LONDON, 30 May 2005 — Women are raped, murdered and abused with impunity all over Afghanistan despite the overthrow of the Taleban that was supposed to have ushered in a new era of rights for women, Amnesty International said today. The London-based rights group said entrenched feudal customs still meant Afghan men often treated women as chattels who could be abused at will without any fear of official retribution.
“Throughout the country, few women are exempt from violence or safe from the threat of it,” Amnesty said in a report based on extensive interviews in Afghanistan. “Husbands, brothers and fathers remain the main perpetrators of violence in the home but the social control and the power that they exercise is reinforced by both state authorities and informal justice systems,” it added.
The report’s author, Nazia Hussein, who traveled all over the country conducting interviews, told Reuters there was a deep sense of disappointment that matters had not improved since the US-led war which ousted the Taleban in late 2001. “A lot of women told us they had hoped things would change rapidly for the better after the overthrow of the Taleban, so there is a sense of disappointment,” Nazia said.
“But on education, employment and security there is a feeling that generally things have not improved ... and in some cases have got worse,” she added. She cited the case of one woman in an arranged marriage, whose husband beat her from the wedding night onward and through two pregnancies, who eventually ran away to her parents’ home but was forced to return because of family pride.
Attempts to talk to men — including government officials — revealed at best verbal concern but no action and at worst the attitude that it was not a problem.
“It is about tribes and codes of conduct based on age-old customs, not religion,” she said. “It is really, really important that this issue is flagged up — especially in terms of donor states.”
