MAZAR-I-SHARIF - Rights officials say kangaroo courts pose threat to women’s lives and rights in the northern zone in areas where the government’s writ does not prevail.
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) head for the northern zone, Syed Mohammad Sami, told a gathering here that the government should expand its writ and improve security for enforcing the country’s laws.
The gathering was organized by a number of religious seminaries in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province, on Tuesday in connection with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Sami said his department had recorded 450 cases of violence against women during the first eight months of the 1396 solar year and 390 cases during the same period this ongoing year.
He believed the cases of violence against women had not decreased but some cases went unreported in insecure areas.
“Compared to the last year, we have 60 less cases this year, but it does not mean the violence has decreased; it means more areas have become insecure. Illegal activities and rights violations increase when insecurity increases.”
Sami said women in the northern zone of the country still faced violence in forms of kangaroo courts, denial of rights, beatings, forced marriage, denial of inheritance right, murder and self-immolation.
He said most of the cases registered in the north were beatings. Without providing details, Sami said kangaroo courts posed threats the lives of women in the north.
He said kangaroo courts were operational in areas where the Taliban and illegal armed groups were in control.
Religious scholar and head of the private schools in Balkh province, Syed Ibrahim Murtazavi, on the occasion said Islam preferred a human’s good conduct and piousness, either of a man or a woman.
He said women whose families gave preference to male members often endured violence but Islam had defined the rights of men and women.
The scholar said women in Afghanistan suffered because people of the country lacked enough knowledge about their rights in Islam.
Women’s rights activist, Salima Rahimi, said education could help overcome violence against the gender and stressed the need for increased literacy. (Pajhwok)