Afghanistan: Youth Demand End to Violence Against Women

Afghan youth participated in a worldwide campaign to bring awareness to the issue of violence against women and promote efforts to end it.

The campaign, called "One Billion Rising", began last year and brought millions, if not billions, of people out into the streets around the world to protest violence against women. "We Want Justice" was the program orchestrated in honor of the day in Kabul. Afghan you appeared with covered faces and did symbolic activities saying "No" to violence against women. "We want justice and to end violence against women," a participant named Hamida Hussaini said. The participants who wore orange bracelets chanted the slogan "We Want Justice" with music, representing the minority of individuals who have spoken out against the violence. Human rights groups noted a troubling rise in reported cases of violence against women in Afghanistan in 2013. And still, the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) Law remains stalled in Parliament due to a conservative contingent who think it is a threat to Islam. However, what is likely a promising sign for the organizers of Friday's event is that many of the youth who participated were born at a time when that kind of public showing of support for women's rights in Afghanistan would have been impossible. "Holding such programs is a sign of a civil movement against the violence and repression imposed on women in society," civil society activist Abuzar Mazoori said.