After years of fighting, Afghan women can finally have their names placed on the birth certificates of their children.
Afghan women have been campaigning for many years under the hashtag #WhereIsMyName.
They struggled to achieve when faced with ridicule and opposition from the conservative government.
A woman’s name on any document and even her grave is deemed offensive in Afghan culture.
This is a major win for much-desired equality.
It was the Cabinets Legal Affairs Committee, headed by Vice President Mohammad Sarwar Danish, that agreed to change the law.
“The decision to include the mother’s name in the ID card is a big step towards gender equality and the realization of women’s rights,” Danish’s office said in a statement.
However, the amendment is to be approved by the Afghan parliament and signed by the president.
The draft was created by Naheed Farid, the independent politician who chairs on women’s affairs. It will be presented to other MP’s and the house from September 21st onwards.
Afghan women are concerned that their rights hang in the balance. Their concerns come after the government held talks with the Taliban following the US peace deal.
The fear comes from the worry that a withdrawal of US troops and the re-emergence of the Taliban in Afghan politics will diminish hard-won gains.
More on the strict Afghan rule
The Taliban group have said that women will be allowed to receive education, but only within limits of Islamic law and culture.
On Thursday, Mawlawi Qalamuddin, the former head of the moral police during the Taliban era, called the proposed change a “Western plan.”
He went on to state that the change comes from the US and Europe and that nobody can “enforce this on Afghanistan.”
Marian Sama, a woman’s rights activist and member of the lower parliament, told The Thomas Reuters Foundation that “it was just the beginning.”
“We realize it is considered a taboo in our traditional society, and there will be obstacles.”
Those of us living in Western society should make it our aim to keep up to date with this. We should amplify Afghan women’s and girls’ voices. They deserve to be heard.
These women are incredibly strong.
Afghan women should not be facing this type of injustice in the year 2020.
Reference: Al Jazeera Network
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