Violence against Afghan women remains commonplace - MP
Updated
The shocking acid attack on a group of schoolgirls in the Afghan city of Kandahar this week was a brutal reminder of the human rights challenges facing Afghan women. Ultra-conservative religious forces continue to oppose full female participation in society, and violence against women and girls remains commonplace. One woman who sits in Afghanistan's Parliament says this violence is not just against women, but against the very idea of progress in Afghanistan.
Presenter: Linda Mottram
Speaker: Mrs Toorpekai Slimankheli, member of Afghanistan's lower house of the parliament, speaking through an interpreter
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LINDA MOTTRAM: Toorpekai Slimankheli spends her working days in the Lower House of Afghanistan's Parliament surrounded mostly by men, many of whom are warlords and former mujahedin fighters from the country's long years of conflict. She lost her husband to a Russian bullet many years ago leaving her alone to raise her only daughter.
But that wasn't her only contribution through the years of the Taliban and beyond. She's been a teacher and a school principal and a health educator working with the Red Cross on a vaccination program in Zabul Province where she encountered resistance from those who opposed vaccination for women and girls. She is by no means though a radical activist and as Mrs Toorpekai and six colleagues this week toured Australia's Parliament, a first under an UNDP mentoring program, she seemed unbowed at the daunting task of building Afghanistan's institutions.
TOORPEKAI SLIMANKHELI: We will try our best, we will start from zero but you will see, I mean we are building the capacity of parliamentary and parliament and that's why we are here so maybe in future we can use this experience that we are gaining here.
LINDA MOTTRAM: There are still very strong forces fighting against President Karzai's government, do you think they can be defeated?
TOORPEKAI SLIMANKHELI: There's people, there's other groups that are fighting against Karzai, and they're enemies of Afghanistan - it's not just Karzai's enemies, it's everybody's enemies. They don't want to see Afghanistan to be developed and to have a good country.
LINDA MOTTRAM: Mrs Toorpekai works within the system but that has been no protection for many Afghans and not just women.
TOORPEKAI SLIMANKHELI: It's not just specifically about the women that they're receiving threats. It's as well about men and everybody that is living in Afghanistan. Everybody who is dealing with politics, especially in education, they want to develop the country, they're taking part, it's all against them but just especially women.
LINDA MOTTRAM: And Mrs Toorpekai believes that there are limits in the pursuit of building her country. For example, she was once a supporter of Malalai Joya, a 28-year-old fire brand who was expelled from the Afghanistan Parliament when in her relentless criticisms of warlords there she branded her colleagues, "Animals." It was a step too far in Mrs Toorpekai's view.
TOORPEKAI SLIMANKHELI: As Malalai Joya insulted all Parliament and Parliament is not just people that that took part in war and these things. If she is insulted everybody I'm not with her.
LINDA MOTTRAM: The loyalty of Mrs Toorpekai though could be tested as frustration continues with the Karzai presidency and the ongoing US-led war that props it up.
