The women and girls of Afghanistan

Feb 24th, 2010 1:45 PM UTC
By Chris Scott

Yesterday Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues in the State Department, testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to discuss the role of women in Afghanistan, touting Afghan women as “agents of democracy and change” (a term she used at least a couple times).

In her testimony, Verveer said:

To combat barriers to women’s political empowerment, the United States has launched a broad grassroots effort to train women at local levels and to build their capacity to take on leadership roles. We are also working with women and men in law enforcement and in the judicial system to diminish the impunity that allows the threats, intimidation and violence to continue that keep women out of public life.

Freeing women to participate in public life also frees them to participate in the economic activity of their nation. Jobs creation is among our most urgent goals, and agricultural development in Afghanistan is a top U.S. priority. The key to increasing agricultural productivity is to increase skilled human capital – and an efficient way to accomplish that is by training women.

To further build Afghanistan’s skilled workforce, as well as to extend the many other benefits of education, the United States has promoted programs that rebuild the education infrastructure to enable more girls to go to school and women to achieve literacy. We are also working to rebuild Afghanistan’s healthcare services, and particularly to change its maternal mortality rate, which is one of the worst in the world.

Here’s the video:

TAGS: Afghanistan, Women ONE2ONE