On March 7, 2022, the Afghan Women’s Centre of Montreal was honoured to host a virtual conference on behalf of Afghan Women’s Rights: Integrity in time of crisis and to celebrate International Women’s Day. The event featured respected guest speakers from across the world: Murwarid Ziayee, Marzia Babakarkhail, Heela Yoon, Dr. Lina AbiRafeh and Dr. Nipa Banerjee. Our Executive Director Victoria Jahesh participated as speaker and moderator. Najim Dost, from the University of Ottawa, participated as co-moderator.
The conference covered three important topics: Women’s rights in Afghanistan, especially the right to education, The evacuation process and situation/conditions of Afghan Women in Canada, and The role of the international community on Afghanistan’s future.
We were also honoured and so grateful by the presence of our respected witnesses from Afghanistan. These brave women are academics, professionals, former politicians and women’s rights activists that defy the constraints imposed by the current regime. They shared their important testimonies in this conference. Ethically speaking, the AWCM withheld their identities and personal information safe and secure while in the conference. The reach of this important event extended to panelists and attendees from several different continents and time zones across the world, including Afghanistan, UK, Russia, Germany, New York, California, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and from the Abu Dhabi refugee camp.
The event prompted lots of solidarity amongst its participants. By highlighting the threat to women’s rights in Afghanistan, this conference helped to avoid Afghan women from being forgotten by the international community. The crisis is still undergoing, and help is still needed.
Last, but not least, we must highlight and acknowledge that the success and achievements of this event were possible by the help and collaboration of the Canadian Federation of University Women, who helped us with the outreach and promotion of the event through their social media channels.
If you could not attend, we highly encourage you to watch the recording provided by Bashar TV.