‘As we learn more about the appalling treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban, we should pay special attention to those who are most disadvantaged and least visible’, Lord Loomba said in a special debate in the House of Lords about the International Relations and Defence committee’s report on the UK and Afghanistan.
In 2016, the Loomba Foundation’s World Widows Report revealed that Afghanistan had the highest proportion of marital-age widows in the world and the mortality rate of mothers in childbirth was also in the highest range. These factors have been significantly exacerbated in the conflict since, and ‘the tragedy for widow’, said Lord Loomba,’is that they are marginalised by society even as they face gender discrimination from the Taliban. They have nowhere to turn as the economic and social situation in Afghanistan deteriorates.’
Lord Loomba echoed the sentiments of other Peers about discrimination against women and girls whose hopes of empowerment and a better future nurtured in the last two decades have been cruelly dashed, and noted that this is an issue the Government cares about and wants to prioritise.
‘For my part I make a special plea for those who are doubly disadvantaged as widows,” said he said, urging the Government to “make every effort to shine a light and bring succor to those who need it most.”
Paying tribute to Lord Loomba's work on widows, Foreign Office Minister of State Lord Ahmad agreed that ‘there are vulnerable communities: women, girls, and particularly widows’. The Government, he said, is working with agencies on the ground and will continue providing support through multilateral efforts as well as supporting UK and other NGOs directly, and he undertook to keep the House of Lords updated on this issue.
The Loomba Foundation was established in 1997. In 2005 Lord Loomba proposed International Widows Day as a global day of action to eradicate injustice and discrimination against widows. In December 2010, after a five-year campaign, the proposal was adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly and since then International Widows Day has focused worldwide attention on the cause each year on 23 June.
Lord Loomba is Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development and Vice-President of Barnardo’s.
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