Internview with Ms. Roshan

In the recent years there are many institution created under the umbrellas of civil society and these institutions has covered many different parts of the society.

Work and activities of the civil society institutions among the different layer of the country brought many good and positive changes in the society; especially among the women.

The civil society institutions had fruitful activities in all areas and those institutions which are created and led by the women tried their best to bring positive changes in different areas.

The social and cultural situations in Afghanistan have also developed to some extent; activities under the framework of women for the social and political issues in Afghanistan could be consider as a remarkable growth and social rehabilitation during the recent years.

However there is not any strong and women pervasive political institution created yet in Afghanistan but there are many small institutions came into being.

The aim of establishment of these small institutions is to support those who are supporting the women’s right, their political and social activities and these activities are for those women who are living in the remote areas.

The problems of the women are those general issues which are covered in the area of human rights and equity among the men and women; where most of the vigorous persons in the remote provinces of the country are not agreed with these points and they ignore these points. Because of this intention, the countries and the international institutions are struggling for the development of the women’s lives and they have vast plans in this regard and they support such activities from any angle.

But the point for consideration is the lack of availability and activities of these institutions in the remote provinces of the country and until now the women are not aware of their rights. Insecurity is the only reasons for the lack of work and activities of these institutions.

Among the institutions working for the social, political and cultural development of the women, one is the Afghan Women Network. For the further introduction of this institution and its activities I (Masoud Ansar) am going to have an interview with Ms. Roshan Mashal, the head of coordination section of this network and I hope that it would be interesting for you.

Question: Ms. Mashal; at the beginning please provide us with short information about the activities of this institution?

Answer: The Afghan Women Network established in the year 1995 in Peshawar Pakistan and is one of the institutions which is led by the women and also works for the development of their conditions, this institution started its activities in Afghanistan in the year 2002.

Question: Ms. Mashal; what is the purpose of creating your organization and which areas are covered under your activities?

Answer: The activities of this institution are in three sections, first is the political participation of the women in the different parts of the government, peace and security and finally securing the political and social rights of the women; and for reaching to these targets, coordination in the activities of these institutions and lawsuit from the rights of these women are required.

Question: Until now; what are the achievements of your organization regarding the ensuring of women’s right?

Answer: the achievements of this organization includes the creation of prohibition law regarding the violence against women, principle rules and regulations for the secure homes, entering one women in the high peace council, participation of 25% of the women in the peace advisory meeting and facilitate the participation of the women in the second Bonn conference.

Question: How many women are working in your network and which institutions are financially supporting this organization?

Answer: In this network; there are 92 non-governmental organizations have membership and more than 5000 women are the members. From the financial perspective, we don’t have any specific source; based on the projects different donors are supporting us.

Question: How you are evaluating the situations of the women as compare to the previous years?

Answer: We can evaluate the women at the two levels; the women living in the central cities have access to some facilities like going to schools, jobs, hospitals and many other facilities but the women living in the remote areas still have not social facilities and are faced with violence.

It is to mention that the activities of the national and international organizations are not satisfactory because if the women are at any corner of the country should have a balance and equal access of facilities.

Question: As the women in the capital and provinces are not having equal and balance access to the facilities; how will you observe this problem?

Answer: based on my point of view the solution of this problem is about the two issues, one is the coordination among the institutions working in the area of women’s right, means the government and non-government organizations should create coordinate in their activities. From the other side having the long term and sustainable plans can have positive effects.

Question: How are you evaluating the role of the government regarding the institutions supporting the women? Were the government authorities succeeded in accomplishment of these activities properly?

Answer: whenever one of the government organizations which is the ministry of economy and is distributing the licenses, this action is the describer of government support from the women and these networks. But for their encouragement; no budget is allocated so that the women use it.

Question: What lawsuit regarding the women’s right does the Afghan Women Network so far?

Answer: One of the important lawsuits of this network is the creation conferences in the eight zones of the country and in 29 provinces before conduction of second Bonn Conference; where in these conferences they were focusing on a design with the Afghan Women Network which basically includes the four topics of peace process, new mergers, governance of law and justice and assurance of international community after the year 2014.

From the other side after the second Bonn Conference for the second time this Network conducted these conference in the eight zones of the country for the awareness regarding the topics discussed in the Bonn Conference; the aim of these conferences were to let all the women of the country know what happened during the Bonn Conference.

Also regarding the laws section, this network has performed lawsuits with the national and international institutions along with the ministry of justice which includes the law of prohibition of violence, law of the secure homes, lawsuit regarding the law of prohibition of expenses in the marriages.

Question: Is this Women Network also operating in the province of the country or not?

Answer: The Afghan Women Network has provincial offices in the two provinces, one in Nangarhar and the other in Herat province and in remaining provinces it operates either through colleagues or bodies already mentioned but in the provinces and in the areas that could not operate yet are because of the security reasons.

Question: As you know that there are some organizations that they are only making proposals to grab only money, what is your opinion in this regard?

Answer: As there are some organizations that they are taking money but their activities are not clear, I would like to mention that the donors are only giving money when the perform well and as the activities of some were unclear then the donors are not supporting them in the long term and the short term activities won’t be efficient.

Question: Ms. Mashal; what is your opinion regarding the violence against women, Could the women get free of this problem until now?

Answer: In our country the violence against women are increasing as compare to the previous years and one of the reason is that the people are registering the violence in the society; as previously the awareness was not among the women but now as they have awareness therefore they are registering the violence and this is why the statistics is showing increase.

Question: As a final question to ask you; based on your point of view, what should be done for the solution of the women problem?

Answer: Based on my view; creation of a longer term planning in economics areas, social and in total for women should be considered which can lead us towards the success.

I thank you dear friends that you followed our discussion until now.