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Afghanistan

, Thomson Reuters Foundation’s survey on the 10 most dangerous countries for women in 2018, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 2018

The survey reports on the worst countries in the world for women in terms of health (e.g. maternal mortality, lack of access to health care facilities, lack of control over reproductive rights); discrimination (e.g. over land rights, job rights, property or inheritance); culture and religion (e.g. acid attacks, FGM, forced marriages); sexual violence (e.g. Rape, rape as a weapon of war, domestic rape or by a stranger); non-sexual violence (e.g. domestic violence); and human trafficking (including domestic servitude, forced labour, sexual slavery and forced marriage). The methodology is outlined and each listed country is fully described in each of the categories explored by the survey.

, The Big Story: Global Climate Protests, Guardian Weekly, 2019, pp. 10-14

Covers the demonstrations by school children and students in an estimated 185 countries with a photo of a protest in Nairobi, Kenya, and an overview of the protests in their environmental and political context. Coverage also includes brief statements from young activists in Australia, Thailand, India, Afghanistan, South Africa, Ireland and the US; the speech by Greta Thunberg to the UN Climate Action summit in New York; and 10 charts explaining the climate crisis.

See also: Milman, Oliver, 'Crowds Welcome Thunberg to New York after Atlantic Crossing ', The Guardian, 29 Aug. 2019, p.3.

Reports on Thunberg's arrival in New York where she was to address the UN Climate Action summit on reaching zero carbon emissions.

, Educating Girls: The Path to Gender Equality, Washington, D.C., Global Partnership for Education, 2019, pp. 11

Outlines the challenges faced by girls seeking an education, and provides data related to most of the African countries, alongside Afghanistan, Yemen, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.

Archiwal, Ahmadullah, Afghanistan: The Helmand Peace March, Two Years On, International Center on Non-Violent Conflict, 2020

Provides detailed account of the development of an Afghan peace movement after March 26 2018, after dozens of football fans were killed by a Taliban car bomb in Lashkargah, capital of Helmand province. Members of their families launched a protest that included pitching tens and going on hunger strike. Protesters included women, the disabled and the old. The movement also made specific demands for a ceasefire during Ramadan, further ceasefires, creating a political framework acceptable to all Afghan groups, and promoting the ultimate withdrawal of international military forces.   

See also: Abed, Fahim, ‘Afghan peace marchers meet the Taliban and find ‘people just like us’, The New York Times, 10 June 2019.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/world/asia/afghanistan-peace-march-taliban.html

See also: Hassan, Sharif, ‘After 17 years of war, a peace movement grows in Afghanistan’, The Washington Post, 18 August 2018.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/after-17-years-of-war-a-peace-movement-grows-in-afghanistan/2018/08/18/662e4812-a0cc-11e8-a3dd-2a1991f075d5_story.html

Brodsky, Anne E., With All Our Strength: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, London, Routledge, 2004, pp. 336

Account of feminist organization founded in 1977, which uses literacy classes, underground papers and pamphlets and demonstrations, based on more than 100 interviews with key activists by author, a US feminist scholar. The founder of the Association, who left university in Kabul to struggle for women’s rights, was assassinated in 1987.

Cockburn, Andrew, Kill Chain: Drones and the Rise of High-Tech Assassins, London, Verso, 2015, pp. 336 (pb)

Critical assessment of today's 'military industrial complex' and also the role of drones in the US wars in Afghanistan and in targeting 'terrorists'.  Cockburn documents the technological failings of drones, often unable to distinguish targeted individuals from others nearby, and the 'trigger-happy' attitudes of some soldiers using them.  Both led to numerous mistaken deaths.

See also: Frew, Joanna, 'Drone Wars: the next generation', Peace News , 2618-2619, June-July 2018, p. 4.

Frew summarizes a new report, issued by Drone Wars UK, on development and use of armed drones by a 'second generation' of nine states (including  China, Iran and Turkey) and several non-state actors developing and using armed drones.  (The first group was the US, UK and Israel.)  The report also estimates that a further 11 states would soon be deploying drones, and that China was increasing export of them.  Frew stresses the urgent need for international controls, and queries whether existing controls on exports (already being undermined in the US) were adequate.                                                           

Franceschet, Susan ; Krook, Mona Lena ; Tan, Netina, The Palgrave Handbook of Women’s Political Rights, ed. Ennaji, Moha, Sadiqi, Fatima, Vintges, Karen, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, pp. 784

Covers women’s political rights across all major regions of the world, focusing both on women’s right to vote and women’s right to run for political office. The countries explored are Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, New Zealand, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Rwanda, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, South Korea, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, the United States, Uganda, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe.

Hari, Johann, Malalai Joya: The woman who will not be silenced, The Independent, 2009, pp. 1-5

Jayawardena, Kumari, Feminism And Nationalism In The Third World, London and New York, Verso, 2016, pp. 304

By demolishing the myth that feminism originated in the West, Kumari Jayawardena presents feminism as it originated in the Third World, erupting from the specific struggles of women fighting against colonial power, for education or the vote, for safety, and against poverty and inequality. Gives particular attention to Afghanistan, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vietnam.

To look at a brief extract of the book see also https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4018-feminism-and-nationalism-in-the-third-world

Joya, Malalai, Raising My Voice: Story of the Afghan Woman Who Spoke Out, London, Rider, 2010, pp. 288

Explores life of young woman who secretly ran schools for girls in Herat during Taliban rule, was elected to the Afghan parliament in 2005 at the age of 23, but was thrown out of it for raising women’s issues, and who had by 2009 already survived five assassination attempts. When she visited Britain in 2009, where she opposed NATO involvement in Afghanistan, the Independent ran a long interview with her:  Hari, Johann , Malalai Joya: The woman who will not be silenced The Independent, 28/07/2009, pp. 1-5 .

Kaldor, Mary, Le Nuove Guerre. La Violenza Organizzata Nell’Eta’ Globale, Roma, Edizioni Carocci, 2001, pp. 188

By examining the wars in Rwanda, in the former Yugoslavia, across the Middle East and in the former Soviet Union, Kaldor discusses the elements and dynamics of structural violence that determined the nature of these wars. She argues that these wars were predominantly determined by military and criminal factors, as well as by the presence of an illegal economy and human rights’ violations. She also argues that the underlying causes of these conflicts lie in the relationship between military and civilian victims, and in the changed perception of threat by the Western powers.