Afghanistan

Analysts say a spate of attacks on high-profile Afghan women has heightened fears that the limited gains for women’s rights will be reversed after NATO forces withdraw next year.

Fariba Ahmadi Kakar, who represents the southern province of Kandahar in the Afghan parliament, was freed by Taleban kidnappers on September 8 in exchange for a number of insurgent prisoners and their relatives.

Last May, Afghanistan’s upper house of parliament quietly removed an electoral law that stipulated that a quarter of all provincial council seats should be allotted to women. When women politicians found out nearly a month later, they fought to have the bill recalled. In July, the lower house reinstated the law, but lowered the allotment to 20 percent.

We invite our users to read the full article published September 18 2013

In Afghanistan, a female politician who escaped an assassination attempt in the south of the country says she fully intends to return to work.

Senator Rooh Gul Khirzard, speaking from her hospital bed where she has been recovering from multiple gunshot wounds, told the BBC that women would not be intimidated by Taliban attacks.

Her nine year old daughter died in the ambush and her 11-year-old remains in intensive care.

Afghan authorities must make every effort possible to ensure the release and safe return of abducted Afghan woman MP Fariba Ahmadi Kakar and to provide greater protection for all women parliamentarians in the country, says the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

We invite to read the full article published August 14, 2013 by IPU