Afgan Women on International Women's Day

From IHEU's United Nations Representative

March 2002

An unusual event that involved standing room only for many participants, took place on March 8 for the observance of International Women's Day. The topic, Afghan Women Today, bringing together a host of notables such as Secretary General Kofi Annan, first lady Laura Bush, and Queen Noor of Jordan, was followed by a panel discussion.

After 23 years of war, conditions in Afghanistan are devastating, particularly for women who have experienced extraordinary suffering. They have taken great risks and displayed great courage, as in only one example, by maintaining a secret network of schools under the eye of the religious police. At least 1.5 million Afghans have been killed. More than 90 per cent of school age girls cannot read. Life expectancy is 41 years. Only 1in 4 have safe water. Only 1 in 10 have adequate sanitation. 1 in 4 children born, die before the age of 5. There are an estimated 10 million mines contaminating large areas.

Before the Taliban took Kabul in 1996 and banned women from working, 50 per cent of government employees , 70 per cent of school teachers, and 40 per cent of doctors were women. Since the 20 's Afghani women had had the vote!

Now the UN is helping fund teams of teacher trainees. The university is reopening with dormitories to provide security for girl students. The women in Afganistan have had five years of virtual house arrest. The reconstruction of Afghanistan, and particularly help for women will require substantial resources.

Kofi Annan pointed out that if there is no security for women there is no security for anyone. No development strategy is effective without involving women. He stated that women are a key solution to peacemaking and reconstruction and can be involved in peacekeeping operations. It has become increasingly recognized, all over the world that the status of women is crucial in most of the issues with which the UN is concerned; popu lation, the environment, poverty health and life expectancy. Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund emphasized the importance of reproductive rights. One woman in 15 will die from complications of pregnancy. Every million dollars spent by the Population Fund saves thousands of women's lives and prevents unwanted pregnancies and children's deaths.

Another speaker emphasized the importance of education, particularly for women and girls. A notable fact: for each year of education outside of urban areas, mortality declines significantly. Sima Wali, President of Refugee Women in Development , herself a Moslem, made an impassioned statement that cultural differences and religion should not be used as an excuse and a rationalization for violence and denial of womens' rights.

While the principal focus was on the improvement of the lives of women in Afghanistan, a number of speakers emphasized that the condition of women in some other parts of the world are also deplorable and demand vigorous attention. Some years ago, we heard a striking quantitative perspective relating to the condition of women , by Amartya Sen, a Nobel prize winner in economics. He calculated that there are at least 100 million missing women. What did he mean? Demographers have long been aware that there were fewer women than men in some poor countries, instead of more than is the case in most of the developed world. He documented, among other things, that girls and women received less food and medical care than men and boys. He calculated how many more women would have been alive if the ratio of men to women more closely resembled that of other countries, Professor Sen came up with the startling figure of 100 million "missing women", killed, as it were, by discrimination.

One speaker expressed the basic point in a poetic image. A bird flies on two wings. A bird cannot fly, if one wing is broken.

Sylvain and Phyllis Ehrenfeld
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