Independent Women's Forum - Halima Karzai

Kuwaiti Women Determined to Win in a Man's World

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:50:00 EDT

With parliamentary elections less than 24-hours away, Kuwaiti women are determined to win seats based on merit. They serve as a great model for neighboring Saudi Arabia where women don't even have the right to vote.

Whether swathed in Islamic veils or dressed in Western suits, Kuwaiti women are campaigning hard to win parliamentary seats in Saturday's election.

They failed to take any at the last vote in 2006 and once again face an uphill struggle attracting voters in a conservative and male-dominated Gulf Arab state.

"There are a lot of challenges but there is also a positive wave... voters think why not try women? We tried men for years," said Rola Dashti, one of 27 women running against 246 men.

Kuwait's 50-member National Assembly passed a law in 2005 granting women the right to vote and run for office for the first time since its creation in 1962.

Some have suggested introducing a quota for women in the assembly, a system already in place in several Arab countries.

But many women are opposed to such positive discrimination and would prefer to win on merit, even if it takes years.

Hessah Mohammed, another female voter, said: "God willing women will enter the parliament. If there are qualified and capable women ... women will win."

Click here for more.

Rwandan Women Improve Economic Conditions

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:06:00 EDT

In today's Washington Post, Anthony Faiola writes a great piece on the role gender empowerment can play in helping post-conflict economies. In this article, Rwandan women exemplify the economic impact women can make on their economy when empowered.

In the 14 years since the genocide, when 800,000 people died during three months of violence, this country has become perhaps the world's leading example of how empowering women can fundamentally transform post-conflict economies and fight the cycle of poverty. That is particularly clear here in Maraba, a southern village where a host of women -- largely relegated to backbreaking field work in the days before the genocide -- found unwanted opportunity in the fertile lands they would inherit from slaughtered husbands, fathers and brothers.

As both female and male survivors sought to rebuild coffee plantations with financial and technical assistance from international organizations, Maraba's women, most trying their hands at the business of farming for the first time, were by far the faster students. They showed more willingness than men, officials here said, to embrace new techniques aimed at improving quality and profit. Now, Maraba's female farmers are outdoing their male counterparts in both, numbering about half of all farmers in the village's coffee cooperative but producing 90 percent of its finest quality beans for export.

The march of female entrepreneurialism, playing out here and across Rwanda in industries from agribusiness to tourism, has proved to be a windfall for efforts to rebuild the nation and fight poverty. Women more than men invest profits in the family, renovate homes, improve nutrition, increase savings rates and spend on children's education, officials here said.

It speaks to a seismic shift in gender economics in Rwanda's post-genocide society, one that is altering the way younger generations of males view their mothers and sisters while offering a powerful lesson for other developing nations struggling to rebuild from the ashes of conflict.

"Rwanda's economy has risen up from the genocide and prospered greatly on the backs of our women," said Agnes Matilda Kalibata, minister of state in charge of agriculture. "Bringing women out of the home and fields has been essential to our rebuilding. In that process, Rwanda has changed forever. . . . We are becoming a nation that understands that there are huge financial benefits to equality."

Read complete article here.

Even After Taliban, Violence Against Women Remains

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:18:00 EDT

The brutal treatment of Afghan women at the hands of the Taliban became common knowledge in 2001 when the United States removed the brutal regime from power. The Taliban stood out for aggressively and publicly oppressing and abusing women. Yet oppression and violence against Afghan women existed well before the Taliban era and continues to exist today.

After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, when many internal factions were fighting amongst each other for power, women bore the brunt of sexual, physical, and psychological abuses. The individuals from those factions are today's warlords and in spite of being among the worst human rights violators - they sit in very high level official seats today. They are making decisions that again affect the lives of the poor Afghan grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and sisters who they do not recognize as human beings.

There has been significant progress for Afghan women on many levels since the fall of the Taliban. Yet today over 80 percent of women throughout the country continue to suffer from domestic violence. And the challenge isn't limited to domestic violence, but also societal and state violence.

While laws are in place to protect women, they hardly function in practice. A woman who attempts to escape domestic violence or who is raped often finds herself and her young children sharing a jail cell with food and clothing for only the mother.

Human trafficking is also a problem in Afghanistan. Women and young children are often sold into prostitution or forced labor. Although they have been forcibly trafficked, survivors are often imprisoned for adultery or lewd conduct. If they are children, they are put into orphanages, only to be victimized more. There are no efforts made towards their rehabilitation or reunification with their families.

Unfortunately, this is all too often not the exception but the continuing norm, and constitutes a failure of the justice system in Afghanistan.

There are several national and international laws in place to protect specific rights of Afghan women, but the biggest barrier to the effective implementation of these laws is cultural and tribal traditions that limit women's understanding of and willingness to make use of those laws.

Involving men is an important step to truly empowering Afghan women. Afghanistan is a patriarchal society that will take decades, if not centuries, to change. For the time, due to oppressive social norms, men are often reluctant to allow their wives to leave the home, let alone to explore the possibility of working. However, there are several progressive programs in various provinces run by local civil society organizations that include both women and men. For example, couples can attend literacy classes together. These types of programs help in couples jointly advancing their family and life, and encourage a greater sense of equality.

These civil institutions are the key to long term change. Societal change, as well as a specific commitment to helping Afghan women obtain access to the information, as well as facilities and resources will be necessary to address the problem of domestic violence and other violence against women and to help cultivate a greater respect for women as individuals.

The Afghan government and international community have laid an excellent foundation for the critical work that needs to be done for the advancement of women's socio-political rights, however, much work remains to be done in the recognition and enforcement of human rights laws.

Dying Together

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:36:00 EDT

The article "If we die, we will die together," in quqnoos.com highlights one of several thousand stories occurring in Afghanistan today. The sky rocketing prices of wheat and rice and the food shortage crisis is forcing families to sell their children so that they can make their ends meet.

Mother's plea to husband who sold daughters for food and water
"If we die, we will die together."

These were the words a Kabul mother used to beg her husband to buy back her two children who he sold to buy food for his starving family.

The mother of six told Quqnoos.com that her husband sold her two daughters, aged four and two, because he could not afford to buy drinking water for his family.

"My husband said, ‘I'm going to sell these children to provide food for our other children'. But I said, ‘if we die we will die together' I can't stand to see my children with another family."

The husband agreed to buy back her two young daughters after she screamed at him for days.

One of the girls' brothers said: "When my father took my sisters off to sell them I was crying but I know my father did this because he had to."

One of the sisters said: "We don't have money to buy food: that is why my father sold my two sisters."

The husband said Kabul council had bulldozed their previous home and failed to provide his family with a new home, depsite numerous promises.

The family now lives in the capital's Kai Khana area, where they rent a house close to the Presidential Palace.

Over the last month, the cost of bread has doubled in some parts of the country. America warned last week that the rising cost of wheat, the lack of rain and export bans on flour to Afghanistan will likely increase the risk of serious food shortages in the country.

The US government's development agency, USAID, also predicts a below-average wheat harvest next month because crops have had about 50-90% less water than last year.

Provinces such as Ghor, Badghis, Daykundi, Badakhshan, Faryab, Urzgan, Zabul, Wardak, and Logar are most at risk from food shortages, the agency said.

The hike in the cost of wheat is most pronounced in Faizabad, Badakhshan, where prices are 157% higher than the five year average, Mazar-e-Sharif (151% above average), and Herat (13% above average). Since January, the cost of bread in Kabul has risen from Afg6 to Afg20 in some parts of the city.

IWF Podcast: Campus Living Wage Mandates

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) info@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:27:00 EDT

Halima Karzai and Allison Kasic discuss campus living wage mandates.

Women Working to Demine Sudan

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:11:00 EDT

The Washington Post featured a remarkable article on Sudanese women who have taken on a mission to demine their country.

Seven months pregnant Opayi Mary stands half a meter away from a mine made expressly to blow anything over 3 kg to pieces. For her, it's just part of a day's work.
Mary leads an all-female team of deminers working for Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) in one of south Sudan's most dangerous areas: the civil war battlefield Mile 38.

The war, fought over ideology and ethnicity and fuelled by oil, killed 2 million people and displaced 4 million before a peace deal was signed in 2005.

Now, south Sudan's semi-autonomous government, which will hold a referendum on secession in 2011, is trying to rebuild a region where even the most basic infrastructure is lacking.

Clearing the thousands of mines is an important part of efforts to rebuild the devastated region, where mined roads have made travel and transport of goods difficult.

"I was so afraid of my first one," Mary admits. Two years later she is now in charge of her group's safety and for exploding the mines taken from this empty scrubland.

"Now I have taken more than 20. I can even hold them with my hand," Mary grins. She is short and seems all burgeoning bump but walks fast between cordoned off areas.

Under Mary's watch, Joanne Jenty slides a prong into a marked-out area in front of her that she has already wetted. In the hot silence of the bush and on her hands and knees, she is feeling for the side of a mine that she will then delicately unearth.

People used to live along this major trade route but have been slow to return since the war ended, deterred by a lack of infrastructure, worries of a return to fighting and the lines of hidden explosives buried just inches under the earth's surface.

The UN Mine Action Office, which coordinates demining projects run by dozens of groups, says more than 2,000 people have been killed or injured by mines since the end of the war. The cost for farmers and communities is incalculable, it says.

So far, Mary's team and another NPA team have removed 205 antipersonnel mines and 96 anti-tank mines from around the main road that links neighboring Uganda to Juba, the capital of a vast and wild region that still has no large commercial farming or factories.

For Mary, who feels her baby move as she works, the job just has to be done, inch by grueling inch in prickling grass.

"We have to work hard to develop our country, even if it is hard," she said. "We have to clear. For my children and for others."

Mary initially wanted to be a doctor but could not afford the training. But her pragmatic mind has adapted well to clearing contaminated earth.

A WOMAN'S TOUCH

According to Lado Victor, from Norwegian People's Aid, women learn demining techniques as quickly as men but follow procedures more vigorously. The only complication is pregnancy.

Southerners have traditionally raised large families with up to 10 children, and since the war there is a social consensus on the need to repopulate. At any one time, a handful of the 25-woman team are pregnant, Victor explained.

The women used to have in-camp sitters who would look after the babies while they were in the minefields. But the sudden appearance of a rabid dog from the wilderness encouraged NPA to enforce longer maternity leave.

Mary will eventually leave her child with her mother in a nearby town. She admits that especially since she became pregnant for the first time there has been growing pressure on her to stop what many in the traditionally conservative south see as masculine and dangerous labor.

"A lot of people tell my husband he should stop me," she said. "I just don't mind it," she adds.

Click here to read the full article.

Celebrate International Women's Day!

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:02:00 EST

On March 5, 2008, Halima Karzai was invited to a luncheon at DePaul University's International Human Rights Law Institute to celebrate International Women's Day. She addressed an audience of 70 students to celebrate women's global achievements and accomplishments, as well as discussing some of the challenges women in the 21^st century still continue to face.

View the video and pictures from IWF event "Securing Afghanistan: The Role of Women."

Remarks of Halima Karzai

Prepared for Delivery

DePaul University's

International Human Rights Law Institute

March 5, 2008

Good afternoon. I am honored to be here with you today and I thank DePaul University's International Human Rights Law Institute and President Cherif Bassiouni for inviting me to celebrate with you International Women's Day, by reflecting on women's global achievements and contributions and also to examine some of the global challenges women continue to face in the 21^st century . While my work at the Independent Women's Forum is focused on international women's issues, where we believe all issues are women's issues and that human rights ARE women's rights, I will explore issues which I speak of regularly and issues that have been of particular concern to IWF.

Historically women have always been an essential to their families, their societies, and to their nations since the beginning of time. However today, now more than ever, women are being recognized on a local and global level for their achievements. Their contributions are invaluable in both the public and private spheres in ways that were unimaginable just a decade ago. Women are and have been contributing from the sciences to the arts, from politics to business, and as mothers and heads of state. They are their nation's reformers. They stand for justice and for the overall empowerment of women and girls, even at the expense of their own personal security. They are the human rights defenders of their nations.

Through my work, travels, and interactions with people of different cultures, faiths, and ethnicities, I have learned how important it is to always listen to different views.

This includes listening to various news outlets, and not only ones that have breaking news is about Britney Spears' latest mental breakdown.

As humans, we may tend to have a view instilled in our mind which will always exclude thoughts contrary to our belief, so when I speak to you about issues today, it's not with the intention to change your mind, but just to have you simply think outside the box and to think creatively about solutions.

A few months ago, an Afghan women from Kandahar province, the most violent province in Afghanistan, was determined to organize a gathering where women took to the streets to hold a prayer for peace. Women not only participated in the peace prayer in Kandahar, but in 6 other provinces in the country. On March 8^th, on International Women's day, let us remember the women of Afghanistan, who will yet again put their lives at risk to stand for peace not only for themselves, but for the men in their lives. They believe only Afghans can stop the violence against other Afghans. They took as their model two ordinary women in Ireland who, in the 1970s, grew angry because Irish were killing Irish. They hope that because their Irish sisters were able to go door to door and convince women to march for peace, their cries for peace can also be heard. Of course we can see this as a significant achievement for Afghan women.

Iraqi women were absent in key decision making roles for over 30 years. In spite of challenges they continue to face, they remain to be more resilient than ever in working for a society that will treat them with equality. Among many other accomplishments, they are making arduous strives to improve their economy, to achieve peace, and towards gaining AND retaining their basic human rights.

Iranian women will again take to the streets on International Women's Day, to peacefully protest the degrading treatment they have been subject to by the Iranian regime. And as they did last year, they will put themselves at the risk of being arrested and brutally beaten to have their voices heard. The regime, who is prosecuting those campaigning for women's rights claims in no other country are women treated better than in Iran. I'm sure this claim falls in line with the fact that there are no homosexuals in Iran. In spite of the threats and backlash Iranian women are facing, they are still advocating to end discriminatory practices against women in Iran.

Although it may be true that we don't hear as much about women's international achievements as we should, I stand before you today to say, we certainly don't hear about the challenges they are silently and continuously facing.

"In this century where man has reached Mars, Afghan women are still striving to establish ourselves as human beings." These are words from a young human rights activist living in Afghanistan, yearning for the international community to hear her pleas not to abandon the women of Afghanistan.

How often do we hear similar pleas from women of other developing nations? Unless they are for politicized reasons, how often do we read or hear about the unnecessary ordeals and hardships women face? Although I can't go into detail about all these challenges, because they are so egregious I will summarize some of the most daunting atrocities women and girls face in the world today.

Women and children are used as weapons to murder themselves and innocent civilians because they are told this is what's right and a path to freedom without even asking "freedom for whom?". In many cases, for example in Afghanistan, handicapped or mentally incapacitated men, women, and children are used as suicide bombers.

In the developing world, domestic violence harms and kills more people than cancer or car accidents. A recent study reported that violence against women causes more deaths and disabilities among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or even war.

Women in developing countries who are involved in peace processes continue to face obstacles and challenges as a result of violence against women, poverty, limited access to education, devastated economies, lack of social structures, and other various forms of discrimination and injustices. Just recently, we were witness to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani Prime Minister, whose calls for democracy and change were violently silenced.

Over 130 million women and girls have had their genitalia mutilated. They are convinced it is part of their culture and religion. Female genital mutilation, also called female circumcision is a practice commonly carried out in African countries and parts of Asia and the Middle East. The highest maternal and infant mortality rates are in areas practicing the procedure. In areas where antibiotics are not available, for example in Sudan, 1/3 of the girls undergoing the practice will die. FGM is continued on the basis that it is a "good tradition", a religious requirement, and a necessary rite of passage to womanhood. We have yet to gain knowledge about what our sisters across the world are facing.

Because of poverty, and in many cases tradition and family pressure, children are being married off to men 30 to 40 years their senior. Children are shifted from one life of misery to another and in some countries, half of all girls are married by the age of 18.

If young girls are even given the opportunity to attend school, they tend to be pulled out to soon enter a life of matrimony. They are deprived of their basic rights to education, and because they are so young and married, they face premature pregnancy and run the risk numerous complications, including death. In many developing countries, pregnancy is the leading cause of death for adolescent girls. And those who are fortunate to survive are still vulnerable to HIV, sexual violence and physical exploitation.

In Nicaragua, 16% of girls are married by age 15, and 50% by 18. In the autonomous North Atlantic region, 67% are married by 18. In the Dominican Republic, 11% are married by 15 and 38% by 18.

Such cultural norms lead to a lack of full economic opportunities for women, because they are seen as an unworthy investment and they are devalued.

A 12 year old child bride in Afghanistan, Lila, poured petrol over herself and set herself on fire five months after being married. Luckily she survived. From her hospital bed she whispered that she wanted to kill herself because her 17-year-old husband had constantly beat her.

Self immolation often stems from forced marriages, abusive husbands or in-laws, poverty, shame, ignorance, and little education. Women and girls who immolate themselves are not aware of their rights and feel the only way out of the torture, abuse and unhappiness is through committing suicide through actions like setting fire to themselves or by digesting poison.

According to Medica Mondiale, an international women's rights group, about 85 percent of women who die as a result of their burns perish because they either are not taken to the hospital, or have not been taken fast enough, out of shame. Those who do survive face social exclusion by their communities.

Can you imagine anything worse happening to a woman after she has been subjected to the torture of having her genitalia removed, becoming a bride who hasn't even hit the age of puberty, and then because she is so mentally and physically underdeveloped, she sets herself on fire only to be a disfigured member of a judgmental and unsupportive society who sees her as nothing but an outcast that has brought shame to her family?

Well many women and girls cannot only imagine, but actually become a victim once again -to something worse- this time to an honor killing. Honor killings take place because people think the woman has brought shame to her family by actions she may or may not have taken.

They are called honor killings, but it is no different from a dowry death or a crime of passion all of which have the same dynamic where the woman is killed by a male relative. This crime is carried out by people of all different cultures and religions.

Sadly, it is females in the family-mothers, mothers-in-law, sisters, and cousins- who commonly support the attacks.

Even when laws are created, like for instance in Turkey where honor killings are outlawed, the crime still continues to be carried out. These cultural traditions are deeply imbedded in societies where it will take time and a lot of grassroots work to transform the mentality that it is okay to murder to preserve your honor.

Respected guests, we may feel that these challenges women are facing are far from home, but we are mistaken. The fact of the matter is we may be witness to these crimes against humanity and not even be aware of it. Today, there are more slaves in the world than during any other time in history. Human trafficking, also known as modern day slavery, affects every region of the world. Today, there are over 27 million slaves globally.

I want to share with you a couple of a stories outlined by a student organization at Georgetown University called Students Stopping the Trafficking of People. These stories highlight the extent to which human trafficking occurs, from forced prostitution to forced labor, and to children overpowered to become soldiers.

Sex Trafficking
"Neary grew up in rural Cambodia. Her parents died when she was a child. In an effort to give her a better life, her sister married her off when she was 17. Three months later, her and her husband went to visit a fishing village. Her husband rented a room in what Neary thought was a guest house. But when she woke the next morning, her husband was gone. The owner of the house told her she had been sold by her husband for $300 and that she was in a brothel. For five years, Neary was raped by five to seven men every day. In addition to brutal physical abuse, Neary was infected with HIV and contracted AIDS. The brothel threw her out when she became sick, and she eventually found her way to a local shelter. She died of HIV/AIDS at the age of 23."

Forced Labor
"Serena arrived from the Philippines to work as a housemaid in Saudi Arabia. Upon her arrival, her employer confiscated her passport and, with his wife, began to beat and verbally abuse her. On one occasion, her female employer pushed her down the stairs; another time, her male employer choked her until she passed out. She was not allowed to leave the house. As her passport had been confiscated, she could not flee. Serena was driven to attempt suicide. Once at the hospital, she was able to escape from her captors. She has sought redress through the Saudi court system and is waiting for justice in a shelter."

Child Soldiers
"Michael was 15 when he was kidnapped by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to serve as a combatant in the Ugandan insurgent force. During his forced service in the LRA, he was made to kill a boy who had tried to escape. He also watched another boy being hacked to death because he did not alert the guards when his friend successfully escaped"

Although human trafficking is not something we hear of often, victims are trafficked right here - to the United States. I would like to echo a powerful story Laura Leederer from the State Department once shared with Massachusetts legislatures, in an effort to pass a state law to end this form of modern day slavery.

So this is the story of Rosa, who was trafficked from Mexico to the United States. She was 13 and waiting tables in a restaurant in a small village near Vera Cruz, Mexico. She was approached by an acquaintance of her family who told her, "You know you can make ten times more money in the U.S. doing what you're doing here. I know someone who can find you a job in Texas-you can send money home to your family, you can have your own life. If you don't like the job we'll get you a new one. If you're homesick, we'll bring you back across the border. You can't lose."

Rosa was young and hopeful. She asked her parents if she could go but they forbid her. But she wanted a better life than what she had, and so, against her parents and friends' warnings, she accepted the offer. She was told to go to the main hotel in town on Friday evening.

When she got there, a car was waiting, with several other young girls in it from other neighboring villages. They drove into the desert as far as they could toward the U.S. border. There, they met up dozens more young women and girls from other towns in Mexico.

On the ground were backpacks and water bottles. They were told to put the backpacks on their backs, and then they began to walk. They walked four days and four nights - through the desert, across the Rio Grande, and into Brownsville, Texas, where they were picked up by a white van and driven across Texas, across Louisiana, and into rural Florida. They were dropped off in a rural town, in front a series of trailers. They were ordered out and the van drove away.

A big, burly looking man came out and told them, "I've just purchased you. Now you work for me." A little later an older woman took them to one of the trailers. She told Rosa that she was in a brothel and that she would have to buy her freedom by sexually servicing men.

Rosa was young. She was a virgin. She was Catholic. She knew what the woman was telling her was bad-a sin. She began to cry and begged to be taken to a restaurant to work. But she was told, "There are no restaurant jobs-only this." When she refused to do what they said, the burly man brought out three other men who took her into one of the trailers and gang-raped her to induct her into the "business." Then they locked her in the trailer without food and water until she succumbed.

For the next six months she was a prisoner. She was forced to service 10 or more men a day. On the weekends it was as many as 20-30 men. The men bought a ticket, which was a condom, for $20. But they often didn't use it.

Twice Rosa was impregnated and twice forced to have an abortion. And twice forced back into the brothel the next day. She was beaten if she refused a customer's demands. She was guarded twenty-four hours a day, even when she went to the bathroom. She was passed around at private parties that the trafficking ring held in the evenings and on weekends.

Once she and several others tried to escape. They were caught and pistol-whipped around the head and face in front of the other girls-to deter them all from trying that. Shortly after the second abortion and this beating, Rosa became sick and felt crazy. In order to keep her functioning in the brothel, the traffickers gave her drugs and alcohol to numb her pain.

She was only "rescued" when one of the young women jumped out of a second story window at one of the private parties and ran to a neighbor's house. The neighbor called the local police. The police called the INS and FBI, and a sting operation was set up. Over 40 young women and girls were rescued and 14 traffickers were arrested.

A medical doctor examined Rosa. She had several STDs; she had broken bones that hadn't healed properly from the beatings; she had pelvic inflammatory disease and scar tissue from the forced abortions. She was addicted to drugs and alcohol, was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, including nightmares, flashbacks, depression, and suicidal tendencies. In short, she was physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually broken.

To make matters worse, when Rosa was discovered, the U.S. didn't have a trafficking law. Instead of really rescuing Rosa, the police arrested her and the other young women and children, and locked them up in jail along with the traffickers. We simply didn't have a victim-centered approach to trafficking and did not know how to handle the case.

Later Rosa and the other victims were taken from jail to a battered wives shelter. There they were told not to talk about what had really happened to them, but to pretend they were victims of spousal abuse because that was the shelter's mandate. To make matters worse, Rosa wanted to see a priest, but was instead taken to a psychiatrist because that was the medical model this shelter had for addressing violence against women.

80% of those victims are women and girls who are mostly forced into a sex trade. I can go on and give you hundreds of more stories similar to that of Rosa, Neary, Serena, and Michael. There are stories of everyday all American teenagers who fall victim to trafficking by solicitors in the mall who claim they want to recruit the girls for modeling.

According to a report published by the C.I.A., 45,000-50,000 women and children are brought to the United States as slaves every year and the majority of these victims come from Latin American and Southeast Asia. Keep in mind that these are numbers for those who are accounted for. It's still undetermined how many are trafficked WITHIN national borders annually.

Child predators from the U.S. and around the world can travel to Cambodia and easily have arranged for them a night or even a few days with girls as young as 4 and 5.

So what can we do? If we don't have the means to be on the grounds to help I believe the very least we can do is help in raising awareness about these issues. Write about them, speak about them, and involve your communities so that they can care about them. Everyone would love to live in a world where they don't want to think about the horrible things that go on but what makes us better than those who commit the crimes? If we've got the means to think, learn, listen, teach, and take action, we are just as responsible and should feel compassion to at MINIMUM raise awareness about the challenges women continue to face and to look for solutions.

But women shouldn't be the only ones who feel obligated to help their sisters in desperation. The role of men is also very critical as it is men in most of these cases who subject women to the atrocities they face. They often are just as oblivious on the rights of women as women themselves are.

Some of us may take literacy for granted in a world where 800 million illiterate adults exist. Two thirds of them are women because girls are not seen as worthy to have an education, or have no other way of life other than doing domestic chores. And although women produce half of the world's food, they happen to be 70% of the world's poorest people.

In some of these trials women are facing - it's because they are told this is what their religion mandates. But here is where we must think outside of the box. Is it really what their religion says or are these cruel actions being justified by uncivil as well as civil society, particularly the media, as being a religious practice?

The journey towards obtaining equal rights and equal opportunity has never been an easy one, neither for men or women. But because these challenges continue to exist for the majority of women around the world, we must educate ourselves, raise awareness, and take concrete action to change lives for the better.

We must be aware that women and girls are not suffering from a religion of violence, but a CULTURE of violence.

Even then, what can victims do with laws they don't even know exist, or are not enforced?

Many of you will become attorneys, business executives, politicians, leaders of a non-profit organizations, and members of the media. In an ideal world where rule of law has the potential to positively ensure the human rights of its citizenry, including half of its population - women, you must ensure that these laws not only exist on paper, but they are put into practice. What will your role be to hold those who are accountable for human rights violations and how can you make a difference to the women and girls most in need?

We must not only create solutions to empower women, but we must hold human rights violators accountable, whether they be the village elder who performs a female circumcision, a husband who orders the death of his wife for wanting a divorce, the woman who is selling sex slaves in her home, or the parliamentarian who creates amnesty for war criminals.

How can we expect victims to stand for their rights when their perpetrators roam freely and with impunity?

Enforcing human rights law and putting them into practice is an enormous challenge. However, on a day when there is much information and so many resources at our fingertips, and people like yourselves to fight for such causes, there is no excuse for allowing human rights violations against women and girls to continue as they have on this level. Please remember how hard women themselves all over the world have fought and even died for their rights. Please join them in celebrating their victories.

I hope my being here with you today was successful in helping you to think outside of the box and that you are able to understand how to change rhetoric into action. Thank you.

What do Muslims say?

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:34:00 EST

A recent Gallup poll did an in depth survey on what Muslims around the world actually think about a variety of issues, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks and radicalism.

The survey, conducted by the Gallup polling agency over six years and three continents, seeks to dispel the belief held by some in the West that Islam itself is the driving force of radicalism.

It shows that the overwhelming majority of Muslims condemned the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001 and other subsequent terrorist attacks, the authors of the study said in Washington.

But the study, which Gallup says surveyed a sample equivalent to 90 percent of the world's Muslims, showed that widespread religiosity "does not translate into widespread support for terrorism," said Mogahed, director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.

About 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews.

In majority Muslim countries, overwhelming majorities said religion was a very important part of their lives -- 99 percent in Indonesia, 98 percent in Egypt, 95 percent in Pakistan.

But only seven percent of the billion Muslims surveyed -- the radicals -- condoned the attacks on the United States in 2001, the poll showed.

Moderate Muslims interviewed for the poll condemned the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington because innocent lives were lost and civilians killed.

"Some actually cited religious justifications for why they were against 9/11, going as far as to quote from the Koran -- for example, the verse that says taking one innocent life is like killing all humanity," she said.

Meanwhile, radical Muslims gave political, not religious, reasons for condoning the attacks, the poll showed.

But the poll, which gives ordinary Muslims a voice in the global debate that they have been drawn into by 9/11, showed that most Muslims -- including radicals -- admire the West for its democracy, freedoms and technological prowess.

Read the complete article here.

Unmentioned Crisis in Africa

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:19:00 EST

I am truly astonished at how easily society becomes drawn to the latest trivial headlines of Britney Spears' mental breakdowns or how certain Middle Eastern nations banned the celebration of Valentine's Day. Yet it is sad to see how we close our eyes to REAL world disasters like the on- going tragedies people in the African region continue to face.

When was the last time we read about the 5.4 million people who have died in the DR Congo since 1998?

A recent report published by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) states,

The persisting humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) is among the most complex, deadly and prolonged ever documented. The wars of 1996 and 1998 resulted in massive disruption to the social, political and economic fabric of the country.

Rape is used as a weapon of war in Congo. Armed groups rape to terrorize and control women and communities and to humiliate families. It's calculated and it's brutal.

"It was not uncommon to hear accounts of armed groups seizing young women from farms or water points and enslaving them and raping them for one to three months," says Sarah Mosely, who oversees IRC programs for rape survivors in eastern Congo."

An article by the AFP also says,

Kenya, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo have all been in the grip of severe political unrest which has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes and left many women and children vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
"It seems there is a licence to rape when everything falls apart, in the sense that it becomes legitimate to do things that you otherwise never would do... "

I urge you to view the first video titled 5,400,000 to get a better visual understanding of the ongoing crisis men, women, and children cope with on a daily basis in the DR Congo.

Freedom of Religion in Turkey

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 10:55:00 EST

As a Muslim woman who has traveled to several "Islamic" countries, I can't imagine being able to practice my religion anywhere as freely or as comfortably as I can right here - in the United States. Apparently, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agrees that the freedom of religion that exists in the U.S. was challenged in his own secular country of Turkey.

An article in today's Wall Street Journal reports:

When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited us in New York a few years ago, he said his daughters chose to study in the U.S. in part because it was illegal to wear head scarves at Turkish universities. Saturday, Turkey's Parliament voted to lift that ban.

Our own view is that lifting the ban is a sign of Turkey's democratic maturity. Mr. Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has Islamic roots, rightly argued that the restriction violated freedom of religion.

The AKP, in power since 2002, has already demonstrated that a government with Islamist roots can coexist with democracy and free markets. Our hope is that lifting the ban on head scarves is another move toward a modern Muslim state.

Iraqi Women Fall Victim to Extremists

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST

It is appalling to see the type of barbaric actions extremists are carrying out against Iraqi women.

A CNN article reports Iraqi women are killed "because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other ‘rules' that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce."

"...two women were killed in front of their kids. Their blood was flowing in front of their kids, they were crying. Another woman was killed in front of her 6-year-old son, another in front of her 11-year-old child, and yet another who was pregnant."

"This extremist ideology enrages many secular Muslim women, who say it's a misrepresentation of Islam."

The Importance of Remaining Committed to Afghanistan

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:14:00 EST

A recent report on Afghanistan released by the International Crisis Group stresses the importance of the international community's role in their commitment to Afghanistan and its people and the possible disaster that could ricochet to Western nations if it is abandoned once again.

"Countries that consider themselves major players in NATO such as Germany, France and Italy need to assume a greater share of the burden, including the combat burden.

"Such an unstable Afghanistan, in which extremists have a strong foothold, would again pose a serious threat to global security. Western governments need to acknowledge the importance of defeating this threat..."

IWF Podcast: Poppy Cultivation

info@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:30:00 EST

IWF's Allison Kasic and Halima Karzai discuss the challenges of curbing poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

IWF Policy Brief #11: Stabilizing Afghanistan: The Case for not Legalizing Poppy Cultivation

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:43:00 EST

Download Brief #11 below.

Executive Summary

Afghanistan's poppy cultivation is not only having a dire impact on its neighbors and the international community, but is currently affecting the lives of several thousand Afghans within the country, particularly women and children. Although poppy cultivation is a convenient source of income for farmers, the negative repercussions of legalizing poppy cultivation in Afghanistan on the economy, security, and stability would outweigh any positive gains. The Afghan government and international community need to develop a long-term strategy for alternatives to poppy production. Failure to do so will almost certainly lead Afghan farmers into the hands of the Taliban and ultimately impede the country's progress.

Afghan Women Take Bold Step Toward a Unified Movement

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:48:00 EST

For the past three decades, women in Afghanistan continue to be primary victims of violence as a result of ongoing instability and war throughout the country. Yesterday, tired of ongoing bloodshed and brutality, hundreds of Afghan women from several provinces throughout Afghanistan risked their lives to join the Women's National Peace Prayer.

The BBC reports:

"'This is very unusual,' said Rangina Hamidi one of the organisers, who argues that the event shows the unity of Afghan women.

'I don't think this has happened in the history of Afghanistan - first of all the fact that six different provinces organised themselves together, for no purpose other than peace.

They made the same loud cry - that women are sick and tired of killing and the deaths that come.'

... those attending the event in the violence-torn province of Kandahar were particularly happy and relieved that their public meeting passed off without threats or violence."

IWF Podcast: Human Trafficking

info@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:55:00 EDT

One of the biggest issues facing women around the world is human trafficking, which is often described at modern day slavery. IWF international policy expert Halima Karzai joins podcast host Allison Kasic to discuss this important matter. Listeners may be surprised to find out that this isn't just a problem happening in other countries, it's happening within the United States as well.

1590 AM The Connection: Human Trafficking

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:18:00 EDT

Halima Karzai joins 1590 AM The Connection to discuss human trafficking.

Al Kresta in the Afternoon: The Role of Women in Islam

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:04:00 EDT

IWF Associate Director of Foreign Policy and International Women's Issues Halima Karzai will join Al Kresta today as a guest on the Ave Maria Radio program Al Kresta in the Afternoon.

Halima will help to provide an overview of the role of women in Islam.

The U.S.' International Flip-Flopping Friend

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:15:00 EDT

Here are some thoughts from Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist who highlights several critical issues on Pakistan and thinks America is getting a bad deal from President Pervez Musharraf:

"The roots of the crisis go back to the blind bargain Washington made after 9/11 with the regime that had heretofore been the Taliban's main patron: ignoring Musharraf's despotism in return for his promises to crack down on al-Qaeda and cut the Taliban loose. Today, despite $10 billion in U.S. aid to Pakistan since 2001, that bargain is in tatters; the Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan, and al-Qaeda's senior leadership has set up another haven inside Pakistan's chaotic border regions."

"While neither agency [Defense Department and CIA] is usually directly concerned with decision-making on Pakistan, both boast officers with far greater expertise than the White House and State Department crew. These officers, many of whom have served in Islamabad or Kabul, understand the double game that Musharraf has played -- helping the United States go after al-Qaeda while letting his intelligence services help the Taliban claw their way back in Afghanistan."

"Running parallel to this domestic political crisis is the growing problem of radical Islam; the Taliban and al-Qaeda are now deeply entrenched in the tribal border belt adjacent to Afghanistan. These groups gained political legitimacy last year when Musharraf signed a series of dubious peace deals with the Pakistani Taliban. They are now coming down from the mountains to spread their radical ideology in towns and cities by burning down DVD and TV shops, insisting that young men grow beards, forcibly recruiting schoolboys for the jihad and terrifying girls so that they won't attend school. The military has refused to put a brake on their extremism."

"Musharraf promised the international community that he would purge pro-Taliban elements from his security services and convinced the Bush administration that his philosophy of "enlightened moderation" was the only way to fend off Islamic extremism. But Pakistan today is the center of global Islamic terrorism, with Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mohammad Omar probably living here."

The Extremes of Extremists

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:53:00 EDT

The thought of whether or not author Salman Rushdie was worthy of being knighted has been highlighted by something of more deep rooted concern - the response from Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister, Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq.

While the Pakistani parliament condemned Rushie's knighthood, Cabinet ministers went to familiar extremes of justifying suicide bombings.

"If someone exploded a bomb on his body, he would be right to do so unless the British government apologizes and withdraws [Rushdie's] ‘sir' title,' Religious Affairs Minister Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq told the Pakistani parliament."

Coming from a representative of Pakistan's government, no less, the religious affairs minister, Britain should not be the only nation concerned with such comments.

After Britain defended its award to Rushdie,

"...the Pakistani Ulema Council, a private body that claims to be the biggest of its kind in the country with 2,000 scholars, said it had given Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden its "highest title for a Muslim warrior."

"Later Afzal Sahi -- the speaker of the Punjab province assembly and a member of the Pakistan Muslim League party that backs President Pervez Musharraf -- said in a debate that he would ‘definitely kill' Rushdie if he could."

Salman Rushie's knighthood is just an excuse for barbaric, almost animalistic groups who call themselves Muslims, to incite violence. Apparently they have overlooked or refused to acknowledge that suicide bombings are not justified in Islam or by the law.

And the thought of the US looking towards Pakistan as an ally on the war against terror is scary enough on its own.

2007 Human Trafficking Report

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:14:00 EDT

IWF holds human trafficking as one of its most important concerns, particularly towards the value of promoting human rights. Human trafficking, often described as "modern day slavery", not only effects individuals in other countries, but within the United States as well. In 2006 alone, there was an estimated 15-17 thousand victims trafficked to the US from Central and South America, Asia, and Eastern Europe. A majority of human trafficking victims are women.

Seven new countries have been added to the State Department's 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report released today. According to the State Department:

"The Report covers 164 countries and territories, together comprising 85 percent of the world. It ranks 151 countries and territories where some 100 cases of human trafficking or more have been identified. It spells out what countries are doing on prosecution, protection, and prevention, and what more we can do together on all three fronts."

In this article, India, the world's largest democracy is also the country that has the world's leading record in human trafficking.

"Countries on the list are subject to possible sanctions for not doing enough to stop the yearly flow of some 800,000 people, 80 percent of them female and more than half of them children, across international borders for the sex trade and other forms of forced and indentured labor.

Among U.S. friends getting a failing grade were Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, which along with Algeria, Equatorial Guinea and Malaysia joined for the first time perennial offenders like Myanmar (Burma), Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria ...

Countries with ‘Tier 3' ranking ‘do not fully comply with the minimum standards (to fight trafficking) and are not making significant efforts to do so,' which makes them eligible for U.S. economic sanctions.

Three countries that had been placed on ‘Tier 3' in 2006 - Belize, Laos and Zimbabwe - were promoted to ‘Tier 2' this year for improving their records, according to the report. ‘Tier 2' countries are those that do not fully comply with minimum standards but are making significant efforts to do so.

The seven newcomers to ‘Tier 3' were all demoted from ‘Tier 2 watchlist' status, which now covers 32 countries, including India, Mexico and Russia, that have been cited for poor anti-trafficking records for numerous consecutive years.

Most of this year's additions to ‘Tier 3' are Muslim or predominantly Muslim nations, many of which have the means to enforce foreign workers' rights and anti-trafficking laws."

Read the complete 2007 TIP Report

Iran's slip of the hand

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:41:00 EDT

"A hardline Iranian daily Monday launched an attack on former reformist president Mohammad Khatami who it said had publicly shaken hands with women while on a visit to Italy last month.

'Recently a video has been circulating on the Internet showing a former top official visiting Italy, shaking the hands with several women and young girls,' said the Siasat-e Rouz daily, one of Iran's most ultraconservative papers.

'We do not want to publish the address of the Internet site where this film can be seen, in order to avoid propagating corruption in society,' it added.

According to Islam's Sharia law, it is forbidden for a man to have any physical contact with a woman to whom he is not related. Pictures circulating on the Internet show Khatami shaking hands with several female tourists.

Even Iran's conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was accused of 'indecency' in the hardline press last month after he publicly embraced and kissed on the hand an elderly woman who used to be his schoolteacher."

Read more here.

IWF condemns the murder of two women journalists in Afghanistan

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:45:00 EDT

"An Afghan journalist was shot dead by unknown gunmen in her home north of Kabul on Tuesday night as she slept beside her 10-month-old baby, Afghan officials said Wednesday.

The journalist, Zakia Zaki, 38, was the director of a private local radio station in Jabal-us-Siraj, an hour's drive north of the capital, Kabul. She was shot seven times...

Ms. Zaki, the mother of six children, had been receiving threats for the last few months demanding that she take the station off the air, Mr. Taqwa said. The nature of the threats was unclear, but she had been involved in women's rights advocacy and political activity.

Ms. Zaki was killed just six days after a reporter and anchorwoman on a private television station in Kabul was shot and killed in her house.

The television reporter, Shekiba Sanga Amaaj, 22, was killed in her home after she returned from work.

The motivation for the killing is not known, her father, Mohammad Rabi Amaaj, said in an interview."

IWF Podcast: Muslims living in the United States

info@iwf.org (Allison Kasic) info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Wed, 30 May 2007 13:50:00 EDT

IWF's Allison Kasic and Halima Karzai discuss a new study from the Pew Research Center about the views and status of Muslims living in the United States.

Shaika Haya on women and human rights in Middle East

info@iwf.org (Halima Karzai) — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:21:00 EDT

Having more women from the Middle East, such as Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan and Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa from Bahrain speak on women's rights in the Middle East sets an excellent example for Muslim women in the region and abroad and is encouraging for women to be active members of their society.

Shaikha Haya, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, a lawyer and rights advocate, spoke on Wednesday evening at a panel discussion on Women and Human Rights in the Middle East at Rutgers University.

"The concept of human rights is based on the notion that all human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms. Yet, in the Middle East women face multi-layered and multi-dimensional discrimination that is embedded in our culture, government policies, educational systems and the legal framework."

"She said the situation stems in part from the interpretation of Islamic text. 'Women are subject to family laws that are Sharia based which strictly follow the interpretations of Islamic scholars that lived 1000 years ago at the beginning of Islam. These interpretations are applied now without making any allowances to the very different social contexts of today,' she said. The structure has also 'created a mentality that fears the autonomy of women, viewing it as a threat to the centrality of the traditional family, a threat to marital relationships and a catalyst to sexual freedom,' added the President. 'These attitudes which were based on traditions are now associated with religion, making it harder to criticize or change them.'"

"Politically, women remain under-represented in parliaments and at higher government positions."

"Despite these circumstances, women have been active in influencing policy making and public opinion through other means, including the media, in petitions to Members of Parliament and government officials, and through their memberships in unions, political parties and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). 'Today, the Middle East is witnessing a proliferation of NGOs, many of which are active in women empowerment issues.'"