Press conference by Alison Davidian, Country Representative a.i. for UN Women in Afghanistan on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan.
UN Women’s country representative in Afghanistan today (25 Jul) said “for most Afghan women and girls,” almost every one the 344 days since the Taliban took power “has brought a deterioration in their rights, their condition, and their social and political status.”
Talking to reporters in New York via video teleconference, Alison Davidian, who is the Country Representative Ad Interim for UN Women in Afghanistan, said “Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are banned from going to high school. Women are restricted from working outside the home except for a few sectors and particular roles. There are no women in cabinet and there's no Ministry of Women's Affairs, effectively removing women's right to political participation. Women are required to have a male chaperone when they're traveling more than 78 kilometres, and they're also required to cover their faces in public.”
Combined, she said, “these restrictions limit the ability of women to earn a living, to access health and education, to escape situations of violence and to exercise their rights.”
Recounting conversations she’s had with women and girls in Afghanistan, Davidian said, “some women told me that they're still able to go to market without a mahram. But they live in fear that one day they will be sought and beaten for the act of going to buy groceries without a man. Some women also told me that Afghanistan feels safer now; that they are less afraid of indiscriminate attacks and relieved that conflict has subsided. But safety comes at the expense of independence and for most women, this price is too high.”
The UN Women official said “Afghanistan is not the only country in the world where we have seen recent rollbacks on women's rights. But what has happened in Afghanistan is an alarm bell for all of us. Because it shows how decades of progress on gender equality and women's rights can be wiped away, literally inmonths. What is happening in Afghanistan is a clarion call to everyone that the fight for women's rights in Afghanistan is a global fight. It's a battle for women's rights everywhere.”
A new report from the UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) released last week, confirms the erosion of basic human rights across the country since the Taliban takeover in August last year, pointing out they bear responsibility for extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and violations of fundamental freedoms.
Eleven months after Afghanistan’s abrupt transition to Taliban rule, the erosion of women’s rights is one of the most notable aspects of the de facto administration to date.
Women and girls have seen their rights to access education, the workplace and participate in public life, restricted. Not allowing girls to go to secondary school means that a generation of girls will not complete their full 12 years of basic education, UNAMA highlighted.
