Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-04-Speech-3-114"
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"en.20020904.4.3-114"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, the European Union played a very active part in the democratisation of Afghanistan, for which particular thanks are due to the Commission and most especially its staff on the ground.
It was as early as the International Women's Day in 1998 that European women started the ‘Flower for the Women of Kabul’ campaign, and deplored the human rights violations that excluded women in particular from education, medical treatment, work and political involvement. Another six years of the Taliban's despotic rule had gone by before things began to look up for democracy. The international anti-terror alliance then laid the spectre of the Taliban to rest. Democracy movements were launched at once, and the EU again played an active part in this on the Petersberg in Bonn. At the same time, albeit attracting almost no attention, the first Afghan Women's Summit was meeting in Brussels at the invitation of European women. It was there, for the first time and after two decades without political involvement, that it was possible for Afghan women, whether living in exile or in Afghanistan itself, to have their own forum and find themselves.
International pressure made it possible for women to be first admitted to the
and subsequently to participate in the new transitional government. In the meantime, we saw to it that the Budget included funds to help the women make up a great deal of lost ground, and that it was again possible for self-help organisations such as the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) to receive support from Budget funds.
It is with consternation that we now hear it reported that the first schools for girls are being closed down again, that fundamentalists again want to force women out of public life, and that the political influence of women ministers is being curbed. All the political influence at our disposal must now be brought to bear in order to prevent the situation of women worsening still further and above all to ensure that aid reaches rural areas and is passed on to women.
Jointly with the women on the European Council, we had taken the initiative of setting up a multinational group of women observers to ensure that women get the aid they need. Believing as I do that this fire must be kept alight, I now urgently call upon the Commission to continue to focus on the situation of women, and urge that we combat the principal evil, which is poverty and illiteracy among women. Even if world public opinion concentrates on other issues, I do think that we should continue to focus on Afghanistan and that we have to maintain a local presence there. My group, the Group of Social Democrats, will be sending a delegation to Afghanistan, and I look to the Commission to provide support for it in the shape of logistical aid. The threat of war in Iraq would destroy much that has been achieved, and so all our efforts are needed to help make peace in the region."@en1
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