PESHAWAR, Dec 7: The Afghanistan Consul General Abdul Khaliq Khan Farahi has urged Afghan women to play their part in the reconstruction of their war-torn country. Speaking at a seminar on “Violence against Women” at the Afghan Consulate here on Wednesday, Mr Farahi said that womenfolk suffered terribly during the Taliban era but now the situation had undergone a sea-change after the toppling of the Taliban government and installation of Hamid Karzai as president.

He said women are now required to go to their country and play their due role in the reconstruction of their country. “A woman has become governor of one province in Afghanistan, which is clear testimony of the fact that the government was attaching more importance to women’s participation in politics.”

He lamented that over a quarter century of war in Afghanistan had plunged women into a vicious cycle of poverty. “Thousands of women had lost their husbands, offspring and parents. Millions of women had migrated to other countries in their bid to seek shelter,” he said.

He said that in the past women were banned from getting education and working in offices that also hampered national development.

He said that discrimination against women in Afghanistan had brought the country immense notoriety in the entire world and now it was the duty of women to establish a clean image of their country through vigorous participation in the country’s affairs.

The provincial chief of women’s wing of the Awami National Party, Zahira Khattak, criticized the Pakistani government for its campaign to send Afghan refugees to their country.

She said that refugee camps and schools were being closed down which had caused immense resentment among the hapless Afghans, and added that refugees should not be forced to repatriate because conditions here were still undesirable for living.