Thank you.
Well, with the engagement of warlords, various illegal military groups, and these extremist groups in the political power of Afghanistan, in the name of the peace and security of the country, after some years, say, nine years, we have mafia power there now.
This mafia power now is producing.... For instance, we have in the constitution that 25% of the seats are allocated for women, but before anybody else, this mafia power is producing their own representatives to sit in those seats. The warlords and the extremist groups don't have women in their groups officially, because they are against women, but when the constitution preserved 25% of the seats for women, they produced their own women family members and women of their groups--also family members--and put them in those seats.
The women in the parliament mostly now listen to those sources. That is why, when I drafted the law for the elimination of violence against women based on international human rights standards, it was pending for four years and the 68 women parliamentarians were not looking at the law. It was just put in the drawers in the Ministry of Women's Affairs.
When the extremists decided to draft and pass the Shia personal law that is discriminatory and against any human rights standards, it passed within one month, without any resistance from women in the parliament. It is proof of how the internal power, which is in the hands of extremists, produced women for those seats. They listened to them for five years.
In Afghanistan's parliament--apart from the law for the elimination of violence against women that I drafted when I was minister--when the Shia personal status law was approved and there was a big pressure from the world, that pressure resulted in the law for elimination of violence against women being signed. Apart from that, there has not been any achievement during the five years that our parliament has had 25% to 27% women.
On the location of women's prisons, the presentation and the politics were initiated before anybody else by our own powers inside, and they listened to them. That is why we could have achieved far more and have had more success during these eight or nine years with the international community's support, but the barriers and resistance in practice by these extremist powers have held us back.
Independent women who favour women's rights, believe in women's rights, and know all the thinking behind it, are politically conscious and know that Afghanistan cannot go ahead if they don't have an international supporter. I'm a living example. I was removed from my post as Minister of Women's Affairs because I was doing fundamental work for women.
After they removed me, they stopped all the work that I did. The law for elimination of violence against women was stopped. The national action plan I worked on for 10 years for the Afghanistan government to implement for the women of Afghanistan was stopped. All other policies and strategies that were prepared during the one year I was minister were stopped for a certain time.
The Ministry of Women's Affairs afterwards didn't have any achievements. Even four years after me, there are no achievements.
All of this shows the machinations and sabotage in practice against women's rights in the country. In Afghanistan, other women activists do not dare to independently go ahead because they are afraid they will become like me--removed from power.
It is through my own personal initiative that I'm making an organization and working to take higher risks in the country. Without international supporters, it is difficult for a woman to be thinking the real thoughts about human rights, women's rights, and philosophy and to be working and successfully going ahead.