TOWARDS the LIGHT

For the past decade, many development discourses have taken name from the happenings and incidents around the globe and every day we are witness of a new term describing a particular situation. Although there are reasons behind creating a discourse and then using it for self-promoting purposes, we never look into the root causes of those happenings and incidents in our surroundings. The terms as “violence against women”, “Women’s rights”, “child rights”, “gender inequality”, “discrimination against women and girls” and many more are quiet commonly used discourse to describe the terrible conditions of women and girls around the world particularly within the so-called third world countries.

Governments, civil society, profit and non-profit sectors, and activists are striving hard to introduce laws to prevent violence against women and children, to raise public awareness on affects of violence in the communities, doing a lot of advocacy, and lobbying for social justice social inclusion. H…

Wazhma Frogh
International Woman of Courage Award, State Department United States of America
March 9, 2009.

Today is yet another example that the women of Afghanistan want to change their lives and want to raise their voices against inequalities and injustices on them. Yet again we are challenging the stereotypes that the women of Afghanistan are portrayed as “dead and passive and those they can’t participate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan”.

The ambition for equality and justice awoke in me when I was almost 12 years of age living in a traditional joint family that believed women shouldn’t be allowed to eat meat because it makes them strong and they will argue and disobey the family.

I started working for women and children 11 years ago when I was only 17 or 18 years of age. The compelling situation of women and children in the refugee camps of Peshawar, Pakistan made me question the inequality of power and access to the basic living needs for any human being. Trying to portray their…

During early May 09, when a number of women leaders gathered to design programs to encourage women for voting, i suggested what if we start a campaign of a bulk of women so that they can be motivated, encouraged and supported to take part in elections. Many thought its very ambitious as women dont come along in bulks. Later on , in a bigger coordination meeting on 17 June, i proposed the 5 Million Women Campaign as an outcome of coordinating election efforts by international community and civil society. A donor supported and we started the preparatory work at women's network.
The idea of 5 Million Women Campaign is to mobilize women towards an objective rather than an individual candidate that might easily influence voters. After so much of hard work to establish a working group, preparations and consultations, the launch was done on 4th of August 2009. The loya jirga tent that is a historical platform for change and struggles in Afghanistan was witness of around 1500 women from K…

Very True...."things will get worse before they get better"....similar is a human being's nature. For the past many months i have been thinking of "giving up" because i thought my struggles are not paying off. But as i reach to the peak of frustration, i see the tiny hands of "change" that i guess i have contributed towards, waving towards me that they need to be strenghtened.I dont have to tell here that life in Afghanistan is complicated or tough....but its as complicated and tough as we can make it. My dad always says that those who dont make their own principles have to obey other's principles. So if i have started the struggles for bringing hope to people's lives, then i need to continue and have more supporters that should take this struggle to a farther level. With all the frustrations on the surrounding, i still see rays of hope for Afghanistan no matter how small. For an example, i had initiated a project of 5 young lawyers that in th…