What future for Afghan girls and women?

Women's rights activists and government leaders from Afghanistan say Afghan women and girls are becoming increasingly concerned about their safety and rights.

(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)

They say dozens of women in community leadership positions have been assassinated in the past year.

And they fear the situation of women and girls will worsen if a Taliban-style government comes to power after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year.

The Afghan activists and leaders are seeking support from countries like Australia, to try to ensure the gains achieved in the past few years are not reversed.

The overthrow of the Taliban may have provided some basic freedom for the women and girls of Afghanistan, but they continue to face stark challenges in achieving equality.

The withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 has been a central issue in discussions about women's rights in the near future.

Afghan politicians and women's rights activists say the role of women and girls in the transition and reconciliation process of the country is often overlooked.

Afghan female MP Shinkai Karokhil says being a woman in Afghanistan, and especially a politician, can be risky.

"We're living in a male-dominated society and they will never ever consider you as equal citizens. And when you're fighting for justice and equality, you will face lots of resistance and discrimination and challenges but we accept that because we have to work for the other generation of Afghanistan."

Shinkai Karokhil says too much foreign aid is focused on the military side of Afghanistan and not enough on issues relating to civilians.

"Our expectation from the intervention of the international community was different. We were thinking that there will be especially more focus on women's empowerment and generally Afghanistan's development. But, unfortunately because of the insurgency and insecurity issues the majority of money which came to Afghanistan, almost 60 per cent goes to military issues rather than being invested in girls' education or maternity health or generally development of Afghanistan."

Executive Director of the Women Peace and Security Research Institute in Kabul, Wazhma Frogh, agrees.

She says Australia should make advancement of women and girls' rights a key component of its aid program for Afghanistan.

Ms Frogh says Afghan women can face problems when voicing their opinions, even in their own homes.

"It starts from the family members. For example, my family gets angry whenever they see me in the media, whenever they see me on TV defending a rape victim or defending women's rights because they think this puts me in a more dangerous situation and risk increases for the family. Similarly in the society because we are challenging a lot of power holders, a lot of tribal leaders and warlords. So all of them, we are threats for them. That's why they do anything they can in order to silence us. In the past nine months we have lost around 70 women leaders only. These are not victims of domestic violence. These are women leaders who have been killed, assassinated, for political reasons, for social reasons just to create fear in the communities."

It's this fear of going against traditions and customs which Afghan MP Mohammad Noor Akbary says often prevents women from standing up for their rights.

He agrees that a key focus of the Australian aid program should be strengthening the position of women in Afghan society.

"A lot of problems which Afghan women are facing are the custom of Afghanistan, the tradition and culture of Afghanistan which has really abandoned women in their house. There is discrimination among men and women and there is the lack of law in benefit of the protection of women, which we have to create. And the government of Australia, the only way they could support the women of Afghanistan is capacity building for the women of Afghanistan."

Nader Jan is director of a group in Kabul called Women for Women International, which trains socially-excluded women in business and other job skills.

He says capacity-building is essential for Afghan women and girls.

"Our aim is to provide women with resources to move from victim to survivor to active citizen. We have a one year program for women to build their awareness, build their capacity and business management and to build their capacity on vocational training. Then we find markets to sell the women's products nationally and internationally. And based on evaluation, we have had more than 50 per cent of graduated women from our program that have sustained income and now they are aware about their rights and they now make decisions about family and now they send their children to schools - especially girls."

Implementing such projects for women and communities in general in Afghanistan is a key vision for the Melbourne-based Afghan Australian Development Organisation.

Director of the organisation, Dr Nouria Salehi, says Australia should support long-term projects in Afghanistan that help women and girls.

"I hope they help the Afghan women to continue their work and also fill the gap between men and women in Afghanistan by education, especially education of girls and women. And also vocational training which is a very important part of education in Afghanistan because a lot of women don't have skills, it's why they cannot work in Afghanistan. And the violation against women starts because women are not working."

Women's rights activist Wazhma Frogh also advocates a strong focus on upgrading women's skills, to help achieve long-lasting change in Afghanistan.

She says despite the challenges in Afghanistan, women and girls have experienced some progress since the fall of the Taliban.

"I think in the past eleven years, the things we have achieved, our neighbouring countries couldn't achieve in 70 years. We have 69 women sitting in the parliament, we have for example the Ministry of Women's Affairs, we have 3-4 million girls going to school which was impossible under the Taliban, so there has been a lot of progress but because a war is ongoing, it's very difficult to create accountability for the military."

Australia's Global Ambassador for Women and Girls, Penny Williams, says the general situation has improved for Afghan women and girls in the past few years.

Ms Williams says Australia recognizes that more needs to be done, after the withdrawal of foreign troops next year.

"There's been some steps forward in Afghanistan in terms of child mortality reduction, also increase in skilled birth attendance and increase in the number of girls in schools. We're very conscious that we need to keep absolutely engaged and we really need to look to ensure that that continues past the transition."

Afghan MP, Shinkai Karokhil, echoes Ms Williams' views in the achievements gained by the women and girls' of Afghanistan so far.

"The woman of Afghanistan today is not the woman of Afghanistan, which was there yesterday. So it's a big difference. W omen are much stronger, much more aware and much more committed so that's why it won't be easy for any extremists to make her silent again and put her back."

However, the threat from extremists appears to be inevitable.

Last year, the international media gave extensive coverage to the case of Pakistani girl Malala Yousefzai, who was shot in the head by theTaliban for promoting girls' education.

Activist Wazhma Frogh says there have been many similar tragic stories in Afghanistan.

"Well we have hundreds of Malalas every day in Afghanistan. Afghan girls have had acid thrown onto their faces while going to school, their schools were burnt, they have been poisoned. Last year we had more than 50 incidents of poisoning in girls' schools but the next day girls came to school so I think it will be very much unfair to think that Malala is the only inspiration for them. Malala's case and the whole international outcry made Afghan girls very hopeless. They said that we are already being attacked, not only in one person but in masses. Hundreds of girls are being deprived of education."

Director of Women for Women International in Kabul, Nader Jan, praises the strength of Afghan women and girls despite the challenges they face.

Mr Jan supports the withdrawal of foreign troops, but says care has to be taken to ensure the gains made by women and girls so far are not reversed.

"If the international community wants to leave Afghanistan, they have to relook their policies; their strategy and they should withdraw their troops but gradually. And to make sure that all the developments that happened in the last ten years will not collapse and be affected by their withdrawal from Afghanistan."

Activist Wazhma Frogh remains optimistic about the future for Afghan women and girls.

But she says they will need to receive continued national and international support.

"We are now in a situation where we can raise our voice. We are influencing global, national policies. The next ten years ,particularly the transformation decade, I'm very hopeful that the focus will be on creating women's ability in an environment so that women actually access and use those protection mechanisms. We don't need now any other spokesperson, we can actually speak for ourselves. What is needed is support for us. If women organisations don't have adequate resources, then it means that women are missing out."