Afghanistan

The first woman to run an Afghan city stars in a moving new documentary. But once NATO leaves next year, the Taliban will surely crack down on women like her.

(Read article at: The Daily Beast)

Saira Shakeeb Sadat wants her district, Khwaja Dukoh, to change. Surrounded by mud walls, the dusty hamlet in the remote northern Afghan province of Jawzjan is home to about 5,000 families. The isolation means security is good here, but little aid has reached the town.

But Sadat wants to make a difference, and now she has her chance: last month she was appointed Afghanistan's first female district governor.

(Read more at: AlJazeera)

The Forum on Women, Peace and Security in Afghanistan, 4-6 December 2012, jointly supported by the N-Peace Network and the Research Institute for Women, Peace and Security (RIWPS), was attended by women Members of Parliament and more than 80 women representatives of the Provincial Peace Councils and the High Peace Council from some of the most conflict-ridden parts of the country.

A rowdy protest of about 200 people, half of them women wearing burqas, demanded Friday that parliament reinstate a female MP suspended for comparing her colleagues to animals.
For more information, please visit the Middle East Time's Website.

The US House of Representatives voted 406 to 10 yesterday to pass an omnibus bill that will provide security and economic assistance to Afghanistan and will limit funds given to warlords in high-level offices. The bill includes the major provisions of the Afghan Women's Empowerment Act, including the authorization for three years of $5 million for the Afghan Ministry for Women's Affairs, $10 million for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, and $30 million for Afghan-led non-governmental organizations that are providing assistance to Afghan women and girls.

"Women who go to work every day in Afghanistan are heroines," says journalist Friba Chalkhi Habib. She knows what she is talking about: the 30-year-old is regularly threatened or insulted, like many Afghan women in high-profile jobs.
For more information, please visit the Middle East Times' Website.

Nazari, an Afghan parliamentarian, is the driving force behind the country's first political party dedicated to women's rights and issues. She launched National Need on February 19 at a ceremony in Kabul, saying the party hopes to put women's rights at the forefront of the national political debate.
To read the full article, please visit the Radio Free Europe's Website.

Suspension of Female MP One Year Ago Is Setback for Democracy.One year after her illegal suspension, the Afghan parliament should reinstate Malalai Joya to office, Human Rights Watch said today.