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Life Becomes Harder: Intersectional Feminist Lens to Dis/abled Experience of Women in Afghanistan during Covid 19 Pandemic and Post Covid Development Context

SHAJAHAN, Sharin
2021

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More than 40 years of war, ethnic conflict, violence and poverty have made Afghanistan a country where at least one in five live with a serious physical, sensory, intellectual, or psychosocial disability. Women with disabilities in Afghanistan are considered to be ‘doubly stigmatized’ due to gender inequality and disability stigmatization, and are often hidden from the social and political aspects of life. Although in the post-Taliban era, development interventions backed by international aid have been designed to include women with disabilities, their intersectionalities cutting across class, ethnicity, region, different types of impairments and other positionalities have not been explored to address different needs, barriers and inequalities across various regions. In this context, the Covid 19 crisis has made the lives of Afghan women with disabilities harder due to gender discrimination, stigma and shame, unemployment, lack of mobility, lack of awareness, and insufficient institutional support and infrastructure coupled with widespread feelings of insecurity resulting from conflict and terrorist attacks. Based on both primary and secondary data, this paper will shed a feminist intersectional insight into the plight of women with dis/abled experience during the Covid 19 pandemic in the complex political and social terrain of Afghanistan. The paper will also explore visions for designing interventions aimed at integrating women with disabilities in post Covid development plans.

“Disability Is Not Weakness” Discrimination and barriers facing women and girls with disabilities in Afghanistan

GOSSMAN, Patricia
April 2020

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Everyday barriers that Afghan women and girls with disabilities face are described.  Decades of conflict have decimated government institutions and development efforts have failed to reach many communities most in need. Obtaining access to health care, education, and employment, along with other basic rights, is particularly difficult for Afghan women and girls with disabilities, who face both gender discrimination and stigma and barriers associated with their disability.

 

This report is based primarily on research by Human Rights Watch researchers from April 2018 through January 2020 in Kabul, Mazar-e Sharif, and Herat, Afghanistan. 23 interviews with women with disabilities and 3 interviews with family members of women and girls with disabilities were conducted. 14 healthcare and education professionals were interviewed, including representatives from the United Nations and international and local nongovernmental organizations providing services to persons with disabilities in Afghanistan

Equal basis 2014 : access and rights in 33 countries

BURKE, Megan
PERSI VICENTIC, Loren
December 2014

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This report presents research about efforts to meet the needs and uphold the rights of persons with disabilities in four thematic areas: health care, rehabilitation, work and employment, and accessibility and enabling environments. Research findings are drawn from the experiences of landmine and cluster munition survivors and other persons with similar needs in 33 countries experiencing armed conflict or emerging from armed conflict or political or economic transition. Findings are placed within the context of relevant articles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the World Report on Disability

Understanding the challenge ahead : Executive summary report

BAKHSHI, Parul
TRANI, Jean-Francois
2006

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This report outlines a series of reports in the National Disability Survey in Afghanistan (NDSA) undertaken by Handicap International on behalf of the government of Afghanistan. The NDSA aims to bridge the knowledge gap regarding the numbers, health, educational and employment situation, livelihoods and social integration of Afghans with disabilities. The Executive summary report presents a brief view of the methodology and results of the NDSA. The first section discusses the methods and field realities. The other sections discuss health, education, livelihood and employment in more detail

The comprehensive national disability policy in Afghanistan : submitted to Minister of Martyrs and Disabled Kabul

MINISTRY OF MARTYRS AND DISABLED
October 2003

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In August 2003 the government of Afghanistan gathered a group of experts, government officials, and national and international NGOs to develop a disability policy for Afghanistan. The result reflects the complex situation of Afghanistan which is devastated by civil war, extreme religious movements, drug production and poverty. This policy is the attempt to mainstream disability into all aspects of Afghan society and life. The document briefly describes the situation in Afghanistan, sets it into the national and international context and outlines the major policy issues. It will be of interest to NGOs and researchers.

People with disabilities in crisis response

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION (ILO)
May 2003

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The ILO's InFocus programme on crisis response and reconstruction has focused particularly on disabled ex-combatants in a number of countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Namibia. Projects in these countries have assisted governments, agencies, local NGOs and organisations of persons with disabilities to provide vocational skills training, mostly in mainstream vocational training centres but also in special rehabilitation centres

Fatally flawed : cluster bombs and their use by the United States in Afghanistan

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
December 2002

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This report investigates the use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan, by the United States. This work argues that despite advances that have improved the accuracy and targeting of cluster bombs they still predominantly and unjustly impact civilians. This report also examines the after effect of cluster munitions and offers a set of legislative recommendations

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