Around one hundred and ninety cases women’s murder from all across the country have been filed with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) during the first six months of the current year.

AIHRC officials called the latest statistics as “shocking” and expressed concerns that majority of similar cases have not been recorded due to strict traditional sensitivities.

The commission declared that among them nearly 101 cases of them were honor killings.

According to AIHRC findings, nearly 2580 cases of violence were committed against Afghan women in the first six months of the current year.

“Violence against women had a remarkable increase in the past six months and statistics show that 2579 cases of violence against women have been registered which is separated from suicide and self-immolation,” said Qadira Yazdan Parast, commissioner of AIHRC.

The Human Rights Commission voiced concern over lack of the implementation of the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women, citing most of government officials ignore such cases to address.

“The issue of public indifference to the implementation of the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women should seriously be considered,” Yazdan Parast noted.

According to the registered statistics of the last six months:

2579 cases of violence committed all across the country which among them, 190 cases were women’s murder, 731 cases shows physical violence.

900 cases registered on verbal and psychological violence against women and 550 cases of economic violence were recorded.

Close to 183 cases were sexual violence and 215 cases were registered on family violence which is a large number.

The findings also show that 15 percent of honor killing and rape were committed by Afghan police officers.

Afghanistan has been one of the worst countries in the world to be born female.

Violence against women is endemic; girls attend school for less than half the number of years of Afghan boys, and one in every thirty-two women die from pregnancy-related causes.

Afghan women continue to experience poor health, limited economic opportunities, lack of education, an absence in participation in public life and all forms of violence.

In the meantime, Afghanistan’s first lady expressed concern over increase of violence against women; emphasizing that roots of violence should dried in the country.

The country’s first lady, Rola Ghani demands Afghans to start fight against elimination of violence against women.

“We should keep continued fighting for the elimination of violence against women and promote the culture of peace among people,” said Rola Ghani, Afghanistan’s first lady.

The minister of women affairs has said to consider Afghan women are caught in the vortex of cultural poverty and have little role in the labor market.

“We strive on women’s mentality and achieving of them to justice,” said Delbar Nazari, minister of women’s affairs.

President’s special envoy for reforms and good governance, Ahmad Zia Masoud has also noted that an attitude against women is disturbing and this culture must be changed.

Despite efforts the violence against Afghan women still continues and the perpetrators are not taken serious.

The four decades of prolonged armed conflict across the country has contributed to significant levels of instability, insecurity, violence, rule of law challenges, and poverty and underdevelopment, which have obstructed the effective realization and enjoyment of human rights for people of Afghanistan.

It must be stressed that the insecurity, pervasive levels of gender-based violence and an ever-present climate of fear has had a disproportionate impact on the promotion, protection and fulfillment of human rights of women and girls.

The struggle to secure women’s rights in Afghanistan has been an embattled one. After years of faltering campaigns, the landmark Elimination of Violence against Women Act (EVAW) was passed in 2009 by presidential decree.

The 2009 act marked a major turning point in the legal status of Afghan women. Before the EVAW was passed, cases of violence against women were governed by Afghanistan’s penal code, in force since 1976, which contains no reference to violence within the family or underage marriage.

Even these scant legal protections were illusory during Taliban rule, when women were denied free movement and access to education and when women were even stoned to death.

Since then, Afghanistan has signed numerous international rights treaties and as a signatory is obliged under international law to respond to reports of attacks on women.

Reported by Rafi Sidiqi and Fawad Naseri
Written by Muhammad Zakaria