Centre for Applied Human Rights
Saifora
Afghanistan, CAHR, Spring 2008
Saifora undertook her Fellowship from May to August 2008. During her internship, Saifora designed a project involving research and advocacy on Afghan national laws affecting women, including legislation on family, education, media, prisons, domestic violence and child protection. Designed to last for two years, the project included, among other activities, educating members of the Afghan parliament about shortcomings in the existing legislation and lobying them to introduce reforms. On her return, Saifora's project was accepted for funding and she was appointed program manager.
Together with Sharon, she gave presentations to local groups on the situation of women in Afghanistan. She says "This is a marvellous scheme for sharing and exchanging experience amongst people from different culture and backgrounds." She reports that during her Fellowship she gained a much better understanding of human rights, and "what, where, when and how" they can be applied.
My name is Saifora, and I come from Afghanistan. My family are strong believers in education, but this is impossible in our country so we moved to Pakistan where I studied for a Masters in Politics and International Relations. Such an opportunity is only possible for families that have enough money to afford it.
After finishing my studies, I moved back to Afghanistan in 2005 and joined a local NGO, where I began to work for women’s empowerment. As a project manager, I undertook projects in different parts of Afghanistan to promote economic stability for women and to educate them on their rights. I also worked for a short time for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs where I came across a lot of information about the human rights situation in Afghanistan in general, and on women’s rights in particular.
Having had the experience of both Government and non-government organisations was very helpful in enriching my knowledge of human rights and especially women and children’s rights in Afghanistan. The perspective of both sectors was quite different, and it was clear to me that being in the non-government sector made it possible to work much more closely with the people than being in a government position.
My present post is Capacity Building Manager with one of the largest networks of women’s NGOs in Afghanistan. We are a network of 57 member NGOs that are working for women’s causes. They are not only rights-based organizations but service-based also and my post enables me to work not only in building the capacity of the core staff of our member organisations, but also directly with our women throughout the war-torn state of Afghanistan.
Success Story
As a result of my time in York, I have been able to make contact with many donors to raise funding for the work of my organisation, which is the only network of women's NGOs in Afghanistan. In particular, I have secured donor support for a three-year programme of work based on UN Security Council resolution 1325. We ensure that relevant organisations know about this resolution, and carry out training with the government, NGOs and communities. We also advocate to the government about how to implement this resolution.
I am also a part of a team that established a civilian oversight committee to monitor how the police deal with gender-based violence at police stations. This committee included Members of Parliament. As a result of its recommendations, 17 Family Response Units led by female police officers have been established. I submitted a proposal to UNIFEM to provide training to these female officers, which was successful, so we offer extensive raining and system development packaging to them. We also run the first ever hotline for victims of violence, and we have a database of organisations working with GBV victims.
We are also planning to work on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1820, which calls for a halt to sexual violence against civilians in conflict zones.
The government ratified the Shia family Law in February 2009, which does not favour women's rights. However, we have been able to successfully lobby to prevent it from being applied in practice.
While in York, I got the chance to see the curriculum for human rights education in schools. This has led me to work on developing a curriculum with the Ministry of Education. This has been well received and now we have some funding to provide training to staff of the Ministry of Education and to teachers.