As part of IFES’ commemoration of Human Rights Day, Palwasha Hassan, a highly influential women's rights activist in Afghanistan and a Jennings Randolph Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, spoke at IFES about human rights and democracy in Afghanistan.

Ms. Hassan gave an overview of the history of the women’s rights movement in Afghanistan and said that the challenges they faced, including war and living under the Taliban, helped make them stronger instead of defeating them. She spoke about the input that women had in drafting Afghanistan’s latest Constitution and what securing their participation through this document means for the status of women in the country. Ms. Hassan also shared her views on whether Afghanistan is ready for democracy, pointing out that democratic practice in one form or another has existed in the country for hundreds of years and is now expanding to include women and other disenfranchised groups just as it did in all other democracies. To ask whether Afghanistan is ready for democracy is to ask whether Afghanistan is ready for human rights. There cannot be one without the other.

Please click here to listen to Ms. Hassan's talk.*

Ms. Hassan has dedicated her life to the improvement of Afghan women’s lives. While the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, she worked for nine years at the Afghan Women’s Education Center in Pakistan, first as a volunteer and later as the director. Since returning to Afghanistan in 2002, she has spent half her time with the International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development (ICHRDD) in Kabul. In 2007 she became country director of the ICHRDD program she helped establish in 2002. She has also advised the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and other ministries on gender mainstreaming, including how to integrate gender issues into all sectors of the Afghan National Development Survey and National Poverty Reduction Strategy. Ms. Hassan is a founding member of the Afghan Women’s Network (with whom IFES works closely on the ground), RAWAZANA, and Irfan Cultural Center. She is also an advisor for Global Fund for Women’s projects in Afghanistan. She holds an MA Postwar Recovery Studies from University of York, UK.

*Ms. Hassan's opinions are hers alone. They do not reflect IFES in any way.