Afghanistan

Last May, Afghanistan’s upper house of parliament quietly removed an electoral law that stipulated that a quarter of all provincial council seats should be allotted to women. When women politicians found out nearly a month later, they fought to have the bill recalled. In July, the lower house reinstated the law, but lowered the allotment to 20 percent.

We invite our users to read the full article published September 18 2013

In Afghanistan, a female politician who escaped an assassination attempt in the south of the country says she fully intends to return to work.

Senator Rooh Gul Khirzard, speaking from her hospital bed where she has been recovering from multiple gunshot wounds, told the BBC that women would not be intimidated by Taliban attacks.

Her nine year old daughter died in the ambush and her 11-year-old remains in intensive care.

Afghan authorities must make every effort possible to ensure the release and safe return of abducted Afghan woman MP Fariba Ahmadi Kakar and to provide greater protection for all women parliamentarians in the country, says the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

We invite to read the full article published August 14, 2013 by IPU

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the rights of Afghan have progressed: Women are in school, the workplace and government.
 
But those advances could well be jeopardized in coming months, according to a new report by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
 

Noorzia Atmar is the human face of women's rights in Afghanistan, her unbridled and open enthusiasm now bruised and sheltered from the public eye.

Today her voice has been muted, and her existence in a home for battered women epitomizes the rapid unraveling of what advancements had been made.