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Violence against Women Glaring Example of Human Rights Breach in Afghanistan

Politics Materials 27 October 2008 19:45 (UTC +04:00)

Afghanistan, Kabul, 27 October / Trend corr. A.Hakimi/ Increasing violence against women in Afghanistan is a glaring example of breach of human rights, experts say. The key reasons are strong effect of traditions in the public and weak education of the population.

Afghanistan's commission for human rights urges for drastic change of the state strategy so that to prevent violence against women.

Increasing number of violence cases and biased attitude towards women impedes their development, Suraya Subhrang, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said to Trend .

Forced and early marriage, aggression, sexual and physical violence are among the key problems of the Afghan women.

According to the UN, there are 75% of girls under 16-year-old who are coercively married. Increase of mortality among Afghan mothers is linked by physicians to their being married under 18-year-old. Psychologists say early forced marriage of minor girls is the cause of their psychological and physical diseases.

"Another demonstration of men's violence against women is that women are not provided with conditions to show their aptitudes in the public," Subhrang said to Trend on 27 October.

The Constitution of Afghanistan prohibits gender bias and provides equal rights to men and women.

According to Afghan laws, 16-year-old girls and 18-year-old boys are considered to be adult. However, international laws consider girls and boys adult only on becoming 18-year-old, Subhrang said.

Afghanistan is a member of several international conventions and the country must fulfil requirements of the international laws, Subhrang said. "It was expected that Afghanistan's membership in international organizations would reduce violence against women, but that did not take place."

In 2008, number of violence cases against women increased as compared to 2007, Fawzia Amini, deputy director of the law and rights department at the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs, said in her interview to Trend .

According to the statistics of the Ministry for Women Affairs, 1,000 violence facts against women were registered within the first three months of 2008.

"Main reasons of increasing number of violence facts against women include strong influence of traditions on the Afghan society, weak enlightenment amongst people and hard state of economy," Amini said.

Number of women beating cases in families increased even more, she said. Members of the international organizations and civil activist many times expressed their worry on men's physical violence over women in Afghanistan. The Afghan women always undergo violence both at work and home.

Amini considers important to conduct enlightenment amongst people through special training programs, media and television to reduce violence cases against women in the society.

"The cause of rise of violence cases against women in Afghanistan is due to lack of gender equality and lack of people's knowledge of their rights," Fawzia Kufi, a member of the Afghan Parliament, said.

According to Kufi, media and television play an important role in enlightenment of people on juridical and public issues.

The parliamentary commission on women's affairs will adopt a law to provide women's rights and reduce violence cases against them, Kufi said.

According to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, rise of violence facts against women leads to women's fleeing from their houses, suicides, addiction to drugs and human trade.

In 2008, the Commission revealed 123 aggression facts, 120 suicides, 44 forced marriages and 600 physical violence cases against women.

The correspondent can be contacted at [email protected]

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