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The Afghan Women's Network (AWN) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which was created in 1996 by Afghan women following the World Conference on Women in Beijing and works to "empower women and ensure their equal participation in Afghan society." [1]
The AWN sustains the vision of an Afghanistan in which women & men live in a justice and discrimination free society. AWN's axis of focus are: [2] [3]
The AWN acts as a foundation supporting other women's rights-oriented NGO in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The AWN receives funding from donor agencies such as the French Embassy, ActionAid, UNHCR, and Roland Berger Foundation. It operates from Kabul, Heart, Balkh, Kandahar, Bamyan, Paktia, Nangarhar, and Kunduz, ... It has more than 3,500 individual members (exclusively women) and 125 women's organizations with memberships. [4]
Executive board members have included Manizha Wafeq [5] and the current executive director is Hassina Safi. [6]
The Afghan Women's Network was established in 1995. Women who had participated in the United Nation Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China decided that they wanted to create a network for Afghan women. [3]
In 2013, The AWN played an active role in the curation of the exhibit Women Between Peace and War: Afghanistan by Leslie Thomas from ArtWORKS Projects for Human Rights. [7]
In March 2014, the AWN launched the Afghan Women Vision 2024, the ONG's official newspaper supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation. [8] In 2014, the ONG stated that 150 honor killings affected Afghan women each year. [9] Upon the progressive withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the AWN brought its focus on maintaining the women's rights benefits gained during the presence of the US troops. [10]
In February 2015, the AWN took part to the marches asking the president Ashraf Ghani to respect his word and name 4 women ministries in his government for fair gender representation. [11] In 2016, the ONG spoke out about the revival of public executions of women in Afghanistan following the new peak of influence from the Talibans. [12]
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The Taliban, which refers to itself as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), is a Deobandi Islamist movement and military organization in Afghanistan, currently waging war within the country. Since 2016, the Taliban's leader has been Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada. In 2017, the Taliban was estimated to have 200,000 troops.
Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is an Afghan politician, academic, and economist who was the 14th president of Afghanistan from September 2014 to August 2021 when he fled the country into exile. He was first elected on 20 September 2014 and was re-elected in the 28 September 2019 presidential election. He was announced the winner after a protracted process in February 2020 and was sworn in for a second term on 9 March 2020. An anthropologist by education, he previously served as Minister of Finance and the Chancellor of Kabul University.
Human rights in Afghanistan is a topic of some controversy and conflict. While the Taliban were well known for numerous human rights abuses, several human rights violations continue to take place across the country. Afghanistan has an interesting strong human rights framework within its constitution. It is a member of the United Nations Convention against Torture since April 1987.
Aurat Foundation, founded in 1986, is a women's rights organization based in Islamabad, Pakistan. Its co-founders were Nigar Ahmed and Shahla Zia. Aurat Foundation lobbies and advocates for women. It also holds demonstrations and public awareness campaigns.
Women's rights in Afghanistan have been varied throughout history. Women officially gained equality under the 1964 constitution. However these rights were taken away in the 1990s through different temporary rulers such as the Taliban during civil war. Especially during the latter's rule, women had very little to no freedom, specifically in terms of civil liberties. Ever since the Taliban regime was removed in late 2001, women's rights have gradually improved under the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and women are once again de jure equal to men under the 2004 constitution, which was largely based on that from 1964. However, their rights are still complicated by a reactionary view on women by certain classes of school, particularly ruralites, which continue to cause international concern. When the Taliban took control of most of Afghanistan in 2021, concern about the future for women in the country increased.
The War in Afghanistan is a conflict following the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan when the United States and its allies drove the Taliban from power in order to deny al-Qaeda a safe base of operations in Afghanistan. After the initial objectives were completed, a coalition of over 40 countries formed a security mission in the country called International Security Assistance Force of which certain members were involved in military combat allied with Afghanistan's government. The war mostly consisted of Taliban insurgencies fighting against the Afghan Armed Forces and allied forces; the majority of ISAF/RS soldiers and personnel are American. The war was code-named by the US as Operation Enduring Freedom (2001–14) and Operation Freedom's Sentinel (2015–2021).
Kohi SafiDistrict is now one major historical district located in South-eastern Parwan province, Kohi Safi district is one of the most single districts where almost all of the region is populated by Safi tribe. Although in 1930s Kohi Safi was said to be one of the 2nd most populous district of Parwan after Charakar, but during 1930s-1940s the region was depopulated due to Governments pressure to evacuation of area due to Saf's War on the King. Majority of its population were displaced or escaped further in the north away from borders of capital Kabul, few escaped to west in modern Herat and many into it India. The root of the conflict seems to be started due to King Amanuallah Khan's proposal of modernization, Safi and with few other Afghan tribes armed against the ruling family of Durrani. Although some annalists assume the other factor behind the conflict and rise of Safi was mainly due to Safi's not being of ruling Durrani tribe, but rather Shinwari. Although Majority of Shinwari's enjoyed presence of Durrani and many were often involved into Government compare to those of Ghilzai, however Safis are always known to have history of conflict with many ruling governments and empires.
The Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced the holding of a consultative grand council called the Afghanistan's National Consultative Peace Jirga (NCPJ) or shortly Peace Jirga in his inauguration speech on 19 November 2009, after winning elections for a second term, to end the ongoing Taliban insurgency. At the International Afghanistan Conference in London on 28 January 2010, he announced that the government would hold the event in April or May 2010, intended to bring together tribal elders, officials and local power brokers from around the country, to discuss peace and the end of the insurgency. "Jirga" is a word in the Pashto language that means "large assembly" or "council". It is a traditional method in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan of resolving disputes between tribes or discussing problems affecting whole communities.
Farida Azizi is an Afghan advocate for peace and women's rights. Azizi has consulted with President George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton on women's roles in helping to rebuild Afghanistan. Azizi is a founding member of the Corporation for Peace and Unity in Afghanistan and is a member of the Afghan Women's Network. She one of the subjects of a play, Seven.
Manizha Wafeq is an Afghan entrepreneur and campaigner for women's rights.
The Afghan peace process comprises the proposals and negotiations in a bid to end the ongoing war in Afghanistan. Although sporadic efforts have taken place since the war began in 2001, negotiations and the peace movement intensified in 2018 amid talks between the Taliban, which is the main insurgent group fighting against the Afghan government and American troops; and the United States, of which thousands of soldiers maintain a presence within the country to support the Afghan government. Besides the United States, major powers such as China, India, Pakistan, Russia, as well as NATO play a part that they see as facilitating the peace process, while the Afghan peace group People's Peace Movement sees regional and global powers as a cause of continued war.
Roya Rahmani is an Afghan diplomat who has served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the United States and non-resident ambassador to Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic from December 2018 to July 2021. From 2016 to 2018, she served as Afghanistan's first female ambassador to Indonesia, first ever ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and non-resident ambassador to Singapore.
The Embassy of Afghanistan in Canberra is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's diplomatic mission to the Commonwealth of Australia. It is also accredited to New Zealand and Fiji. It is located in the suburb of Deakin, at 4 Beale Crescent. The current Afghan Ambassador to Australia, serving since 2017, is Wahidullah Waissi.
Masuada Karokhi is an Afghan peace activist, women's rights advocate, and recipient of the N-Peace Award in 2013.
Gen. Yasin Zia, also known as Mohammad Yasin Zia, is a former Chief of General Staff, former Deputy Defense Minister, and former governor of Takhar Province, Afghanistan. Zia has also served as head of Afghanistan's counter terrorism unit (2011) and as the deputy director of the National Directorate of Security (2011-2015).
Laleh Osmany is a women's rights activist from Afghanistan, who founded the social media #WhereIsMyName campaign which opposes the tradition that women's names were not used publicly in Afghanistan. For her work she was recognised on the BBC's 100 Women Awards in 2020.
Farahnaz Forotan is an Afghan journalist and women's rights activist. She moved to Iran together with her family during the Mujahideen regime. Farahnaz returned to Afghanistan in 2001, but took refuge in France in 2020 after being included on a Taliban hit list.
Mohammad Farid Hamidi born in 1967 in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, is an Afghan lawyer, human rights activist and was the Attorney General of Afghanistan from 2016 till 2021.
War crimes by the Taliban since the Taliban's emergence in the 1990s include extrajudicial killings of civilians during its period running the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, systematic killings of civilians and wartime sexual violence during the 2010s, and executions of civilians during the 2021 Taliban offensive.
