Empty Promises to the Afghan Women

The Afghan Mission to the United Nation (UN) has formed a “Group of Friends”, co-chaired by the United Kingdom and comprised of women representatives to the UN and senior UN officials. The group is created to support the role of women in all aspects of life.

The UN’s mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a press release on Monday the 18^th of November 2019 that this Group will highlight the importance of protecting and enhancing women’s rights and the role that women can play across society and government, including in peace efforts. The aim of the “Group of Friends” is to empower and recognize the central role of women in the future of Afghanistan. Their objective is also to support the commitment of the Afghan government and their international partners, in the effective implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on “Women, Peace and Security”. Adela Raz, Afghanistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said at a ceremony inaugurating the Group: “During the last 18 years, Afghan women have risen as leaders of change and have started to shift the narrative from victims to partners. They are part of our success story, part of the new Afghanistan, where we all collaborate to ensure no woman is stoned to death; that she is not prohibited from getting an education, and she is not forced to stay at home. It is an important time in our political history where our gains matter more than ever, and our investment in Afghan women must continue to be strengthened.”

By founding such arrangements, the UN and its co-workers are trying to lead the Afghan women to believe in a glorious future in a new Afghanistan. The true cruel reality of women is blurred and it is portrayed as if they were on their way to further advancement. Can it be said that there is a true rise just because the government symbolically provides to some women seats in parliament or gives some others access to the world of the capitalist labor market or classifies some of them in women's rights organizations; is all of this to show the world that the afghan women become now emancipated and join freedom?

What about the numerous deaths (from 1 January to 30 June 2019, the armed conflict caused 430 women casualties (144 deaths and 286 injured), a decrease of 22 percent  as compared to the same period in 2018 UNAMA), the famine (an estimated 5 million Afghans have little or no access to food, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), the economic insecurity and the poverty rate (54 percent of the population lives in poverty, mostly women and children, Afghanistan's Central Statistics Organization), the thousands of uneducated women (84 percent of Afghan women are illiterate and only two percent of the women have access to higher education, Central Statistics Organization), the workplace harassment (87 percent had experienced harassment in their workplaces and 91 percent in educational institutions, Women and Children’s Legal Research Foundation), the widows (the number of widows in Afghanistan is estimated to be from 600,000 to two million, one of the highest in the world, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Social Affairs), the women forced into prostitution and the drug addicts (there are 1 million drug addicted women in Afghanistan Ministry of Public Heath), the displacing women (Over 1,5 million Afghani’s are currently displaced by violence and conflict, mostly women and children Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre), the women who had lack of access to essential services (more than 50 percent of pregnant women in Afghanistan do not have access to essential health services, Ministry of Public Health) and the thousands of women which would flee the country if they had the opportunity (nearly 50 percent of all Afghan women would leave their war-torn country if they could info Migrants).

So the points which are mentioned in the speech of Adela Raz, Afghanistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, are inconsistent with the current reality of Afghan women. The Afghan women are not leaders of change and no partners, rather victims of the corrupt plans of the US and the Afghan government. They are today not stoned to death, but they are mass murdered by the ruling war. Access to education is not forbidden to them, but the government does not care to grant them this opportunity. They are not forced to stay at home today, rather thousands of Afghan women must go outside and have to beg to earn their daily bread. Is that the role of women in a new Afghanistan?

Further as part of the international community, Afghanistan subscribes to UN declarations, conventions and resolutions, including those that address women’s rights and human rights. Among these are the United Nations’ Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The "Group of Friends" wants to support the implementation of such an arrangements, which are another crime against the Afghan women, because these arrangements are based on secularist worldviews and are incompatible with the nature of Islam. All this arrangements represent it theoretically that they stand behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on increasing women’s leadership and participation, ending violence against women, engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes, enhancing women’s economic empowerment and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting etc… But in practice, these points are associated with many implementation difficulties and therefore to date, no real success results can be seen in any country and that's way the women are still struggling for Inequality in Working Hours, Inequality in Employment and Earnings, Ownership Inequality, Gender Bias in the Distribution of Education and Health, Gender Inequality in Freedom Expression, Gender Inequality in Respect of Violence and Victimization etc.

UNSCR 1325, CEDAW and similar arrangements spread a poison that transforms the women of society into the slaves of consumption and secular, capitalist governments. They are in a constant, stressful fight with the men that they do not suppress their rights and they also have a vision that the man must always obtain the satisfaction of the woman so that he fits into the modern image of the democratic enlightened man.

So in summary, is in these arrangements any sign of protection, freedom and security for the Afghan women that the new “Group of Friends” want to support the government in the implementation of them? Certainly not!!! All these are just empty promises that have been repeatedly presented over the past 18 years with a new cover!

The Ummah has received a huge blessing from Allah (swt), in which Allah (swt) has given them the solution to all their problems. Instead of putting the energy in the failed democratic associations and fighting for the unrealizable rights of women, Muslim women should opt for the already assembled Islamic solution package. Islam has given to the women the right of political participation, the right of managing the economic affairs, the right of working, the right to be involved in social activities, the right of higher level of education and most of all. Islam provides to the women honor, dignity and safety as a human being! All these rights can only be guaranteed if the Shariah of Allah (swt) is ruling. Therefore, Muslim women should invest all their energy in the support of the establishing the Khilafah (Caliphate) upon the Method of the Prophethood. A State which gives them and all the women around the world their real rights and finally heals them of the poisons of democracy.

[فَاحْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللّهُ وَلاَ تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءهُمْ عَمَّا جَاءكَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ]

"And rule between them by that which Allah revealed to you, and do notm follow their vain desires away from the truth which came to you."  [al-Ma'idah, verse 48]