Listen to the Women! US/NATO Out of Afghanistan!

Listen to the Women! US/NATO Out of Afghanistan!

We call on you as leaders of the United Nations and the U.S. Department of State to fulfill the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, providing for significant participation by women in all talks and negotiations on the transition of ISAF troops out of Afghanistan. We share in the Resolution's concern that “civilians, particularly women and children, account for the vast majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict, including as refugees and internally displaced persons, and increasingly are targeted by combatants and armed elements..."

After ten years of military occupation, only the robust presence of women's voices will support a durable peace able to provide for the security and development needs of all Afghans.

The lives of most Afghan women are grim and often filled with violence caused by the US/ISAF forces, Taliban insurgents, and warlords associated with the central government. We reject the claim signed by the heads of state at the NATO summit in Chicago in May 2012: “In the ten years of our partnership the lives of Afghan men, women and children, have improved significantly in terms of security, education, health care, economic opportunity and the assurance of rights and freedoms. There is more to be done, but we are resolved to work together to preserve the substantial progress we have made during the past decade.”

Although there are laws on equal rights for women in Afghanistan, they are not implemented. Moderate progress in the areas of women's representation in Parliament and local government, in primary education for girls, and in the training of health care providers -- particularly midwives -- is laudable. However, the rights for women guaranteed in the Afghan constitution are far from being effectively or consistently implemented, and security for all sectors of society is deplorable. Women still have an average life expectancy among the lowest in the world -- age 51 -- and 68% of their children suffer from malnutrition, according to UNICEF. As war profiteers continue to make profits, Afghanistan remains the most dangerous place in the world for a woman to give birth, and has the second-highest infant mortality rate. President Karzai signed an edict permitting husbands to withhold food from their wives as a way of coercing them to have sex, and women rape victims are jailed -- for adultery!

On moral and economic grounds, we oppose the US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan, which is now costing US taxpayers $2 billion a week. Please use your position to see that the crucially important provisions of UNSC Res. 1325 are fulfilled on behalf of Afghan women and girls, and to promote a peaceful future for Afghanistan.

Sincerely,