Canada and the world have turned their backs on the Afghan women who defend human rights, says Amnesty International. Although laws have been passed to protect them, champions of women’s rights and ordinary women are increasingly being attacked from all sides and the government is doing little to defend them.
‘To be a woman in Afghanistan is dangerous’
“There is a backlash right now against women,” says Jacqueline Hansen, a campaigner with Amnesty International Canada. “So to be a woman in Afghanistan is dangerous. To be a woman in the public sphere is even more dangerous. And to be someone publicly defending women’s human rights is almost a death sentence.”
ListenAfghan government ‘fails’ to protect women
In spite of the murder of two of her predecessors, Dr. Shah Bibi continues her work as director of the Department of Women’s Affairs in Afghanistan’s Laghman province. No one has been held responsible for the killings and no one answered the women’s pleas for protection. Hansen says this is an example of the Afghan government’s failure to live up to its commitments to protect women from violence and discrimination.
Canada and other countries poured millions of dollars into projects supporting and promoting women’s rights since 2001 says Hansen, but the approach has not gone far enough. She says the international community must follow through on its support for women in Afghanistan and the government there must stop ignoring its human rights obligations.
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