Afghanistan

Citation:

Mertus, Julie. 2000. War’s Offensive on Women: The Humanitarian Challenge in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.

Author: Julie Mertus

Abstract:

* Case studies from Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan tackle human rights laws and gender-based violence

War's Offensive on Women contends that humanitarian groups’ attempts to provide assistance and protection for women will fall short unless they make women major actors in such efforts. Mertus shows how human rights laws are beginning to address gender-based violence, and how agencies can respond to women’s needs in conflict and post-conflict settings. The book is of wide interest to humanitarian and human rights practitioners, policymakers, and students alike. (Amazon)

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Humanitarian Assistance Regions: Asia, South Asia, Europe, Balkans, Eastern Europe Countries: Afghanistan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo

Year: 2000

Citation:

Adrian-Paul, Ancil, and Partaw Naderi. 2005. UN SC Resolution 1325 Women, Peace and Security: Issues and Instruments - the Afghan Context. London: International Alert.

Authors: Ancil Adrian-Paul, Partaw Nadiri

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2005

Citation:

Sengupta, Ami, Esther G. Long, Arvind Singhal, and Corinne L. Shefner-Rogers. 2007. "The Sada Says 'We Women Have Our Rights': A Gender Analysis of an ICT Initiative in Afghanistan." International Communication Gazette 69 (4): 335-53. 

Authors: Ami Sengupta, Esther G. Long, Arvind Singhal, Corinne L. Schefter-Rogers

Abstract:

This study analyses Voice for Humanity's (VFH) Sada initiative to promote women's rights, citizen participation and civic education during the Afghan parliamentary elections in 2005. A qualitative assessment was conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of how Afghan women, in particular, utilized the Sada device. This research, positioned within current literature on information communication technology (ICT) and gender, views the Sada device — a solar-powered digital audio player (similar to an MP3 player) — as an ICT. Universally, women have unequal access to ICTs, yet the findings of this study suggest that projects such as this one in Afghanistan can play a powerful role in promoting women's rights. The findings reiterate that information dissemination, spurred by a suitable technology, can lead to family and community dialog. Such dialog, coupled with a more enabling environment for women's concerns, can contribute to women's empowerment and realization of women's human rights.

Topics: Education, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Infrastructure, Information & Communication Technologies, Political Participation, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2007

Citation:

Van Egmond, Kathia, Marleen Bosmans, Ahmad Jan Naeem, Patricia Claeys, Hans Verstraelen, and Marleen Temmerman. 2004. “Reproductive Health in Afghanistan: Results of a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Survey Among Afghan Women in Kabul.” Disasters 28 (3): 269–82. doi:10.1111/j.0361-3666.2004.00258.x.

Authors: Kathia Van Egmond, Marleen Bosmans, Ahmad Jan Naeem, Patricia Claeys, Hans Verstraelen, Marleen Temmerman

Abstract:

A reproductive-health knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) survey was carried out among 468 Afghan women of reproductive age. A convenience sample of women was selected from attendees in the outpatient departments of four health facilities in Kabul. Seventy-nine per cent of respondents had attended at least one antenatal consultation during their last pregnancy. Two-thirds (67 per cent) delivered their first child between 13 and 19 years. The Caesarean-section rate was low (1.6 per cent). Two-thirds (67 per cent) of deliveries occurred in the home. The contraceptive prevalence rate was 23 per cent (16 per cent modern and 7 per cent natural methods). Twenty-four per cent had knowledge of any STIs, although most of these women did not know correctly how to prevent them. Most of the women (93 per cent) needed authorization from their husband or a male relative before seeking professional health-care. In multivariate analysis, women's schooling was significantly associated with antenatal-care attendance (AOR 4.78), institutional delivery (AOR 2.29), skilled attendance at birth (AOR 2.07) and use of family planning (AOR 4.59). Reproductive-health indicators were noted to be poor even among these women living in Kabul, a group often considered to be the most privileged. To meet the reproductive-health needs of Afghan women, the socio-cultural aspects of their situation--especially their decision-making abilities -- will need to be addressed. A long-standing commitment from agencies and donors is required, in which the education of women should be placed as a cornerstone of the reconstruction process of Afghanistan.

Topics: Gender, Women, Health, Reproductive Health Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2004

Citation:

Nordlund, Anja Taarup. 2004. “Demands for Electoral Gender Quotas in Afghanistan and Iraq.” Working Paper, Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm.

Author: Anja Taarup Nordlund

Topics: Gender, Governance, Quotas Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Iraq

Year: 2004

Citation:

Hadi, A., T. Rahman, D. Khuram, J. Ahmed, and A. Alam. 2007. “Raising Institutional Delivery in War-Torn Communities: Experience of BRAC in Afghanistan.” Asia Pacific Family Medicine 6: 1–9.

Authors: A. Hadi , T. Rahman, D. Khuram, J. Ahmed, A. Alam

Abstract:

Aims: Although reproductive health services have been expanded in rural communities in Afghanistan in the last several years, no systematic attempt has been made to assess their contribution to promote safe delivery. This study assesses the effects of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (a non-government organisation) health programme in raising institutional delivery in post-conflict traditional communities in Afghanistan.

Methods: Data for this study came from two surveys conducted by Management Science of Health/United States Agency of International Development in 2004 and 2006 in the district of Paghman in Kabul province. A total of 180 randomly selected married women who gave birth in the last 2 years preceding the survey were interviewed.

Results: Findings reveal that institutional delivery in rural communities has been increasing even in post-conflict poor rural communities. The use of services was much higher if antenatal care was provided by midwives and physicians. Intensive community mobilization, provision of free services and transport facilities at night, incentives to health providers, maintaining privacy in the delivery room and the quality of services were the key factors in raising the number of institutional deliveries.

Conclusions: The provisions of free services and incentives for health providers worked well in raising the frequency institutional delivery. Given that Afghan communities are sparsely distributed in the countryside and largely inaccessible by most modern transport, the expansion of this approach to provide institutional delivery may not be feasible at this stage. This study argues for the promotion of new approaches to maternal health by testing the cost-effective intervention models. The study concludes that an integrated approach to address health services can significantly improve access to and the utilization of institutional delivery among poor and disadvantaged communities in Afghanistan.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Health, Reproductive Health, International Organizations Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2007

Citation:

Neuwirth, Jessica. 2002. “Women and Peace and Security: The Implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325.” Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy 9 (2): 253–60.

Author: Jessica Neuwirth

Topics: Gender, Women, International Organizations, Peacebuilding, Security, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2002

Citation:

Shah, Niaz A. 2005. “The Constitution of Afghanistan and Women’s Rights.” Feminist Legal Studies 13: 239-58.

Author: Niaz A. Shah

Abstract:

This article argues that women's human rights were and are being violated in Afghanistan regardless of who governs the country: Kings, secular rulers, Mujahideen or Taliban, or the incumbent internationally backed government of Karzai. The provisions of the new constitution regarding women's rights are analysed under three categories: neutral, protective and discriminatory. It is argued that the current constitution is a step in the right direction but, far from protecting women's rights effectively, it requires substantial revamping. The constitutional commitment to international human rights standards seems to be a hallow slogan as the constitution declares Islam as a state religion which clearly conflicts wiht women's human rights standards in certain areas. The Constitution has empowered the Supreme Court to review whether human rights instruments are compatible with Islamic legal norms and, in case of conflict, precedence will be given to Islamic law. Keeping this in view, it is argued that Afghanistan's ratification of the Women's Convention without reservations has no real significance unless Islamic law dealing with women's rights is reformed and reconciled with international women's rights standards.

Keywords: conflict resolution, Constitution, incompatibility, Islam, reservations, review, women's human rights

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Constitutions, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2005

Citation:

Roshan, Benazeer. 2004. “The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: The Plight of Afghan Women Two Years After the Overthrow of the Taliban.” Berkeley Women’s Law Journal 19 (1): 270-86.

Author: Benazeer Roshan

Topics: Gender, Women, Religion Regions: Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2004

Citation:

Nusair, Isis. 2008. “Gendered, Racialized And Sexualized Torture At Abu-Ghraib,” In Feminism and Wars: Confronting US Imperialism, edited by Mohanty and Riley, 179-93. London: Zed Books.

Author: Isis Nusair

Abstract:

This chapter examines the gendered, racialized and sexualized torture at Abu-Ghraib within the larger context of the 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, and torture and mistreatment of detainees in other parts of Iraq; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and Afghanistan. [Nusair] argue[s] that what took place at Abu-Ghraib is not an exceptional and isolated case perpetrated by few bad apples but part of an Orientalist representation that aims to shame and sexually humiliate detainees and reinforce their difference as racially inferior Others. Within this phallocentric binary logic of opposition where the East is represented as backward and barbarian and the West as civilizing and modernizing the naturalness and for-granted authority to dominate the Other is established. It is within this framework that [Nusair] analyze[s] the connection between militarist hyper-sexuality, feminization, and racialization at Abu-Ghraib. In addition, [Nusair] analyze[s] the silence around the rape of women at Abu-Ghraib, and the unveiling and stripping naked of detainees as they relate to the larger system of domination currently at play in Iraq. [Nusair] conclude[s] by analyzing current modes of feminist resistance in Iraq and the strategies used by activists to shape their lives within this highly masculinized and militarized system of control. 

Topics: Gender, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Militarism, Militarization, Race, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexuality, Torture, Sexual Torture Regions: MENA, Americas, Caribbean countries, North America, Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Cuba, Iraq, United States of America

Year: 2008