Women for Women International-Afghanistan Country Director Sweeta Noori returns from Afghanistan, urges members of Congress to support Afghan women.

Washington DC - Arriving in Washington following a month-long tour of Afghanistan, Women for Women International’s Afghanistan Country Director Sweeta Noori testified on Capitol Hill last week, urging Members of Congress not to forget Afghan women as they shape U.S. policy in the region. 

Calling for investment in women’s rights, education and economic empowerment, Noori briefed Members of Congress, their staff, media and the general public on the current situation of Afghan women, which she characterized as dismal.  In a panel hosted by the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s discussion forum, “Afghanistan: A Road Map for Progress,” Noori posited that for the vast majority of women in Afghanistan, there has been no progress and no justice for gender-based discrimination and violence, despite oft-touted improvements at the top.

“There are two Afghanistans,” she explained, “The United Nations, U.S., and the international community see one Afghanistan that is progressing and developing. Yet there is another Afghanistan that the international community does not see. It is violent, unstable, and in many ways very scary for women.”  Improvements for elite women in Kabul and major cities, where there is a quota for 25% women in Parliament and women move more freely outside the home, does not constitute progress for the majority of Afghan women, who live in rural areas and are daily subjected to domestic violence and astoundingly high maternal mortality rates.  In fact, Noori said, since the US invasion and the fall of the Taliban, domestic violence has increased, and women are no further along in their ability to make decisions in their homes or communities.

Throughout her month-long journey throughout Afghanistan, Noori met with various women who are themselves victims of domestic violence and remain excluded from the public sphere, without access to employment, education, or adequate healthcare. Out of desperation, Noori told the CPC, many of these women resort to self-immolation, or burning themselves in protest. Noori also stressed the dire consequences counter-narcotic poppy-eradication programs pose for women as farmers with no alternative means of income resort to archaic traditions, selling their daughters in forced and child marriage to drug lords in order to repay their debts.

Sweeta Noori joins a long line of other distinguished panelists in the six-part discussion series on Afghanistan, including Clare Lockhart of the Institute for State Effectiveness; General Paul Eaton, commander of Iraq’s security forces; Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff; and Hekmat Karzai, director of Kabul’s Peace and Security Centre.  Noori’s recommendations were incorporated along with other panelist testimony in a letter from CPC Co-chair Congressman Raul Grijalva and CPC member Congressman Michael Honda to fellow Members and the White House calling for increased civilian development funding and attention to women’s issues in Afghanistan.

Noori’s testimony comes on the heels of the release of Women for Women International’s 2009 Afghanistan Report, part of the organization’s Stronger Women, Stronger Nations report series, which seeks to amplify the voices of grassroots women in conversations regarding Afghanistan’s future as a nation. Based on the survey of 1,500 women in Afghanistan, the organization found that Afghan women are well-informed about the needs of their communities and their country, and call for increased security as well as economic and political stability.  66% of women polled gave security the highest priority, followed by economic and political problems. When asked about their biggest day-to-day problems, 41% responded with a lack of important basic commodities, and 26% indicated their primary need was for sufficient employment opportunities.

Sweeta Noori, who has returned to Washington D.C. indefinitely due to security concerns, is available for comment on the status of Afghanistan and Afghan women as documented through her most recent field visit.  For further information, contact Lyric Thompson at lthompson@womenforwomen.org or 202.449.9440. 
*****
Sweeta Noori is the Country Director of the Afghanistan chapter of international humanitarian and development assistance nonprofit organization Women for Women International. In her work as Country Director of Women for Women International-Afghanistan (2002-present), she has assisted over 20,000 women in her country with financial assistance, rights education, and vocational skills training. She was instrumental in launching one of Afghanistan’s first microcredit lending programs targeted to women, which has disbursed over $11 million to approximately 47,500 women, maintaining a repayment rate of over 90%.  Women for Women International is a global humanitarian and development assistance organization helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives, families and communities, thereby contributing to stronger civil societies. 

 

Outreach

Read Our Newsletter