Women of Afganistan and Sri Lanka face similar problems - Women and Violence - Brief Article

U.N. Special Raporteur on Violence Against Women Radhika Coomaraswamy said in an interview published in The Hindu Business Line, that although the condition of women under the new Afghan regime will be 'better than under the Taliban', many demands of women in Afghanistan still need to be met.

The special repporteur's post was created in 1994 in the wake of crimes committed against women in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The post involves going on fact-finding missions around the world and reporting to the U.N. high commissioner on human rights, but the post has no enforcement power.

Following a recent meeting with 50 Afghan women in Brussels, Coomaraswamy said the women's major concerns were education and health. 'What they want is that their children, particularly the girl child, be educated and get adequate health care facilities,' she said. 'They also wanted the participation of women in politics and a quota system' and mentioned adopting the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women' Coomaraswamy said.

Coomaraswamy talked about her 1999 trip to Afghanistan, where she witnessed 'horrendous' conditions. 'There was only one hospital for women, and it was understaffed; women were not allowed to work. They were allowed to beg but not to work,' she said.

Coomaraswamy also addressed the condition of women in SRI LANKA, where she is based. 'Compared to the other South Asian countries, the physical quality of life is quite good' in Sri Lanka,' she said, attributing women's relatively good condition there to Buddhism, with its recognition of equality, and to 'the strong social welfare bent' in Sri Lanka.

She added, though, that violence against women in Sri Lanka, in the form of rape and domestic violence, has increased. 'That may be due to the of war and associated factors,' she said. 'While Sri Lanka does not face the same degree of problems in prostitution and human trafficking as its neighbors,' she said, 'it is grappling with trafficking for domestic service.' 'Sri Lankan embassies,' she said, 'should be responsive to the needs and rights of Sri Lankian women working abroad."