiedzili kawał ziemi afgańskiej na wschodzie kraju. Byli blisko po obu stronach barykady. Towarzyszyli polskim żołnierzom przy wykonywaniu ich codziennych obowiązków poza bazą. To właśnie oni są bliżej afgańskich realiów, niż ci, którzy nigdy nie wysunęli nosa poza biurka. Zderzyli się z trudnościami z jakimi borykają się mieszkańcy Ghazni. Próbowali uchwycić swoimi aparatami codzienne życie Afgańczyków.
Zdjęcia z afgańskiej prowincji Ghazni można oglądać do 10 kwietnia, na ul. Brackiej 18, Foto-Galeria-Cafe Studio 18 w Warszawie.
Kilka zdjęć na zachętę:
czwartek, 11 marca 2010
Panel cites women's critical role in building sustainable peace in Afghanistan
By Tim Ledwith
NEW YORK, USA, 9 March 2010 – More than eight years after the fall of the Taliban regime, the women of Afghanistan still face enormous challenges. Perhaps the most daunting of these are the continuing violence and insecurity that disproportionately impede women's access to essential rights and services for themselves and their children.
Because they are so directly affected by the problem of conflict in Afghanistan, women must be an integral part of the solution. This was the consensus view at a recent panel discussion on Afghan women's participation in peace-building.
UNICEF and UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, co-sponsored the discussion, which took place at UNICEF headquarters on 5 March. It was held as a side event to last week's 54th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Sharing the benefits of peace
"Sustainable peace in Afghanistan cannot be achieved without the meaningful participation of women," said Elizabeth Gibbons, Associate Director for Gender Rights and Civic Engagement in UNICEF's Division of Policy and Practice.
Ms. Gibbons urged the organizers of the upcoming Kabul Peace Jirga to place issues affecting Afghan women and girls high on their agenda. The jirga, a national meeting of leaders and elders, is set to convene in the Afghan capital in May.
"But peace-building is not about formal negotiations alone," she added. "It is also about ensuring the tangible benefits of peace – including access to basic social services, such as education, health care and protection, access to livelihood opportunities and the creation of an enabling environment for the realization of human rights of all. These peace dividends need to be secured in the daily life of women, men, girls and boys on an equal basis."
Milestones for women's rights
Like all of the 2010 Commission on the Status of Women events, the UNICEF-UNIFEM panel marked the 15th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted by the Fourth World Congress on Women in 1995. Among the provisions of the Platform for Action is an appeal for women's participation in conflict resolution at all levels of decision-making.
This year's Commission events also commemorated the 10th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which calls upon all governments to engage women in the prevention, management and resolution of conflict.
As milestones for women's rights, both the Beijing Platform for Action and Resolution 1325 set the stage for comments made by participants in the Afghan peace-building discussion.
While some might consider gender issues tangential to questions of war and peace, "it's never premature to talk about women's rights," said UNIFEM's Chief Advisor for Governance, Peace and Security, Anne-Marie Goetz, who moderated the panel. Indeed, she noted, in Afghanistan and other nations caught in conflict, women's empowerment "is key to establishing a secure and peaceful state."
Peace, reconstruction and development
Afghanistan's Minister of Women's Affairs, Dr. Husn Banu Ghazanfar, reinforced that point with the force of harsh experience.
"The women of Afghanistan are emerging from three decades of extreme dehumanization," said Dr. Ghazanfar. "Sustainable peace cannot be discussed without reference to women's experiences of survival," she added, noting that women are "indispensible" for their "wealth of experience and knowledge in keeping their families and society alive in the midst of destruction."
Dr. Ghazanfar pointed out that the Afghan Constitution mandates women's participation in national peace, reconstruction and development efforts – as does the final communiqué from the international conference on Afghanistan held in London this past January. Moreover, she said, the National Plan of Action for Women in Afghanistan, launched in Kabul on International Women's Day last year, establishes women's right to security as a pillar of the peace-building process.
With those commitments in mind, concluded Dr. Ghazanfar, lasting peace can only be secured through improved monitoring of Afghan women's rights and increased international support to realize them.
A front-line perspective
As coordinator of the Afghan Women's Network, an umbrella group of non-governmental organizations advocating gender equality, Afifa Azim brought a front-line perspective to the peace-building discussion.
Ms. Azim pointed to significant progress made in the country since 2001, including gains in girls' education and women's access to professional opportunities. But major obstacles remain, she said. Among these are targeted violence against supporters of women's rights; attacks on girls' schools; a persistently high rate of maternal mortality; and lax enforcement of women's legal rights, especially in remote areas.
Now, Ms. Azim warned, Afghan women face the prospect of having their hard-won rights further undermined in a negotiated settlement of the conflict with Taliban forces.
"We all want stability and peace, but not at the price of women's rights," she said. "We're told that women's rights are a development issue, not a security issue. But women's rights are part of what the fighting is all about."
Along with other panellists – including the US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, Melanne Verveer – Ms. Azim argued that peace-building can succeed only if it takes into account women's rights to health, education, full participation in government and civil society, and freedom from fear of violence and intimidation.
"The world should not forget us," she said. "We want peace, but with social justice."
źródło: http://afghanistan.unifem.org/index.php
NEW YORK, USA, 9 March 2010 – More than eight years after the fall of the Taliban regime, the women of Afghanistan still face enormous challenges. Perhaps the most daunting of these are the continuing violence and insecurity that disproportionately impede women's access to essential rights and services for themselves and their children.
Because they are so directly affected by the problem of conflict in Afghanistan, women must be an integral part of the solution. This was the consensus view at a recent panel discussion on Afghan women's participation in peace-building.
UNICEF and UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, co-sponsored the discussion, which took place at UNICEF headquarters on 5 March. It was held as a side event to last week's 54th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Sharing the benefits of peace
"Sustainable peace in Afghanistan cannot be achieved without the meaningful participation of women," said Elizabeth Gibbons, Associate Director for Gender Rights and Civic Engagement in UNICEF's Division of Policy and Practice.
Ms. Gibbons urged the organizers of the upcoming Kabul Peace Jirga to place issues affecting Afghan women and girls high on their agenda. The jirga, a national meeting of leaders and elders, is set to convene in the Afghan capital in May.
"But peace-building is not about formal negotiations alone," she added. "It is also about ensuring the tangible benefits of peace – including access to basic social services, such as education, health care and protection, access to livelihood opportunities and the creation of an enabling environment for the realization of human rights of all. These peace dividends need to be secured in the daily life of women, men, girls and boys on an equal basis."
Milestones for women's rights
Like all of the 2010 Commission on the Status of Women events, the UNICEF-UNIFEM panel marked the 15th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted by the Fourth World Congress on Women in 1995. Among the provisions of the Platform for Action is an appeal for women's participation in conflict resolution at all levels of decision-making.
This year's Commission events also commemorated the 10th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which calls upon all governments to engage women in the prevention, management and resolution of conflict.
As milestones for women's rights, both the Beijing Platform for Action and Resolution 1325 set the stage for comments made by participants in the Afghan peace-building discussion.
While some might consider gender issues tangential to questions of war and peace, "it's never premature to talk about women's rights," said UNIFEM's Chief Advisor for Governance, Peace and Security, Anne-Marie Goetz, who moderated the panel. Indeed, she noted, in Afghanistan and other nations caught in conflict, women's empowerment "is key to establishing a secure and peaceful state."
Peace, reconstruction and development
Afghanistan's Minister of Women's Affairs, Dr. Husn Banu Ghazanfar, reinforced that point with the force of harsh experience.
"The women of Afghanistan are emerging from three decades of extreme dehumanization," said Dr. Ghazanfar. "Sustainable peace cannot be discussed without reference to women's experiences of survival," she added, noting that women are "indispensible" for their "wealth of experience and knowledge in keeping their families and society alive in the midst of destruction."
Dr. Ghazanfar pointed out that the Afghan Constitution mandates women's participation in national peace, reconstruction and development efforts – as does the final communiqué from the international conference on Afghanistan held in London this past January. Moreover, she said, the National Plan of Action for Women in Afghanistan, launched in Kabul on International Women's Day last year, establishes women's right to security as a pillar of the peace-building process.
With those commitments in mind, concluded Dr. Ghazanfar, lasting peace can only be secured through improved monitoring of Afghan women's rights and increased international support to realize them.
A front-line perspective
As coordinator of the Afghan Women's Network, an umbrella group of non-governmental organizations advocating gender equality, Afifa Azim brought a front-line perspective to the peace-building discussion.
Ms. Azim pointed to significant progress made in the country since 2001, including gains in girls' education and women's access to professional opportunities. But major obstacles remain, she said. Among these are targeted violence against supporters of women's rights; attacks on girls' schools; a persistently high rate of maternal mortality; and lax enforcement of women's legal rights, especially in remote areas.
Now, Ms. Azim warned, Afghan women face the prospect of having their hard-won rights further undermined in a negotiated settlement of the conflict with Taliban forces.
"We all want stability and peace, but not at the price of women's rights," she said. "We're told that women's rights are a development issue, not a security issue. But women's rights are part of what the fighting is all about."
Along with other panellists – including the US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, Melanne Verveer – Ms. Azim argued that peace-building can succeed only if it takes into account women's rights to health, education, full participation in government and civil society, and freedom from fear of violence and intimidation.
"The world should not forget us," she said. "We want peace, but with social justice."
źródło: http://afghanistan.unifem.org/index.php
Subskrybuj:
Posty (Atom)