Meena – Heroine of Afghanistan

In this post, we wish to remember the inspirational life of Meena Keshwar Kamal who was martyred on February 4th 1987, a few weeks short of her 31st birthday. Meena was the founder of the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), which has worked with and inspired generations of Afghan women, children and their male allies since 1977, despite decades of discrimination and oppression.

The picture above is taken from the cover of the book “Meena: Heroine of Afghanistan” by Melody Ermachild Chavis. You can read many reviews of the book on Goodreads here and consider purchasing a copy through Amazon here.

Please also have a look at a summary of Meena’s life immortalised in the short video on youtube below:

A Quote from Meena Keshwar Kamal

For more on the current situation for women in Afghanistan, please read a piece by Human Rights Watch‘s Heather Barr called “A Crucial Moment for Women’s Rights in Afghanistan.” There is also perceptive commentary from Emma Graham-Harrison writing in the Guardian in a piece called “Forget the Geopolitics. Let’s Focus on the Human Cost of the Exit from Afghanistan.”

For a more in-depth study, please read a piece by Sima Samar, a leading Women’s Rights activist and former government minister, called “Feminism, Peace and Afghanistan”. Finally, there is a piece by Marie Clarke from Women for Women International called “Women in Afghanistan hold the key to Peace” published by Thomson Reuters Foundation.

As testimony to Meena Keshwar Kamal and the great work of RAWA, we close with a great quote from Margaret Mead, a great feminist herself, who once said:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.” 

Tackling Sexual Harassment

Sexual Harassment has been described as “a scourge”, “a plague”, “an emergency” and “a cultural problem”, among others.   Without a doubt, it is an enormous problem reflecting abuse of power usually by men towards women and children.  In this article, we use several examples, which highlight some of the challenges being faced and some of the efforts being made in both to tackle Sexual Harassment.

First, an article by The Conversation with the title ‘ Many Men are Sexually Harassed in the workplace – so why arent they speaking out?’. The article acknowledges the difficulties both men and women have in reporting abuse, the main one being stigma and also perceptual differences in defining the scope of sexual harassment.  Also,  sexist attitudes that justify and tolerate sexual harassment resulting into abuse and significant mental health impact.

In France, there have been some recent legal efforts to tackle Sexual Harassment have been made, including a new law giving instant fines for street harassment, which can be read about here.  However, a survey in early 2018 found that one in eight women in France have been raped at least once in their lifetime and over half of all women have been victims of sexual harassment and violence.  Read an article about the findings here and access the findings in detail here (in French).

Please also read this article from Human Rights Watch (HRW) concerning the very high levels of sexual harassment in the garment industries of South and South East Asia.  HRW is advocating for  new international standard that will help prevent and respond to harassment and violence at work.

Everyday Sexism is a project started in 2012 to document cases of “everyday sexism” and has documented examples from more than 20 countries, including amongst Refugees.

For detailed information on Sexual Harassment, please check the Wikipedia page here and the UK Guardian’s Sexual Harassment 101 here

How can you prevent sexual harassment? By understanding and supporting advocacy against sexual harassment (changing norms) and by developing and enforcing anti harassment policies at all institutions and public spaces. More on this TED talk by Gretchen Carlson called “How we can end Sexual Harassment at Work” below:

Finally, we present an important and powerful film made by SIHA (Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa) which focuses on the role of Men as Allies in the fight against Gender-Based Violence. Please have a look at the film of the project in Sudan below:

Gay Sex is not a Crime

An historic ruling by the Indian Supreme Court on September 6th 2018 has ruled that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code outlawing consensual sex between two adults of the same sex is unconstitutional.  The law dates back to colonial times and was deemed to be outdated and against individual rights to privacy.  More can be read about the ruling in this Times of India article.

This has been a long legal battle and one of the key organisations involved has been the Naz Foundation, which has been doing ground-breaking work with LGBTI communities in India since 1994.

Elsewhere the struggle for equal rights continue and one such example can be found in this article about Shams Rad, a radio station in Tunisia.  The article is called Inside the Arab world’s only gay radio station

For more on the legal situation for LGBTI communities globally, please refer to the Human Rights Watch website and the International Lesbian, Gay, Trans and Inter-sex Association, which represents more than 1,000 organisations globally.