Sakina Adib
Bayan News – Following the hunger strike of Tamana Paryani, an activist for women’s rights in the city of Cologne, Germany, a number of women and girls in Norway, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have joined in support and embarked on hunger strikes.
Several girls in front of the parliaments of Norway and Pakistan have been on a twelve-day hunger strike, calling on the global community to recognize gender apartheid.
In addition, women’s rights activists in the provinces of Takhar and Badakhshan in northern Afghanistan have been on a hunger strike for two days.
The protesting girls in Afghanistan, who have recently gone on strike in protest against the current regime’s policies, state that they will continue their strike until the demands of women receive attention from the international community.
In a statement, these girls say, “We have been under torture, suffering, and violence for two years. Afghan women are deprived of their human rights because of their gender.”
Simultaneously, the United Nations Human Rights Council held a session today, Monday (September 11), on the human rights situation in Afghanistan. In this session, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur, and other participants expressed concern about the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan.
The Turkish ambassador in this council added that depriving women and girls of education and employment will worsen Afghanistan’s social and economic situation in the long run. These educational restrictions are, of course, contrary to the desires of the Afghan people and the women of this country.
According to him, Turkey is trying to promote human rights and provide avenues for women’s participation in the social and economic life of Afghanistan through its interaction with the interim government in Kabul.
Simultaneously with the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva, a group of protesting girls held a demonstration in front of the building where the session was taking place.
