UNIFEM and the Heinrich Böll Foundation launched a research report in Kabul on 15 October, focusing on Afghanistan’s first class of women Parliamentarians.
The report, Afghanistan’s Parliament in the Making: Gendered Understandings and Practices of Politics in a Transitional Country, is written by Andrea Fleschenberg. Based on interviews with male and female parliamentarians, it analyzes the role of women Members of Parliament and the challenges they face.
For the first time in Afghan history, women were elected to Parliament in large numbers in the parliamentary elections in 2005. They are finding their place as lawmakers during a time of upheaval, with persistent divides along political, ethnic, linguistic, urban-rural, regional and historic lines.
The report casts a light on the socio-political context and the space of agency for male and female parliamentarians in both houses of Parliament, the Wolesi Jirga and Meshrano Jirga. Due to conservative gender relations and traditional beliefs about the status of women in Afghan society, women politicians much more than their male counterparts have to prove themselves in their roles as the people’s representatives. However, instead of joining together as one force against the current political environment that is curtailing the political, social and economic freedoms that have only recently been achieved, women parliamentarians are being swept up in political, ethnic or regional power structures and agendas.
At the launch of the report in Kabul, Members of Parliament and representatives from the international community and civil society came together to recognize the important role that women Parliamentarians play in shaping Afghanistan’s future. This recognition and strengthened understanding of the Parliament is critical as the country moves towards the second set of Parliamentary elections, scheduled to take place in 2010. |
