US to honor 7 slain Afghan women for courage

KABUL (Pajhwok):  Slain Afghan midwife, Maryam Noorzad, is being honored by the United States along with six other Afghan women who were assassinated in separate incidents while serving their communities in the war-torn nation last year.

Recognition for the tragically murdered Afghan women will be given Monday, when Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts the annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) awards virtual ceremony, honoring a group of extraordinary women from around the world. The event coincides with International Women’s Day on March 8.

“Now in its 15th year, the Secretary of State’s IWOC Award recognizes women from around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment — often at great personal risk and sacrifice,” the State Department said in a press release.

“From the inception of this award in March 2007 to today, the Department of State has recognized more than 155 awardees from over 75 countries.”

Those being honored Monday include women from Afghanistan, Belarus, Burma, Cameroon, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Iran, Nepal, Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Venezuela.

A full list of the 2021 recipients with bios for each can be found on the State Department’s website.

With regard to the seven assassinated Afghan women to be honored, the case of Noorzad is one among the many involving the gruesome targeting of women in Afghanistan over the past year.

Noorzad was serving for Médecins Sans Frontières — Doctors Without Borders — when three gunmen attacked the maternity ward where she worked.

A Doctors Without Borders press release last year said 15 mothers were killed in the attack, five of whom were in labor and were minutes, or at most hours, from giving birth. Two children aged 7 and 8 were also killed.

The list released by the State Department includes Malala Maiwand, a reporter for Enkass TV, Fereshta Kohistani, a civil society activist, Fereshta, a female guard at a women’s prison in Kandahar, and General Sharmila Frogh, the gender head of the NDS.

The dead included Fatima Rajabi, a police officer in Ghazni, Fatima Natasha Khalil, a staff member of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, and Maryam Noorzad.

This week, three other employees of Enkass TV were killed in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has welcomed the State Department’s announcement.

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