Noorjahan Akbar: What the future holds for Afghan women
aljazeera.com - Afghanistan's women have made significant gains in recent years, with more girls attending school and more women working outside the home.
But fear still overshadows the lives of many.
A resurgent Taliban recently provoked outrage by publicly executing two women, but as this 101 East documentary shows, the greatest threat many women face comes from loved ones at home.
Activist Noorjahan Akbar talks about the challenges in overcoming conservative attitudes in the face of rising "anti-woman propaganda".
Al Jazeera: How would you describe the current state of women's rights in Afghanistan?
Noorjahan Akbar: Like the current state of the country, the current state of Afghan women is tumultuous and unstable. While - since the US-led intervention - Afghan women have made a considerable amount of progress, with [today's] increased insecurity, economic inequality, and radicalism, we are afraid that our accomplishments will be threatened, and the few civil rights and individual freedoms we have will be taken away from us.
Since 2009, the number of Afghan women working has increased, but a large number of female activists and journalists have left the country due to fear of violence.
When I talk about the threat of violence, I don't just mean the Taliban - even though they are largely responsible for targeting and killing female teachers, police officers, journalists, and activists.
On a daily basis, Afghan women face harassment in public spaces. In fact, nine out of 10 women say they have faced harassment at some point on the way to work or school, and out of those, 14 percent say they stopped going to school because of it. Eighty-seven percent of Afghan women have faced verbal, sexual or physical violence at home.
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This Documentary Proves Great Things Happen When Women Make Films
- In 2014, Erin Bagwell quit her corporate job and set out to follow her dream of making a feature-length film. Armed with the inspiration she got from running her blog,
, and a drive to change the world, the Buffalo native launched a Kickstarter campaign that changed her life. In 30 days, Bagwell had over $100,000 to fund her first movie, a documentary titled “
A woman named Komal Minhas discovered Bagwell’s crowdfunding campaign online and, after shedding a few tears while watching the film’s trailer, she knew she had to get involved.
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