Women leaders making their voices heard, even in Afghanistan’s more conservative regions

In many instances, women are more organized and better able to articulate their concerns then their male counterparts, with Afghanistan serving as a case in point, according to The Canadian Press.

The articles describes the scene at a joint shura, or town council meeting, in Kandahar, where more than 20 burka-clad women took a seat in the board room.

“It is a women’s event and I think women are much more organized and better concerned about the problems in society than men,” Rangina Hamidi, a well-known women’s rights advocate and one of the group’s leaders said after the meeting.

According to the article, “The event last month was a combined effort of the Women’s Problem Solving Committee and the provincial women’s shura, Hamidi said. Its goal was to discuss the problems facing Kandahar women and to make decisions on how best to address those problems.”

The article added that: “The women also gloated in the fact that many men were completely taken aback after hundreds of Afghan women across the country held simultaneous peace prayers last month to call for an end to the war and destruction that has claimed the lives of so many of their husbands, sons and brothers.”

For the full article, click here.