With the name of kind God and greetings to you all dear fans of the program; once again I welcome you to another program of the Change in Life Compiegne and the topic of our today’s discussion is about the physical and psychological violence against the women and the role of the civil society in the elimination of this phenomenon. The guests that we are having today with us are Ms. Leya Jawad the director of Solidarity for Justice Office, Mr. Bahman Haris Takwin the director of Takwin legal and consultancy office, Mr. Javid Sadat from Women Investigation Institution and Ms. Sonia Aslami the responsible of collecting cases from the Afghan Women Organization.
Dear friends you are well aware that the women are the most vulnerable layer of the society and are continuously facing the physical, verbal, psychological and other kind of violence; where these violence are in the families, working environment and overall society. For the purpose of further awareness in this regard we are going to have today’s discussion.
Question: Ms. Jawad; based on your views what is the violence against women?
Answer: Thank you very much; it is to mention that the violence is a non-Islamic and non-humanitarian phenomenon which is performed against the women.
Question: Ms. Aslami; which kinds of the violence cases are registered in your organization?
Answer: First of all I would like to pass my greetings to every one of you; I would like to reply to your question, the violence cases which are mostly registered in our organization are rapes with the women, physical violence, family violence, honor based murders, beating and other psychological aspects.
Obviously the psychological cases are less registered but the issues registered are because of the pressures from the family side where they are referred to the psychic centers so that they are helped.
Question: What are the reasons of not registering the psychological violence; is this because of the lack of information that the women have and they are not referring for the registration or there are some other issues?
Answer: As the physical violence are having a great number and are available in all over the country; these kinds of the problems undertake the psychological violence and people are not having too much attention in this regard.
Question: Mr. Sadat; is there any relationship between the physical and psychological violence, what is your investigation showing in this regard?
Answer: Thank you and greeting to the fans of the program; the culture of the whole world has become in a way that they are thinking of the women as the second hand and this has caused that some violence raised against them; whereas all the violence are having relations with each other and are not separted.
But these absurd cultures have caused that no attention is given to these violence and the women are thinking that it is a part of their life. From the other side this culture has caused some problems where the religious scholars are misusing it against the women.
Question: Mr. Sadat; can we give the phenomenon of the violence a world prospect, as it is seen that in most of the countries violence against women are not existing and or very less?
Answer: Shouting of the experts and investigators are showing that the violence is everywhere as a world culture.
Question: Mr. Sadat; in the holy religion of Islam there is not difference between man and woman as it is said that getting knowledge is compulsory for both men and women and there is not difference between them; do you have any other view of the women?
Answer: Definitely no; there is not a separable difference between them but there are some special difference which need attractions; for example: during the childbirth or delivery the women are granted three months leave because they cannot perform their activities properly; but based on my opinion the hold religion of Islam has given the women a very specific traits because in the holy religion of Islam it is said, “You are just like the clothes of your wives and your wives are like clothes for you”; the discussion that I am doing is that we should not carry away the women from their role as wives, based on the religion Islam whatever rights and facilities that are given to the women should be given to them and there is no need to bring change in it.
Question: Mr. Takwin; how are the physical and psychological violence against the women during the last ten years and how do you evaluate the role of the civil society in this regard?
Answer: Thank you very much; it is to mention that whenever we are discussing the physical violence or any other type of violence against the women then there are different phenomenon are come into being as the democracy is established in the country; whereas the issue of violence against women and finally the rights of the women are not the new topics but it is present in our culture and history since long time back
Whenever the rights of one layer of the society is violated then it should be observed that what are the people of society doing; but in our society the views of most of the people are different and they think that the women’s right and democracy are the imported phenomenon in our country.
Obviously I would like to say that during the past ten years there in not a remarkable change occurred regarding the violence against the women because in the current regime there is not political support and basic activities for the change in the conditions of the women; I would also like to say about the activities of the civil society because their activities were also in segments and therefore were not effective. In the civil society the activities are not moving collectively and most of the activities are against each other which finally affect that minds of people and the overall society.
In regard to the human rights and then especially the women’s right; I would like to say that in our country based on the viewpoint of Islam the women’s right is explained in two ways; one that is expressed by the fundamentalists of Islam and some of the politicians which is totally against the women’s right and wherever the women’s right is mentioned then they just violate their rights, the other is the normal Islam and most of the civil society blogs are trusting in them and under these views there is respect to the women’s right and human’s right but the point is that the civil society has not identified which type of ideology they are ok.
Question: Ms. Jawad; it is said that in the past the violence against the women were there but in the current conditions as it is mostly discussed about the increase and its statistics is because of the two reasons; one is because of the increase in the public media and second is the awareness of people about their rights and as well the awareness for the lawsuit; what is your opinion in this regards?
Answer: First of all I would like to say that we have visited those women who are violated and are living in the shelters; our doctors have found that not only physical violence but psychological violence have also been done against them and our doctors have struggled in this regard and they have given proper consultation.
Regarding your question I would like to agree that based on the two reasons that you mentioned; one the increase in the number of the media and second the awareness of people and lawsuit and also the increase in the population could be the reasons.
Question: Ms. Jawad; what would be the effects on the future of the women by increase in the number of violence against them and also their terrors and killings?
Answer: Well; based on my point of view the violence and also their killings will not keep behind the other women who are working for their lawsuit; the women are not this much weak that they remained behind against these actions, the civil society institutions working for women will continue their activities in this regard.
Question: Well; during some months and recent days we were the witness of killings and terrors of some active women; based on your point of view these killings and terrors will increase this phenomenon or decrease?
Answer: I am Sohaila Waziri one of the active journalists; I would like to mention that we are living in male dominant society and beside this fact still we are keeping up our activities in the society; there is no doubt that these actions are not only decreasing the activities of the women but it will motivate the active women to struggle more in this regard until they reduce the violence against the women.
I am Aowsay, one of the journalists and student of the journalism faculty; regarding the mentioned question my view is that the violence against women and killings may have negative effects in future and also positive; the negative effective could be that whenever people listen this they will be disappointed and the positive effect could that it will encourage the women more and more to struggle against these conditions and to reduce these actions to the maximum extent possible.
Question: Ms. Jawad; based on your opinion, do you think that partial activities could be effective in the reduction of violence against women?
Answer: Without doubt that the partial activities will not be workable and effective; because if we concentrated to the statistics of the violence of this year and the previous years it appears that the ratio has increased.
Regarding your previous question that either the killings and terrors of the active women of the civil society will have any negative effects on the efforts of others or not I would like to say that threat, violence, terror of the women will definitely have negative effects on the spirits of the women and this is one of the anguish points in this regard.
Question: Mr. Takwin; the current year is named as the year of peace from home to the world and they have tried to struggle under this name for the peace; based on your opinion how much rational and acceptable this issue will be at the country level?
Answer: Well; if the issues regarding any discussion or topics are expressed; it could be on a motto board and no action is taken accordingly then without doubt that it will only remain as a motto and no positive result will come out of it.
How can we implement these mottos into actions at the country level then I would like to say that public struggles and overall efforts are required, there is a need that all the members of the society from the children to the elders, from the literate to illiterate and finally it is to mention that everyone should struggle until they fight against this phenomenon.
In reality the phenomenon of peace is really kind and good and if we discuss that either the civil society institutions have done anything or not, there is no doubt; but it should be observed that what are the issues that causes to show that we need peace as compare to any other thing, we need for the elimination of violence against women and other layers of the society. Our discussions which are focused on the violence against women it is to mention that the struggles should be against the causes which lead to violence; in our society the men are more dominant as compare to the women and the women were always lack the power; the lack of women power is observable in all dimensions of the life and if you focus to the family life, the first words are made by the men. Regarding the political issues, social and in overall dimensions the men are having the first role and there is no action taken place regarding the problems of the women. Therefore whenever the women become able to have good role in the economics, social issues, family, politics and all other issues then without doubt that violence will be eliminated against the women and we can have a safe place of work for the women and we will have peace in our country.
Question: Mr. Jawed; based on investigations that you conducted, how do you evaluated the role of awareness; are the women able to know about their rights and do they know that whenever they face violence, what should they do?
Answer: First of all I would like to say that what the civil society can do for the elimination of violence against the women; the civil society can overcome on this problem in three ways, first of all the civil society can have effective activities for the elimination of violence against the women based on its short-term and long-term plans, secondly if they have proper monitoring programs on the activities of the governmental organizations then they can guide them to the right path and thirdly the technical section in the parliament which is working for making laws should consider the problems of the women seriously in the country and they should mostly include those topics which are helpful for the elimination of violence against women.
Regarding the role of awareness I would like to say that if you compare the humans against the animals then you will find that the humans are having special qualities like speaking and the ways of giving awareness and taking awareness could be done through this medium.
From the other side the experts are of the opinion that in the current situation as compare to the ideas and specters; regarding the issues with their technical comparison and we should find out the ways to cope against these problems.
Certainly, the awareness in the human societies are extremely effective because we are the witness that in the 19th century the women movement has created where this is because of the efforts and struggles of the women and therefore we can say that if someone is not keen to reach his/her rights then there is no one to give him/her his/her right. Similarly, the cruelty of a cruel will not reach its targets.
Question: Ms. Jawad; for the implementation of the laws what should be done by the civil society organizations?
Answer: The civil society organizations are working based on the laws related to the women and we are also asking the governmental organizations to work hard for the implementation of these activities and unless and until the women are not involved in all governmental affairs then the reduction and elimination of violence is not an easy job.
Many thanks from all of your dear audience that you followed our discussions until the end of the program.
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