Afghanistan is a country with innumerable ups and downs over the last 40 years, especially in terms of women. Before the Taliban Regime, women had enough freedoms, but during the darkest regime of Taliban, everything went wrong. They couldn’t leave their home, work and educate and If they were seen in public, they had to be punished by lashing.
Fortunately, after the collapse of Taliban regime in 2001, a new chapter opened for Afghan women. Since then, women in Afghanistan have been granted many freedoms and have worked right next to men. Recently, the Independence Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission of Afghanistan announced that the presence of Afghan women in civil sector services reached 27.5%, which shows 5 % increase than last year in 2017. This progress of Afghan women working at the civil service sector can lead to 3 advantages for society;it can reveal their hidden talents, decrease administration corruption and achieve gender equality.
For example, during the administration of national unity government in Afghanistan, the leaders tried to find out the usable talents among the youth, especially females. It was a very optimistic and hopeful step toward good governing. The cabinet also ratified the increasing participation of Afghan women in the civil service sector. Day by day, the participation of females in government is increasing t, making many Afghan women happy and confident to fight for their rights and compete with men to take higher positions in the government.
Currently, the permanent representative of Afghanistan in the United Nations is a woman, the ambassador of Afghanistan in the United States of America is a woman and ten other women are ministers or work in other high governmental positions. It shows a very bright future for Afghan women who were not considered as a significant part of the government and society before. Now women have a chance to show their abilities and talents just like men in Afghanistan.
At the same time Afghanistan is called one of the most corrupt countries in the world, which shows how weak the administration is and how badly needs to be reformed. Therefore,the National Unity of administration in Afghanistan tried to fight corruption, unsuccessfully. However, Afghanistan fell to the 5th from 2nd position as the most corrupt country, but it is still not acceptable for the government and the people. Most Afghans believe that the appointing of young people and especially women in the civil services sector will decrease corruption. They think if women’s participation increase in all aspects of the country corruption will diminish because women are more compassionate and unbridable. According to some reports, those offices which are managed by women, are better in discipline and services.
Moreover women participation in the public sector will empower gender equality, which is vital in developing countries. Most of them, such as Afghanistan, are trying to show their willingness for equality, because at the moment women know their own rights, regarding the constitution and international rights. A lot of NGOs came to Afghanistan after 2001 and worked on gender equality and a large number of educated women in Afghanistan struggle to show their abilities and prove themselves in society. This progress made the government increase the participation of women in all sectors. But still to this day, Afghan women are insecure to leave the house and go in far distances like districts and work there.
Afghan women made many steps forward after 2001 and they don’t want to go back. They stand firmly against all the challenges and fight for their rights. Their participation in the government and the private sector is visible and it’s undoubtedly a success.
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