Deal with Taliban may roll back advances for women-AFGHAN women could face a dangerous future after 2014 if they are sidelined in the search for a peace deal with the Taliban, international aid agency Oxfam has warned.
In a report to be released today, the agency said substantial improvements in women's rights had been made over the past decade but could be lost in a quick-fix bargain for peace.
In "A place at the table: safeguarding women's rights in Afghanistan", Oxfam said there already had been a downward slide in the advances women began to make after 2001.
There had been strong gains in girls' education, with about 2.7 million in school compared with a few thousand during the Taliban's rule, but other areas showed patchy progress. Since 2005, a quota system guaranteed places in parliament for at least 68 female MPs and there were now 69. But there was just one female minister in the government compared with three in 2004, and the proportion of women in the civil service had dropped from 31 per cent in 2006 to 18.5 per cent last year.
The Karzai government's ground-breaking elimination of violence against women law, which criminalised practices such as honour killings, child marriages and the giving away of girls to settle disputes, was being enforced in only 10 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
The report warned that the assassination of the head of the High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani, underscored volatile conditions in which the rights of women could easily be ignored.
"We have made incredible gains in the last 10 years," the Oxfam report's co-author Orzala Ashraf Nemat said. "Women are working as doctors, lawyers and businesswomen and girls are at school. But what is life going to be like for us in the next 10 years?
"Afghan women want peace - not a stitch-up deal that will confine us to our homes again."
Oxfam said there were just nine women on the 70-member High Peace Council created to lead the peace process, and that did not bode well for women's participation in future peace talks.
In the run-up to December's Bonn conference, which will set the course for Afghanistan beyond 2014, the Afghan government and international community must develop a more inclusive peace process, it said.
World leaders must ensure women played an active role in any negotiations and pledge any settlement with the Taliban guaranteed women's rights.
Co-author Louise Hancock said: "The greater stake women have in the peace process, the more likely they are to support and promote reconciliation within their families and communities, which is essential for lasting peace."
In a report to be released today, the agency said substantial improvements in women's rights had been made over the past decade but could be lost in a quick-fix bargain for peace.
In "A place at the table: safeguarding women's rights in Afghanistan", Oxfam said there already had been a downward slide in the advances women began to make after 2001.
There had been strong gains in girls' education, with about 2.7 million in school compared with a few thousand during the Taliban's rule, but other areas showed patchy progress. Since 2005, a quota system guaranteed places in parliament for at least 68 female MPs and there were now 69. But there was just one female minister in the government compared with three in 2004, and the proportion of women in the civil service had dropped from 31 per cent in 2006 to 18.5 per cent last year.
The Karzai government's ground-breaking elimination of violence against women law, which criminalised practices such as honour killings, child marriages and the giving away of girls to settle disputes, was being enforced in only 10 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
The report warned that the assassination of the head of the High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani, underscored volatile conditions in which the rights of women could easily be ignored.
"We have made incredible gains in the last 10 years," the Oxfam report's co-author Orzala Ashraf Nemat said. "Women are working as doctors, lawyers and businesswomen and girls are at school. But what is life going to be like for us in the next 10 years?
"Afghan women want peace - not a stitch-up deal that will confine us to our homes again."
Oxfam said there were just nine women on the 70-member High Peace Council created to lead the peace process, and that did not bode well for women's participation in future peace talks.
In the run-up to December's Bonn conference, which will set the course for Afghanistan beyond 2014, the Afghan government and international community must develop a more inclusive peace process, it said.
World leaders must ensure women played an active role in any negotiations and pledge any settlement with the Taliban guaranteed women's rights.
Co-author Louise Hancock said: "The greater stake women have in the peace process, the more likely they are to support and promote reconciliation within their families and communities, which is essential for lasting peace."
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