UNifeed: AFGHANISTAN / WOMEN’S RIGHTS

AFGHANISTAN / WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Eight years after the end of the Taliban rule, women in Afghanistan still continue to face injustice and are often punished for "moral crimes."UNAMA

Duration:01:35Date:15 December 2009

Categories:

HUMAN RIGHTS, AFGHANISTAN, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan

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Full Script

STORY: AFGHANISTAN/ WOMEN’S RIGHTS 
TRT: 1: 35
SOURCE: UNAMA / UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / DARI / NATS

DATELINE: 8 DECEMBER KABUL, AFGHANISTAN / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE - UNAMA - AUGUST 2009, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

1. Various shots, Afghan women in street
2. Various shots, women voting during 2009 elections

8 DECEMBER 2009, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Norah Niland, Director of Human Rights Unit, UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA):  
“Even though more women than before in the electoral process, what we have experienced in Afghanistan this year is a great deal of push backs for rights and opportunities women have gained in recent years.” 
4. Med shot, girls carrying sacks on their heads
5. Med shot, woman cooking with wood stove
6. SOUNDBITE (Dari) Halima Mohammadi, Afghan Prisoner:
“When I was 14 years old, my father sold me to a married man for 200000 Afghani (4 000 US dollars), even though I was just a kid. He was very violent and beating me everyday.”
7. Various shots, women in Afghan prisons

FILE - UNAMA - AFGHANISTAN (DATE UNKNOWN)

8. Med shot, Afghan women and girls gathering

8 DECEMBER 2009, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Norah Niland, Director of Human Rights Unit, UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA):  
“Quite often what we see is that women and girls who are victimized by rape do not get justice. And unfortunately, quite often, when they seek justice they are further victimized. This is a scar in Afghan society and in Afghanistan and is a real problem for the nation to address.”

FILE – UNTV -  MAY 2009, HERAT PROVINCE, WESTERN AFGHANISTAN

10. Various shots, women walking on street

STORYLINE:

Eight years after the end of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, women are still facing growing challenges in public life and have limited access to justice.

According to the United Natioins Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), although 38 percent of registered voters for this year’s elections were women, fewer women participated in this election compared to 2005.

Director for Human Rights Unit at UNAMA Nora Niland said that today there was only one female cabinet minister compared to three between 2003 and 2005 and over the last few years, rights and opportunities women have gained since the fall of the Taliban in 2001are now being suppressed.

SOUNDBITE (English) Norah Niland, Director of Human Rights Unit, UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA):  
“Even though there were more women than before in the electoral process, what we have experienced in Afghanistan this year is a great deal of push backs for rights and opportunities women have gained in recent years.”

Under the Taliban, women had few rights, and though efforts have been made since then to boost their rights, progress has been inhibited by armed conflict, weak political commitment, corruption, and strong patriarchal traditions.

Gender based violence is still widespread and deeply rooted in the Afghan society. Women face physical and mental abuse in their own homes and have little or no access to justice, warned human rights watchdogs in the country.

One Afghan woman, who is currently in prison, was forced into marriage at the age of 14 to a violent man who used to beat her everyday.

SOUNDBITE (Dari) Halima Mohammadi, Afghan Prisoner:
“When I was 14 years old, my father sold me to a married man for 200,000 Afghani (4 000 US dollars), even though I was just a kid. He was very violent and beating me everyday.”

She was imprisoned for the moral crime of running away from home – a crime committed by the majority of women in Afghanistan’s prisons. She ran away from home and away from another potentially abusive marriage her parents were arranging in the aftermath of her divorce from her last husband.   
This year over 1,000 cases of violence against women were recorded in the Afghan government’s database. Cases included rape, forced prostitution, forced marriage, physical attack, polygamy and harassment.

UNAMA warned that rape in Afghanistan is under-reported, concealed and a human rights problem. Niland added that women who seek justice are often further victimized and called this human rights issue “a scar in Afghan society.”

SOUNDBITE (English) Norah Niland, Director of Human Rights Unit, UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA):  
“Quite often what we see is that women and girls who are victimized by rape do not get justice. And unfortunately, quite often, when they seek justice they are further victimized. This is a scar in Afghan society and in Afghanistan and is a real problem for the nation to address.”

And the UN says that now many Afghan women do not even have access to one of most basic human rights – education. They have one of the lowest literacy rates in the world at 12.6 percent and about 90 percent of women in rural areas cannot read or write.

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