Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-15-Speech-3-011"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2003-01-15"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Afghanistan: one year after the Bonn Agreement2
dcterms:Language	"en"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20030115.1.3-011"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2003-01-15-Speech-3-0122
lpv:speaker	lp:Baroness Nicholson Of Winterbourne2
lpv:spoken text	"Mr President, may I first congratulate the Greek minister for taking up the Presidency. We look forward with confidence to a very successful and very effective six months. The President today commented that our aim must be to bring Afghanistan into a modern statehood. Women's rights give increasing cause for concern, they are not improving, they are becoming worse. Facial covering has become mandatory in many parts of the country; the movement of women is heavily restricted. Virginity is examined on the whim of the police, women are dragged into hospitals and physically examined. In other words, women are reverting to their traditional subordinate role of being the property of the male. The Commissioner has already commented that women's rights in certain areas of the country are under assault, but I say this is also happening at central government level. Women are now forbidden to be presenters on radio or television, which some of them were doing successfully. I have no doubt that women journalists are also under pressure in the written media. Under-representation of women has been commented on already, but I would ask you to recall the famous Loya Jirga, which was almost 100% male. When the deputy Health minister visited the European Commission recently, it was the – male – deputy Health minister, Dr Feroz, who attended, not the Health minister herself, the only senior minister who is a woman. 40% of all health facilities do not have one single woman at any level of their staff, yet it is women worldwide who are fundamentally responsible for all aspects of family health. The word Afghanistan translates correctly into the words 'the land of sorrow and suffering'. For women Afghanistan is becoming, yet again, the land of their deepest sorrow and suffering. Humanitarian aid undoubtedly helps, but just as obviously it is simply not enough. I warmly congratulate both ECHO and the entire Commission involved in Afghanistan, for their fantastic work. But if we want to bring Afghanistan into the modern world, the most basic of human rights, equal respect between the sexes, must become, both a hallmark of our aid and a continuing measurement of our success. It is not so today. If we look at what Mr Solana identified as the aims of European Union involvement in Afghanistan, women are not mentioned: women's rights are just not there. Yet if we mean business, this attitude must be tackled, and it is an attitude, a tribal culture in Baluchistan, which has spread around the region. Why be so squeamish about tackling women's rights? Is it because Afghanistan is an Islamic society? I do not need to quote the Koran to you to remind you that men and women were equal in the Koran from the very start of Islam; it cannot be because of that. I urge you, alter the priorities of the Council of Ministers, place women's rights high on the agenda. If we fail on that, then we will have no success at all."@en1
lpv:spokenAs	substitute; AGRI (2002-01-17--2004-07-19)3,3 member; ELDR (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3,3 member; Delegation for relations with the Mashreq countries and the Gulf (2002-02-07--2004-07-19)3,3 unknown; Liberal Democrat Party (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3,3 substitute; Delegation to the EU-Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee (2002-02-07--2004-07-19)3,3 vice-chair; Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy (2002-01-22--2004-07-19)3,3
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"(Applause)"1 "Nicholson of Winterbourne (ELDR )."1

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