Voices
In a male dominated country like Afghanistan, the role of women leaders is merely symbolic and there is very less opportunity for women to actively participate in the process of decision-making. Hence there needs to be affirmative actions to increase women's participation in decision-making.
-Ms. Najeeba Sultani
Advocate, Western Afghan Women Network,
Afghanistan
It is important to make the political parties gender sensitive in order to make them take the gender equality seriously and to make them ensure gender equality into their election manifestos and constitution. The political parties must have at least one mechanism to deal with the matters when their women party members are subjected to violence.
-Ms. Nazly Qumeunnessa
Lawyer, Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK),
Bangladesh
The constitution of India is very comprehensive and guarantees all rights to all citizens treating women as equal to men. They have Articles, which can be interpreted to embody the political rights of women, and if they look in congruence with the international frameworks like CEDAW and UN Declaration of Human Rights there is a perfect harmony between the constitution and the international treaties
-Ms. Martha Farrell
Director, Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
India
Most of the legal provisions of Nepal are gender neutral. They are equally applicable to men and women. In this respect there are no specific laws to guarantee women's rights. However, there are certain provisions in the constitution and legal regime that give priority to women: daughters, sisters and mothers.
-Mr. Ram Krishna Timilsina
Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nepal,
Nepal
WThe media plays a very important role in our society. It plays a very effective role in the society to fight against violence on normal women and women in politics as it can expose the society and it's evil.
-Ms. Riffat Javaid Kahlon
Former member of the National Assembly in Pakistan,
Pakistan
It is necessary to find the best practices of coping strategies which could be adopted at a regional level to address the issue of violence against women in politics and how formal and informal mechanisms can be made effective to address the issue.
-Sharmini Boyle
Chief Editor, Young Asia Television,
Sri Lanka
Opinions Collected from the Regional Conference: Combating Violence Against Women in Politics organized by SAP-International.
