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Women's Day Program in Kabul
Written by UPF - Afghanistan
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Kabul, Afghanistan - The leaders of Aims Peace Village Organization with the support of the UPF core members celebrated the International Day of Women in cooperation with the Afghanistan Independent Human Right Commission (AIHRC). Aims Peace Village Organization celebrated this event in a large gathering on March 10, as they were preparing for that for a month.
The celebration was held in the Ministry of Information and Culture’s media hall in Kabul. It started at 8:30 A.M. The Masters of Ceremony were Ms. Farida Bahar and Ms. Be be Mah Arab Zada, who were very active. About 250 people participated, and more than 70% were women.
Ms. Zahra Haidari started the program by reciting a few verses of Holy Qur'an, and then the audience stood for the national Anthem of Afghanistan. Afterwards the director of Aims Peace Village Organization and Vice President of UPF-Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Stanikzai, inaugurated the event with his speech outlining the general situation of women in Afghanistan. He mentioned the progress that has been made in the past 12 years and the challenges ahead to achieve further opportunities for realizing women’s equal rights, justice, and social-political participation.
The main speaker of the event was Dr. M. Amin Ahmadi, the chancellor of Ibnisina Institute for Higher Education and a member of Independent Commission for Overseeing the Implementation of the Constitution. He spoke about the crucial topic of women’s rights in Islamic jurisprudence. According to him, the recent reformative interpretation and understanding of the sources of this jurisprudence, Qur'an and the Prophet’s heritages, heralds a better theoretical foundation for developing an Islamic society in which men and women enjoy equal opportunities to live their dreams and work out their talents, based on the principles of human dignity, responsibility, and freedom. Mr. Ahmadi shared that women as well as men can participate in any walk of life. they can rise to any political rank, can freely develop their talents by going to school and university, and no one can deprive them from these rights basing their arguments on the Qur'an and Islamic heritage. However, in the family life the leading role is taken by the husband in the framework of a contract called marriage bond and the principles mentioned above.
Miss Sheekeba Afshar read a poem about women. Then a group of female martial artists from Afghan Marifat ITF club performed a show, exhibiting their skills and techniques of taekwondo.
Thenceforth Maryam Zormati, representating the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), talked about cultural and structural violence against women in Afghanistan based on the data and surveys conducted by AIHRC. She pointed to illiteracy, poverty, war, misunderstanding, and wrong perception of religious beliefs and practices as having fed in a context that harms women and deprives them from their human rights. According to her, thousands of cases of grave violence against women are reported to AIHRC; in many areas girls cannot go to school. All these direct violence are justified based on a set of cultural norms that need to be tackled in order to improve the situation of women in Afghanistan.
Miss. Rachel Mills from the USA, who works as an advisor and trainer in Afghans for Progressive Thinking, talked about her life experiences and a typical life of a woman in the United States. The audience applauded her for her words and the short stories of women who influenced women's emancipation in the United States.
At the end, an Afghan singer, Mr. Hamid Sakhi Zada, sang Afghan traditional songs that were applauded by all the audience.
The program was closed by a prayer offered by Miss Zahra, and the participants were served tea and cake. The program ended at 12:00 noon.
The staff was Mr. Salman Ali Dostzada, Mr. Ahmad Shah Stanikzai, Mr. Noorullah Nawayee, Mr. Zaki Farzam, Mr. Ali Fayez, Mr. Mohammad Ameen Ibrahimi, Mr. Mohammad Arif Sheva, Mr. Mustafa Sirat, Mr. Ahamd Rashid Ata, Mr. Mohammad Ali Shariati, Mr. Mohammad Moradi, and Mr. Azizullah Abbasi.
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