Afghanistan: Authorities dismantled rights of women and girls - Press Conference | United Nations

UN Women’s Special Representative in Afghanistan Susan Ferguson urged governments and donors to continue investing in Afghan women and girls, stressing that their exclusion from public life should not be normalized. Ferguson spoke to reporters via video link as Saturday (15 Aug) marks five years ago since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan for the second time. The Special Representative said, “what's unfolded since then has no parallel in the modern world. Year by year, the de facto authorities have systematically dismantled the rights of women and girls, issuing more than 100 decrees that have stripped away their rights and institutionalized discrimination against them.” Ferguson continued, “Afghanistan is the only country in the world where women and girls face such far-reaching restrictions on their education, work movement, public participation and legal equality.” The UN Women official also said, “in the past year alone, new decrees and edicts have further restricted women's and girls’ access to justice and formally removed equality between women and men before the law.” She took decree number 12 as an example, “a husband is only criminally liable for violence within marriage if he causes severe and visible physical injuries, and his wife must prove it in court with her male guardian, who may be the very person who harmed her,” Ferguson said. Another example is under decree number 18, “men retain the right to divorce, but a woman either needs her husband's permission, or has to go through a lengthy legal process. The decree also implicitly permits child marriage, further eroding the rights and protection of women and girls,” the Special Representative added. Ferguson underscored, “enforcement of these decrees and edicts has intensified, with thousands of officials now patrolling the streets with broad powers of detention and surveillance.” She said, “the gates of high schools remain locked to girls. The halls of universities remain open to men only, and a growing shortage of women health workers, a consequence of the education bans, is making it harder for women to receive health care, particularly in communities where custom prevents women from being treated by male doctors.” The UN Women official also pointed out more than half of the 3,200 women the Agency surveyed leave their homes only once or twice a month. Nearly three quarters say they feel unsafe leaving home without a male guardian or mahram, and more than half avoid public spaces such as markets and health facilities altogether. “Women described a constant need to be aware of their dress, speech and movements to avoid sanctions, scrutiny or judgment,” Ferguson said. She reiterated, “this systematic loss of rights, freedoms and opportunities has triggered a mental health crisis among women and girls. Seven in ten women we surveyed describe their mental health as bad or very bad.” The Special Representative stressed, “in the face of all these extraordinary restrictions, I hear the message over and over from the Afghan women I meet: see us, don't leave us, stand with us and continue to support us.” Yet, she said, “at precisely the moment when Afghan women need that support the most, it's being pulled away. Across Afghanistan, international aid cuts are forcing women's organizations to cut services, to lay off staff and in some cases, consider closing their doors altogether.” Ferguson emphasized, “five years into this crisis, this is the moment to deepen our commitment to Afghan women, not to retreat from it,” urging governments and donors to continue investing in Afghan women and girls, “to increase, not cut, their foreign aid, because to do anything less is to walk away from Afghan women and girls,” sha said. The UN Women official stressed, “there is nothing normal about excluding half a country's population from public life. There was nothing normal about it five years ago, and there's nothing normal about it today. And we must never allow it to become normal.”


For more information or to watch video on YouTube, click here!