The European Parliament organises "Afghan Women Days", gathering MEPs, prominent Afghan women who were finalists for Parliament’s 2021 Sakharov Prize, Commission and United Nations representatives as well as representatives of other international organisations, to address and cast light on the extremely worrying situation for women in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power last year. Shahazad AKBAR, Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and Sima SAMAR,Human rights advocate, former Minister of Women’s Affairs and former Chair call for humanitarian help and warn EU about the necessity to keep working on Humans and Women's rights.

Brussels

statement

EU - Afghanistan (T)

AKBAR, Shaharzad (AF)

Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought 2021 (T)

SAMAR, Sima (AF)

Afghan Women Days: statements by Shaharzad AKBAR, and by Sima SAMAR, Sakharov Prize finalists 2021

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/9314341/1643744455533_I217700Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

Title: Afghan Women Days: statements by Shaharzad AKBAR, and by Sima SAMAR, Sakharov Prize finalists 2021

Shaharzad AKBAR, Sakharov Prize finalists 2021, Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) - (English): Don't forget Afghanistan, continue engaging with Afghanistan, and let's think more about how to engage with Afghanistan and with the de facto authorities, the Taliban, to ensure that women's and girls rights are being applied and to ensure that Afghanistan's human rights gains are being upheld. There's a lot of discussion about should we engage, should we not engage, but I think we should really move the focus of the discussion on how to engage.

Shaharzad AKBAR, Sakharov Prize finalists 2021, Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) - (English): The past few months have been very difficult for Afghans in general, and especially for Afghan women. There is a deep sense of betrayal, to be completely honest with you, with the way things changed in Afghanistan very rapidly. There's a lot of anger at our own political elites, but also there's anger at our international partners, mainly the US, but also by extension, I would be honest, the European Parliament. But I think we have to stop just focussing on the past. We have to look forward and we have to find ways to constructively engage. And I have found EU's engagement in the past few months, particularly on the issue of Afghan women and girls rights, constructive and helpful. And I think we need to strengthen this engagement, have an impact on the lives of millions of Afghans, particularly Afghan women, in Afghanistan.

Shaharzad AKBAR, Sakharov Prize finalists 2021, Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) - (English): It's unbelievable to me that in 2022 there is a country in the world where girls don't have access to education, where women don't have access to employment. I see it as a gender apartheid. And I think every responsible citizen everywhere in the world should stand against the standard applied to apartheid. It's unacceptable to imagine your daughter not being able to go to school because she's a girl. It's unimaginable. That's unacceptable. And this is a big test for humanity. How do we how do we challenge this? How do we overcome this? How do we make sure that we can stop this? We can end this.

Sima SAMAR, Sakharov Prize finalists 2021, Human rights advocate, former Minister of Women&rsquo;s Affairs and former Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission - (English): My message to the international community, including the European Union, is that without women, no country will be prosperous and secure, and they would not reach to development and sustainable peace. So please stand with the women in Afghanistan and with the people of Afghanistan, because women of Afghanistan is half of the population of the country. And also, I just want the European Union that the problem in Afghanistan will not stay in Afghanistan. It will reach if you do not pay attention to the humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan.

Sima SAMAR, Sakharov Prize finalists 2021, Human rights advocate, former Minister of Women&rsquo;s Affairs and former Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission - (English): The people of Afghanistan should not be punished because of bad leadership and its moral responsibility of everyone to support the people who are in need? The people of Afghanistan really need humanitarian help, and it should not be conditional to the whatever the leadership or the people in power is saying. So that is why in order to avoid a catastrophe in the world to be deeper, then please stand up and support the humanitarian relief, according to the international humanitarian law.

Sima SAMAR, Sakharov Prize finalists 2021, Human rights advocate, former Minister of Women&rsquo;s Affairs and former Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission - (English): Unfortunately, I was the first minister of women's affairs and me when I started that ministry. We I started from scratch and I was also the first chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission for 17 years. Both an institution was established from scratch, and they were really doing a lot of the work, particularly the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission was one of the best human rights commission around the world, and unfortunately, both of them abolished. And that is sad because they try to ignore half of the population and try to show that women are the only problem in Afghanistan. The problem is lack of governance. The problem is lack of rule of law. The problem is lack of justice and lack of accountability for crimes committed in Afghanistan, not the woman in the country. 

Sima SAMAR, Sakharov Prize finalists 2021, Human rights advocate, former Minister of Women&rsquo;s Affairs and former Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission - (English): The only hope is that the knowledge that we gave through the Human Rights Commission to the people about their rights that are still there and they cannot take the knowledge from the young generation in the country, and that is the hope for the future.