Gender Violence

Since the mid 1980s, a strange sight has been on the political horizon. Feminists are standing alongside their arch-enemies, conservatives and religious fundamentalists, to call for anti-pornography laws.

     This phenomenon threatens the well-being of women in at least three important ways:

• Feminism is no longer a stronghold of freedom of speech;

• Women's unacceptable sexual choices are now under new attack;

• It involves rejecting the principle "a woman's body, a woman's right."

Since March of 2007 until now, there has been a 40% increase in reports of physical violence against women in Afghanistan, according to United Nations sources.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) says that in many parts of the country security has decreased, while the sense of impunity has risen, public institutions are often weak, and poverty is widespread. But there are also cultural causes, like coerced marriage.

According to alarming data from Womankind Worldwide, a charitable British group, 80% of Afghan women suffer domestic violence, 60% of marriages are coerced, and half of women are married before the age of 16.