Gender-based violence increases by 28%

Women’s abuse is not as vigorously highlighted by international rights groups.

ISLAMABAD:

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Independent Human Rights Commission say that violence against women has increased by 28% in the past year.

According to media reports, there have been 5,000 cases of violence against women in 2012, a matter of concern for those who have spent millions of dollars in foreign funds to create awareness about women’s rights.

The attorney general’s office is investigating over 1,300 cases of gender violence in Kabul alone, while a government report has listed 70 cases of honour killings and 38 cases of sexual abuse over the past seven months. The documents also pointed out that nearly 90% of the victims are children.

While the official statistics are alarming, observers say that there are many cases of violence which go unreported. Like Pakistani society, many families in Afghanistan do not want to reveal such incidents because they feel it will tarnish their honour and dignity in society.

Many in Afghanistan were expecting a positive change in the plight of womenfolk during the US-backed Karzai government.

The issue of violence against women was not as vigorously highlighted by international rights groups and the media as it was during the 1996-2001 Taliban regime when pictures of alleged Taliban beating women were circulated around the world.

The role of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) is also questionable as it only gives mundane statements on rights violations. A statement released last month said: “Isaf supports campaign to stop violence against women.”

President Hamid Karzai has realised the gravity of the matter, which is one of the major challenges for his shaky government. He expressed serious concern over the increase in violence against women in his recent radio message, urging religious scholars to play their role in making the people, particularly seminary students, aware of the issue. He said that the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and other government institutions have not yet taken enough measures to end violence against women, which make up half of the Afghan population.

The Afghan government and the country’s rights organisations are currently celebrating the international ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence’ campaign to create awareness against domestic abuse.

“The efforts made so far to eliminate violence against women have not been effective or serious... In addition to this, a number of religious scholars, by making wrong interpretations of religious texts, are unintentionally oppressing women,” a daily newspaper ‘Madadgar’ said in an editorial last week.

Some Afghan rights groups also hold the media responsible, saying that in its fixation on politics, human rights issues are neglected. A media rights group “Nai Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan” says that the mainstream media does not give adequate coverage to news stories on abuse against women.

Parliamentarians have also become vocal on the matter. Shokria Barekzai, an MP from Kabul, in a recent TV debate, discussed cases of women’s ears being cut and their bodies burnt. Physical violence and domestic violence are issues that can be eliminated through enlightening the minds of the public, she said.

Another lawmaker, Farkhonda Zahra Naderi, said last week that the violence in Afghanistan over the past 10 years has been terrible and has frustrated the entire world.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2012.