Farzana Wahidy loves to capture women on film. Armed with her camera, this 26-year-old photojournalist from Afghanistan finds inspiration in chronicling the lives of her country's vastly beleaguered but "hugely intriguing, wonderfully colorful and always stirring" women.
She is the first female Afghan photographer working for international wires such as Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press.
Sunita Viswanath, founder of Women for Afghan Women, will be speaking at 6 p.m. on Feb. 3 in Jubilee Hall to discuss the current status of women in Afghanistan.
WAW serves as an outreach program and shelter for Afghan women to teach them vital life skills and to educate them about their rights.
Looking for a way out of Afghanistan? Maybe it's time to try something totally different, like putting into action, for the first time in history, the most enlightened edict ever passed by the United Nations Security Council: Resolution 1325.
As the military effort in Afghanistan has stumbled, more attention has been paid to finding a political solution to the conflict – which necessarily involves some negotiation with the Taliban. But after decades of war, Afghans are sceptical of peace processes. Women in particular fear being excluded and losing their hard-won rights.
The Afghan Ministry of Health held an inauguration ceremony to mark the start of a tri-provincial midwife program in Charikar, here, Jan. 6.
Sixty female students from Parwan, Panjshayr and Kapisa provinces will attend 26 months of instruction before receiving midwife certificates, allowing them to begin work in their local clinics.
The applause and whoops Tuesday morning when Shaima Khinjani announced she and her husband, Faeez Akram, were expecting a baby were as enthusiastic as they might have been for a close friend.
This indicator will not tell the real story. Women constitute 27 per cent of Afghanistan parliament against 11 per cent in India. But listening to Habiba Danish and Shukriya Paikan, the women members of the Afghanistan parliament, can give you a fair idea that numbers can't say it all. Nor do comprehend what they have gone through before reaching where they are now. But, they can tell you the real tales of grit.
I frequently visit the Chicago Council on Global Affairs website to peruse their schedule of multidisciplinary programs, always hoping to find programs on microfinance. When I saw that the Women and Global Development Forum was hosting a program called Rebuilding Afghanistan: A Civilian and Military Perspective, I knew it would be an event not to miss.
Since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, Afghanistan has received billions of dollars in aid from Canada and other foreign governments. While assistance programs typically are billed as a means of winning the hearts and minds of the people by lifting them out of poverty, many have the unintended side effect of empowering women and introducing them to a lifestyle that would be unthinkable under the Taliban.
Afghan women call for International support for nine female members of the Afghan High Peace Council, created following the Peace Jirga in June 2010, which provides the framework for negotiations with the Taliban, including:
