Women Still Being Harassed in Gov’t, Private Institutions: First Lady

Afghan women are being sexually harassed in government and private institutions, Afghanistan’s first lady said Wednesday.

“Sexual harassment is existed in everywhere – in the government institutions, private companies, markets and streets – which is not an Afghan tradition,” said, Rula Ghani, Afghanistan’s first lady at a meeting where a policy was launched on increasing women participation in the civil service sector.

Expressing her concerns about women situation in Afghanistan, she emphasized that the role and presence of women in government is valuable in order to tackle the existed challenges.

At the same time, Nader Nadery, the head of Independent Administration Reforms and Civil Services Commission said the commission is committed to change government institutions to a safer and inclusive workplace for women by implementing the principle of “reward and punishment”.

The new policy launched by the commission is aimed to increase women participation in the civil service sector to 30 per cent by 2020.

This comes as Afghan women and girls often quietly endure harassment and there is no official record of the cases of harassment against women in the country.