Guest blog: don't abandon the women of Afghanistan

[JessMumsnet]

With International Women's Day just around the corner, our guest blog today is from Amnesty UK's Kate Allen, who writes about the increasingly perilous situation faced by women in Afghanistan as the date for NATO's withdrawal gets ever nearer.

Please read the blog and tell us what you think. How hopeful are you that the gradual advances in the status and education of women that have been made over recent years will be maintained? What can be done to ensure that things don't get dramatically worse for them in coming years?

The International Development Secretary Justine Greening recently promised to make dealing with violence against women in Afghanistan a 'strategic priority' - and Amnesty has launched a petition pressing her to specify what, exactly, that will entail (whether women's shelters will be funded, for example).

If this is something that you care about, make your opinions known by signing the petition. And if you have a blog, do post on this issue. We've set up a linky at the bottom of the guest blog page, and we'll be tweeting all posts that get added, and making a bit of a noise around the issue generally.

[SarahHillWheeler]

Glad that you are raising this as an issue (it is good to see some "heavier" topics being addressed as well as the feel good stuff).

I really don't know the ins and outs of the issue other than what I've read in the papers (and A Thousand Splendid Suns - yes, I know it's fiction, but it did open my eyes to the sort of lives a lot of women have to put up with). However, having gotten ourselves into Afghanistan, I think it's important we don't abandon half of its population.

It's the women, and children, who will probably suffer most if the country descends further into tribal anarchy.

Making their wellbeing a strategic priority strikes me as long overdue.

[pofacedplot]

I don't know how things can get better, I just don't know how. :(