“The fact that girls as young as nine years old are being sold — not only because of economic pressure, but because of the fact that there is no hope for them and their family — is not normal.”
These are the words of Fawzia Koofi, the first vice-president of the Afghan Parliament, as well as former president of the Commission for women’s issues and human rights, who continued to fight to promote women, girls and children’s rights after the fall of Kabul into the hands of the Taliban.
In June 2022, thanks to the support of the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), Fawzia Koofi traveled to Geneva to ask the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold a debate on the women’s and girls’ rights crisis in Afghanistan. Together with other Afghan female leaders, she recalled the critical situation that Afghan women face under the Taliban regime. Her determination to promote the rights of Afghan women, girls and childern has given her a key role in peace negotiations and to denounce human rights violations in her country.
Fawzia Koofi‘s denunciation activity would probably not have been possible without the contribution of the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF), financed by Italy in 2022 with 4.5 million euros specifically to support Afghan women. The belief in the importance of fighting gender violence, directly supporting the capacity of local women, in order to free them from violence and contribute to peace processes, has led Italy to also support the global action of the Women Peace Humanitarian Fund, with a further contribution of 2 million euros in 2022 and 3 million euros in 2023 – to support women’s voices where it is most needed and contribute together to contrasting violence.
