HONOR MARTYRED WOMEN LEADERS, HOLD CRIMINALS ACCOUNTABLE
KABUL, 10 December 2012: Insurgent groups, criminal gangs and other armed actors have assassinated many Afghan women leaders but the Afghan Government and its U.S.-NATO allies have either failed or shown no willingness to hold the perpetrators accountable.
A new Afghanistan Rights Monitor report (attached), researched by two Afghan activists, highlights 10 assassination cases of prominent Afghan women over the past years. AqilaHekmat, MalalaiKakar, Safia Amajan, Zakia Zaki, Hanifa Safi, Sitara Achikzai, Sangha Amaaj, Belqis Mazlomyar, Hamida Barmaki and Sima Akakhel were brutally killed for their work and ideals. They were serving the Afghan people as a doctor, a journalist, a lawmaker, a police officer, a women's development official and law lecturer, none had any role in the armed conflict.
Five of these women were assassinated by Taliban insurgents, four were killed by criminal actors and one was shot dead by a U.S. army sergeant. Thus far, no perpetrator has gone through an effective and transparent judicial process.
Despite widespread public disgust, President Hamid Karzai has named education institutions, roads and other public places after his favorite deceased warlord. He has also earmarked state resources to commemorate the death anniversaries of some controversial militia commanders. In paying tribute to martyred women leaders, Mr. Karzai has celebrated none.
This report calls on the Afghan Government, the UN and the wider donor community to honor the sacrifices the 10 Afghan women leaders made while serving Afghanistan. It also demands an immediate end to criminal impunity for all actors that assassinate, intimidate and restrict Afghan women.
As reconciliatory negotiations are being sought with Taliban and other insurgent groups, all parties must ensure that the assassinators of Afghan women leaders would not be granted blanket clemency, the report says.
For more on the report and the independent views of the authors, please contact:
Orzala Ashraf Nemat at: orzala.an@gmail.com, +44 7448730999
AjmalSamadi at: samadi.ajmal@gmail.com, +1-2024034247
To contact ARM, send an email to: info@arm.org.af