Women in Afghanistan could lose rights gained over past decade, say participants of OSCE event in Vienna

On 13 March 2013, the OSCE Gender Section held a discussion in Vienna on women’s empowerment and security in Afghanistan.

Miroslava Beham, the OSCE Senior Adviser on Gender Issues, underlined the importance of involving women at all stages of peace processes and the protection of women’s rights.

“Women in Afghanistan play a key role in the security and development of the country and the region,” Beham said. “Focus of the OSCE as part of the comprehensive international engagement must be on eliminating all forms of violence, especially violence against women in Afghanistan.”

The keynote speaker at the event, Ayscha Hamdani, talked about her experience as a political adviser on women and security issues to NATO and the EU in Afghanistan. She spoke of numerous challenges she faced working on programmes aimed at introducing and developing the gender component within the Afghan Ministries of Interior and Finance.

A specific feature of the security sector reform in Afghanistan, Hamdani said, is that it is advancing more quickly than the Afghan society attitudes regarding the role of women: “For example, Afghan women are reluctant to approach the police in cases of domestic violence as they are led to believe that domestic matters should be settled at home.”

“In the context of the ongoing reconciliation and rehabilitation process and the expected transition of 2014, women have serious concerns that they will lose the gains of the past decade,” Hamdani stressed. To enhance the OSCE’s efforts for women’s empowerment in Afghanistan, she proposed more exchanges between women in Afghanistan and OSCE participating States to inspire a new dialogue on women’s rights and new projects.