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 Defending Afghan women's rights
PROGRESS ON women’s rights in Afghanistan should not fall victim to efforts to engage the Taliban in order to secure peace, the winner of this year’s Front Line award for human rights defenders at risk has warned.
Dr Soraya Rahim Sobhrang, who monitors and promotes women’s rights at the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, received the award at a ceremony in Dublin yesterday.
There are growing concerns that a political deal between the government of President Hamid Karzai and Taliban militants could erode progress made on women’s rights since the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001.
“We are very concerned,” Dr Sobhrang told The Irish Times . “We don’t want to lose the changes brought in the last nine years, and the achievements we have made.”
Earlier this month, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said it was “essential that women’s rights and women’s opportunities are not sacrificed or trampled on in the reconciliation process.”
Dr Sobhrang noted that Afghan women will be seriously under-represented at a consultative “peace jirga ”, or assembly, due to be held in Kabul later this month. President Karzai hopes it will help build consensus on how to forge a political solution to the conflict.
“I believe a sustainable peace can only be achieved through negotiation and reconciliation, but what kind of reconciliation will it be?” Dr Sobhrang said. “There must be respect for the constitution, women’s rights and democracy.”
Women’s rights were enshrined in Afghanistan’s 2004 constitution, but the country’s traditions have proved difficult to change. “We have these laws on paper . . . but implementation is another matter,” said Dr Sobhrang. “Our society is a male-dominated one, and our traditions in this area are very strong. We will go step by step. It will take a long time.”
Dr Sobhrang said her award was a tribute to all the women of Afghanistan, “in particular those women human rights defenders who on a daily basis face the risk of attack or assassination to defend the rights of other women”.
Like many prominent female human rights defenders in Afghanistan, Dr Sobhrang has endured harassment and death threats.
“Despite the clear commitments made in the new Afghan constitution to uphold and protect the rights of women, as the security situation has deteriorated – so has respect for women’s rights also deteriorated,” said Mary Lawlor, director of Front Line. “It is women like Dr Sobhrang whose work on behalf of others will help Afghanistan emerge from the ongoing pattern of endemic violence and misogyny.”
Dr Sobhrang’s prize marked the sixth annual Front Line Award for human rights defenders. The winner is selected by a panel of Oireachtas members from a shortlist of nominees.
(2010-05-22/ Irishtimes)
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