Norton Reports on Briefing of Committee on Oversight and Reform on Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) participated in a conference call briefing of the Committee on Oversight and Reform on women's rights in Afghanistan on Monday. The briefing, Norton said, conducted by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), showed the importance of women's rights as a barometer of social progress in Afghanistan. Norton appreciated the briefing, particularly considering the 14-month withdrawal plan of the Trump Administration. "The United States must not commit to everlasting presence in Afghanistan, but I am not encouraged by the stalemate among Afghanistan governmental entities today," Norton said.

Norton said the briefing showed women's rights holding but took no assurance that progress would continue or hold if the United States were not there.

The difference in attendance of girls in schools, varying from some parts of the country showing good attendance to others, particularly in rural areas, showing no girls in schools, was very discouraging to Norton.

Norton also said the most concerning issue was the SIGAR report finding that the women in the parliament simply vote with the men, based on ethnicity, which Norton believes would slow women in gaining their rights. However, she said that this could change over time. She compared the response of Afghan women to African American women in the United States, who only gradually took on their roles in the feminist movement because of the long focus of African Americans on centuries of slavery and discrimination affecting both Black women and Black men.