Both the United States government and NGOs are calling attention to the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan at the 43rd annual session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York.
The United States Mission to the United Nations has proposed a resolution on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan. Ambassador Linda Tarr-Whelan, Representative of the U.S. to the Commission on the Status of Women, stated “the Taliban’s restrictions on the delivery of health care to women, as well as the oppressive human rights environment, has a serious detrimental impact on the physical and mental health of Afghan women and the children in their care. This resolution sends a message that human rights are universal, and that no group has the right to deny women and girls their human rights.”
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton also addressed the Taliban’s abuse of women and girls in Afghanistan as the most extreme case study of women’s right abuses worldwide in her speech before the U.N.
Feminist Majority Foundation delegates at the Commission on the Status of Women meeting are participating on panels and in sessions as part of the organization’s Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan.
In related news, Feminist Majority Foundation board member Mavis Leno will appear on ABC’s The View with Barbara Walters. The program will air Tuesday, March 9th at 11:00am Eastern Standard Time. Leno will testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Operations later that same day.
