Afghanistan

The international news magazine praised Ms. Pakzad, who founded the Voice of Women Organization (VWO) and works in close cooperation with UNIFEM Afghanistan, for her courageous and tireless work in providing Afghan women with shelter, counseling and job training, and raising awareness on gender-based violence in her country.
To read the full article, please visit UNIFEM's News Website.

As Afghanistan approaches their August presidential election, the potential for voter fraud that infringes on women's rights is gaining visibility. Women have been registering to vote in suspiciously high levels in regions of the country where women rarely travel. In a press conference, Dr. Sima Samar, chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission explained that "men are just bringing the names of a woman and getting registration cards on their behalf and that is why I can say there is a possibility of fraud," Reuters reported.

Women community leaders receiving education in effective campaign tactics will train more than 100 female candidates for Provincial Council in the run-up to the August 20 elections. Of the nearly 3200 candidates running for Provincial Councils nationwide, 328 are female. The idea is to help women run for and win office, and to grow the ranks of women serving in government.
To read more please see the The Huffington Post

Sima Matin’s burqa limits her vision. It gives her migraines. Now it’s causing another problem: It’s hiding her from the voters she hopes will elect her in next month’s provincial election.For women running for office in one of the world’s most conservative countries, getting out the vote is an uphill battle against social norms. In a place where most women still wear the burqa and do not speak to men outside their immediate family, female candidates are courting danger simply by putting up posters of their uncovered faces.

Enraged by Taliban oppression Malalai Joya became a women’s rights activist, and after the US-led invasion, took on the new regime as an MP. But speaking out has come at a cost. She tells Johann Hari why death threats won’t stop her exposing ugly truths about Afghanistan.I am not sure how many more days I will be alive," Malalai Joya says quietly.The warlords who make up the new "democratic" government in Afghanistan have been sending bullets and bombs to kill this tiny 30-year-old from the refugee camps for years – and they seem to be getting closer with every attempt.

When Farzana Barekzai and her small band of female campaigners knock at the home of Ahmadin Pahlawan, he greets them and points to a poster of President Hamid Karzai above the door to assure them: His vote isn't changing.
For more informations, please visit csmonitor.com

A controversial bill that Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised to review before implementing quietly became law last month, allowing police to enforce language that stipulates a wife's sexual duties and restricts a woman's ability to leave her own home.Share Afghanistan's President Karzai approves traditional, male-dominated Islamic law.Karzai had promised to send the bill to parliament before it was published, but this week women's rights advocates learned it had already become an enforceable law despite heavy international and national criticism.

"Violence against women exists in every continent, every country and every culture, and Afghanistan makes no exception, but the problem here in Afghanistan is that most of the cases remain unreported due to the severe restrictions women face in seeking justice," he told Al Jazeera."Female victims are often denied equal access to justice because traditionally they rarely register cases themselves."
To read the complete article please visit AlJazeera.net website.

"Eight years after the fall of the Taliban, and the establishment of the [Hamid] Karzai government, Afghan women continue to be among the worst off in the world. Their situation is dismal in every area, including in health, education, employment, freedom from violence, equality before the law, and political participation," said the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report. In March, the poor condition of women’s rights in Afghanistan was brought into the news again by the parliament’s passing of the Shia Personal Status law - which Karzai went on to sign.