Pick of the week – the latest from our ‘Green Scarves for Solidarity’ Campaign
On 7 October 2011, to mark the tenth anniversary of Western intervention in Afghanistan, we launched our multi-partner ‘Green Scarves for Solidarity with Afghan Women’ Campaign. At a time when 87% of Afghan women have faced gender-based violence or arranged marriage, and only 18% of 18-year-old Afghan girls are in education, the need for our campaign - calling on the international community to include women meaningfully in the Afghan peace process - is clear. This pick of the week provides detail of the campaign’s progress so far.
So far, 259 images have been uploaded to our photo petition, which will be taken to the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan this December as a symbol of the international support for Afghan women and their rights. Well-known faces who have got involved include Sohail Anjum, Nashwa Al-Ruwaini and Juliet Stevenson. However, we hope to reach at least 1000 pictures -upload your image today!
2. Green-themed, Women in Black Vigil
On Wednesday 12 October, Women in Black - a brilliant group that has been holding weekly vigils for different causes around the Edith Cavell Statue, near Trafalgar Square, for the last 30 years – showed their support for Afghan women by doing a vigil in their honour. At this, they wore green scarves for the occasion, handed out pamphlets and took photos to add to our petition. Check out the images of this brilliant action below.
3. Press coverage
Luckily, we have had great publicity since the launch of campaign. A piece appeared in the Times by Mariella Frostup, as well as inAsians: Bridging the Gap and Alert Net. Some German activists even decided to put together the brilliant video at the top of this feature!
4. The Afghan Women’s Network ‘Position Paper’
Channel 16 supports the use of the green scarf as a symbol of solidarity with Afghan women because it is one that they use themselves. For example, before the last presidential election, around 4000 wore green scarves in Kabul and in the provinces. To find out more about some of the amazing women that Channel 16 backs, take a look at these extracts of the ‘Position Paper’ released by the Afghan Women’s Network.