Gender

      
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The girls ask me often, 'will we be as good as children in other countries? I tell them not to worry about this. They are intelligent; even without facilities they remain intelligent.
Now is the time to remind people outside Afghanistan about what we lost, remind them that we still need their help in order for us to stand up alone. We were promised many things to help us stand up – those promises should not be forgotten.
(Toba, Geography Teacher, Maleka Jalaly High School for Girls, Herat - UNICEF)

Among the many issues that needed urgent redress, with the restoration of peace in Afghanistan, was the impact 23 years of war had on women and girls. Key among these concerns were the gross deprivations caused by policies which removed or banned women from public life, the traditional customs which undermined their status and the flagrant abuses of women’s rights. The Bonn Agreement of 2001 recognized these rights as a key issue of peace building and reconstruction. A Presidential statement supporting equality between women and men followed the commitment in the Bonn Agreement.

  
By October 2004, almost three years after the Bonn Agreement was signed, Afghan women still face a complex web of imminent threats. At the same time many opportunities exist as women seek to rebuild their role in society. Progress has also been made to strengthen their positions in the country.

Government institutions like the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) and the Office of the State Minister for Women’s Affairs have been established. There are also a growing number of national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on behalf of women’s issues. Gender equality was recognized as a critical issue in the National Development Framework of Afghanistan. In 2003, Afghanistan ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Women’s political participation
The Bonn Agreement committed the country to a “broad based, gender sensitive, multi-ethnic and fully representative government.” The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has been playing an integral role in facilitating the implementation of this commitment. Below are the main achievements in regards to the political participation of women.

- In June 2002, some 200 women accounted for 13 per cent of the delegates who participated in the Emergency Loya Jirga. Masooda Jalal, a female pediatrician, ran for the presidency and finished second to interim president Hamed Karzai.

- In December 2003, women made up 20 per cent of the 502 Constitutional Loya Jirga delegates. The Constitution of Afghanistan, adopted on 4 January 2004, firmly states that men and women have equal rights. The Constitution also includes a number of provisions relating to the political participation of women. For example, Article 83 ensures women 25 per cent representation in the lower house of what will be the newly formed Afghan National Assembly. The Constitution also guarantees women’s access to public services.

- In regards to the electoral process that began in December 2003, 10.5 million Afghans registered to vote. Four million, or 41.3%, were women. One woman has run for the Office of President and two others for the Office of Vice-President.

Mainstreaming the advancement of women in reconstruction work
UNAMA works with UN agencies and the donor community to support Afghan state institutions in their efforts to make women’s empowerment a concrete element in Government policies, development programs and the budget.

The Ministry of Women’s Affairs has set four priority areas for responding to gender concerns and advancing women’s status: health, education, legal protection and economic empowerment.

At the Berlin conference in 2004, the Government of Afghanistan stated its commitment to increase the number of women in the civil service. According to data compiled in 2003 by the Central Statistics Office, 21% of all permanent government employees were women (29% at the central level, 17% at the provincial level).

In October 2004, UNAMA launched a project to provide capacity building support to provincial Departments of Women’s Affairs. Its aim is to contribute to the improved capacity of the Government to respond to the special needs of women and girls. In 2005, transportation facilities will be provided to ten provincial Departments of Women’s Affairs. Skills training in public
administration will be  provided to  another five. Within the frame of the project, a national and three regional workshops on women’s political participation will be organized prior to the Parliamentary election scheduled for spring 2005. One of the objectives of these events is to strengthen the interaction between the center and provinces, thus increasing the role of the Department of Women’s Affairs in facilitating the political participation of women at the provincial, district and community level.

Inter-agency coordination to respond to special needs of women and girls
One of UNAMA’s tasks is to coordinate and facilitate the activities of UN agencies in assisting the government respond to the special needs of women and girls. Since 2002, UNAMA has been facilitating the information and knowledge sharing among gender focal points from 12 UN agencies. As part of its support to the network, UNAMA has been providing technical assistance to individual agencies in the areas of training, gender analysis of staffing and activity reporting. Click here for the latest list of network members.

In addition there is an Advisory Group on Gender that was established in December 2002 following the government’s decision to establish advisory groups for crosscutting issues such as human rights, humanitarian affairs and the environment. The aim of the Advisory Group on Gender is to promote the integration of gender equality and the advancement of women into each national priority programme. It provides policy, strategy and programming advice to the government ministries and consultative groups. The Advisory Group on Gender also functions as a support structure to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and provides technical assistance to the Ministry on a variety of tasks, including project design and budgeting. Membership of the Advisory Group on Gender, chaired by the Minister of Women’s Affairs, consists of international and national NGOs, professional women’s associations, representatives from the donor communities and the United Nations.

In March 2004, the Advisory Group on Gender established a subgroup, called the Election Task Force. Chaired by UNAMA, its mandate was to monitor the participation of women in the electoral process. The Election Task Force contributed to the increase in female registered voters through regular consultations with the Joint Electoral Management Body Secretariat. The Election Task Force will continue its work focusing on women’s participation in the Parliamentary election scheduled for spring 2005.

LINKS:
(1) Secretary General Report on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan Commission on the Status of Women
(2) UNIFEM

Annex 1: Women’s Health
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has prioritized the provision of good quality and affordable healthcare to mothers and children. A basic package of health services has been developed with special attention to maternal and newborn health.

The maternal mortality ratio is 1,600 per 100,000 live births, reaching a high of 6,500 deaths per 100,000 live births in Badakhshan in 2003 – an unfortunate and regrettable world record. Maternal health care services are not equally distributed and the majority of women, especially from rural areas, do not have access to essential obstetric care. Moreover, pregnant women as well as children under-five are at high risk of contacting malaria. Tuberculosis is also a major killer with women comprising 70 per cent of these cases.

The Safe Motherhood Initiative is a priority component of reproductive health in Afghanistan with particular emphasis on access to emergency obstetric care. Female health workers are being trained with a focus on educating community midwives for rural areas. The MOH, with support from UNICEF and NGO partners, is also establishing and upgrading one health facility per province to perform emergency obstetric care services. Currently 25 out of the 32 provinces have functional services.

The first round of this year’s Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination Campaign was launched on 31 March. The MOH, with support from UNICEF and WHO, aims to eliminate this vaccine preventable disease by reaching four million women of childbearing age (15-45) throughout the nation.

Annex 2: Women’s Education

Even if we don't have the resources we need, we will find a way to teach the students. If we have no chairs, no desks, no classrooms, we will teach them under the trees. The future of our country, it lies with these girls. Their education is the future of Afghanistan; and some education is better than none at all."

(Tahera Hakimi, Principal, Maleka Jalaly High School for Girls, Herat- UNICEF)

Thirty-four per cent of children enrolled in schools are girls and for many observers this gives great hope as female illiteracy in Afghanistan is estimated at 85 per cent. But while girls account for 34 percent of total enrollment throughout the country this is primarily due to the high enrollment in Kabul City. Wide gender disparities persist in many provinces where girls represent less than 15 percent of total enrollment. Yet even where school services exist, there are a significant number of children who are not attending school. UNICEF estimates that up to 1.5 million girls, of school age, are not enrolled in classes. Safety, security, distance from home, and inadequate school facilities are the main reasons cited by families for not sending their children to school. The shortage of female teachers continues to be a main obstacle to girls acquiring an education.

UNESCO estimates that 51.9 per cent of men and only 21.9 per cent of women over the age of 15 know how to read and write. In response, the Government with UNESCO support, launched the Literacy and Non-Formal Education Development in Afghanistan project (LAND AFGHAN) in 2003, which aims to boost literacy.