February 22, 2011

Women for Afghan Women Campaign

Join Women for Afghan Women (WAW) in the fight to protect women's shelters and women's human rights.

The government of Afghanistan has introduced a bill that takes control of women's shelters from the local Afghan women that have founded them, and transfers that control to the Ministry of Women's Affairs.   

If this bill becomes law:

Women and girls seeking shelter will be required to plead their case before a Government panel which will determine whether a woman needs to be in a shelter or should be sent to jail or returned to her abuser.  

Women will have to undergo virginity tests to determine whether they have had sex and therefore committed adultery. The tests are medically invalid. 

Once admitted to a shelter, women will be forbidden to leave. Their shelter will become their prison.

There is no mention of women's human rights, of the horrific abuse that most women in shelters have fled.  

If any family member comes to claim her, even her abuser, she will be handed over, to be subjected to the harshest retribution for shaming the family.

Donate to Women for Afghan Women.
Write to your elected officials. 
Read up on the issue to increase your knowledge.  

For more information:
158-24 73rd Ave. 
Fresh Meadows, NY 11366 
Tel: 718.591.2434 
office@womenforafghanwomen.org


The bill is the culmination of a long, intense campaign by enemies of women's rights in the Afghan government who claim:  shelters are unIslamic, corrupt, and agents of immoral activity.

Women's shelters are run by local Afghan women's NGOs. They are not foreign imports. Their mission, to seek justice and human rights for women, is compatible with the highest values of Islam.

With this bill the government pits itself against Afghans who have risked their lives securing women's rights. 

Shelter lawyers gain access to civil law for women who would otherwise be subjected to tribal law. 

The new regulations will mark the return to the desolation of the Taliban years.

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