AWPL Network

Thank you, Mp Yasir Naqvi, for your continued collaboration and for standing with the Afghan Women Parliamentarians and Leaders Network with the women inside Afghanistan who are today deprived of their most basic rights, and with our community here. Your solidarity, compassion, and shared voice truly mean so much to us.

ملت با شهامت افغانستان را درود!
پسا تحول سیاسی در پی سقوط نظام جمهوري اسلامي افغانستان و حاکم شدن گروه طالبان در کشور، من و جمعی از زنان عضو پارلمان، قاضیان زن و زنان عضو جامعه مدنی افغانستان موقتاً به كشور یونان مسكن گزين شديم و جهت انسجام مساعی برای جلب توجه ملت های جهان نسبت به آن‌چه که بالای مردم افغانستان می‌گذرد خاصتاً محرومیت زنان و دختران از حق کار، آموزش، نبود امنیت روانی، نبود فرصت های کاری و سایر محرومیت های که امروزه ملت ما با آن دست و گریبان است، بر آن شدیم تا نهادی را تحت نام شبکه زنان رهبر و زنان پارلمان افغانستان ایجاد نماییم.
این نهاد قرار است در عرصه های سیاسی، اجتماعی، فرهنگی، اقتصادی و انسان دوستانه تلاش های لازمه را داشته باشد، تا بتواند تسکینی برای آلام مردم افغانستان باشد.
ایجاد یک نهاد و آن‌هم در یک کشور اروپایی کاری فوق العاده سخت بود و اما این کار با انگیزه که اعضای شبکه برای کارکردن به مردم خود داشت و تلاش‌های صادقانه و بی آلایش اعضای شبکه میسر شد، که جا دارد از هریک آن‌ها مراتب سپاس و امتنان خود را داشته باشم.
این شبکه پس از ثبت رسمی در کشور یونان به تاریخ ۱۴۰۱/۱/۱۶ در تالار سابقه پارلمان یونان و با حضور سفیر اتحادیه اروپا برای تساوی جنسیتی (اشتراک آنلاین)، معاون وزارت سیاست گذاری های اجتماعی دولت یونان، نماینده پارلمان جرمنی (اشتراک آنلاین)، نماینده خدمات برون مرزی اتحادیه اروپا، نماینده نهاد اروپای سبز، نماینده نهاد جهانی جوامع باز، اعضای پارلمان و جوامع مدنی یونان و افغانستان و شخصیت های سیاسی و با هم‌کاری های مستمر شبکه ملیسا ( نهادی برای حمایت از پناه جویان و مهاجران زن در یونان) افتتاح و آغاز به فعالیت نمود.
مسئولیت سنگین و مهم پیش‌بُرد امور این شبکه را هم‌کاران گرامی لطف نمودند و به عهده من گذاشتند و من امیدوارم در تشریک مساعی با تیم کاری متعهد به آرمان‌های مردم افغانستان و برای آن‌ها کار می‌کنیم و انشاء الله نتیجه موثر و مثمر برای ملت ما بدست خواهیم آورد.
اهداف و کار شیوه شبکه به زودی با ملت عزیز افغانستان شریک ساخته خواهد شد.

استاد نظيفه يوسفي بيك
رئيس شبكه زنان پارلمانی و رهبر افغانستان.

“I am Noorina, an Afghan girl who has passed primary education and wished a lot to learn despite all the difficulties in my homeland, and wished to have a share in the bright future of Afghanistan.

You may hear this wish from me today, but I assure you that it is the wish of millions of girls of my age who are locked in their homes today and their only wish to achieve is to go to school and study.

Today, on behalf of these millions of deprived girls in Afghanistan, I share with you our dreams (…)

I have dreamed that the half-century war in Afghanistan ended and my generation, unlike the previous generations of Afghanistan, lives in a peaceful environment of the country without fear and insecurity.

I dream that girls in Afghanistan wake up in the morning, instead of worrying about war, oppression and depravity, they go to school with a smile on their face dream about growing up.

I dream that in the furthest village of Afghanistan a girl is sent to school. A kind and beautiful girl with a flowery dress walking among the wheat fields and wild flowers.

I have a dream that prominent women like Rabaeh, Mehsti and dozens of other heroic women and scientists of Afghanistan have been revived in the spirit of today's girls and will once again be the gift of Afghanistan and humanity.

The girls along with their brothers will talk about progress, science, culture and humanity. There will be no discrimination. Brothers will be proud of their sisters.

And I believe, all of this will be achieved with your support and help.
I am sure you will not leave us and millions of Afghan girls alone in this way.” • Noorina Karimi, 11-years-old, closing the launching event of the Afghan Women Parliamentarians and Leaders Network, April 5, 2022, Old Parliament House, Athens.

“My homeland is my mother. I lost my mother”, Elhama Hashimi, 13, opening with her poem the launching event of the Afghan Women Parliamentarians and Leaders Network at the Old Parliament House, Athens, April 5, 2022. She is the daughter of deputy president of AWPLN MP Homa Ahmadi. In the background, AWPLN president, Nazifa Yusufi Bek •

«We, Afghan women who are currently outside Afghanistan, who have left our homeland to save our lives, will not sit down and our voices for justice will continue. (…) Let not Afghanistan and Afghan people and especially Afghan women be forgotten. (…) Afghanistan currently lacks a legal democratic system and is in dire need of law and democracy. The Taliban have no legitimacy and they want to impose an authoritarian, extremist, tribal and misogynistic system on the Afghan people by force. Meanwhile, the people of Afghanistan want all their individual, social, political, official and educational rights to be guaranteed. It must be accepted by the Taliban that Afghanistan is home to all Afghans, and must therefore hold an election. (…) It is the Afghan women who face the continuing violence, threat of murder and revenge by the Taliban and their voices are silenced, a situation reminiscent of the former restrictive regime of the 1990s. The violence, threat and revenge are not only physical but also mental and psychological (…) so the Afghan women are mentally murdered and buried alive. Therefore it is imperative that all the rights of Afghan women must be accepted and recognized, including civil, social, political, professional and educational rights. Until those priorities are admitted, the Taliban should not be recognized or legitimized(…)” • Judge Hasina Haidari, member of the Afghan Women Parliamentarians and Judges Network, speaking at the launching event, at the Old Parliament House, Athens, on April 5th, 2022.

“If the world recognizes the Taliban, even if the economy improves, here is what else will happen: Political parties will not be active in Afghanistan - there will be no civic or political activities. Women and men will work separately - this does not even exist in Saudi Arabia. Violence against women will increase. Intelligence will leave Afghanistan.We will not have individual freedom. Everyone will be busy with religious extremism and modern science will be forgotten. People will think about men's beards and women’s Hijab instead of focusing on improving their standard of living. Everyone will be depressed and miserable. There will be no enthusiasm and happiness in Afghanistan. No one will sing. And the people of Afghanistan will become like the walking dead.

I want an Afghanistan that is free from all forms of violence and gender discrimination. And its people, like birds, should be free and happy and full of laughter. This is the wish we all have in our hearts, this is why we created this network.

In this proud country of democracy, in this historic house, we are promising to our people and to the whole world that we will never stop our struggles and we will give our people voice and the promise of a better future.” Shagufa Noorzai شگوفه نورزۍ MP & steering committee member of the Afghan Women Parliamentarians and Leaders Network, closing its inaugural event with a promise and a message of hope. Old Parliament House, Athens, April 5.

“We are here today to start a new page for the future of Afghanistan. We will do everything it takes to achieve this. But we cannot do all this on our own. We need the support of the international community. We need all of you.” MP Halima Askari speaking at the launching of the Afghan Women Parliamentarians and Leaders Network, at the Old Parliament House of Athens, April 5, 2022. She continues: “We need the international community to hear our voice, we need to have our voice - the voice of Afghan women - included in international meetings about Afghanistan. We need international organizations to support our network and our people.

Our neighboring countries should shape their policies keeping in mind the idea of peace in Afghanistan, because peace in Afghanistan is peace in the region, it is peace in the world.

And here’s what we need to do inside the country:

1. A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Afghanistan, there is so much poverty that parents sell their children. Children work in the street – we should help the children, they need food, school and health support.

2.We need the international community to pave the way for elections in Afghanistan.

3. There are many different ethnic groups in Afghanistan, but there is ethnic discrimination against most of them. We need to end this.

4. The Taliban announced that they want to cut off all media and communication, to cut off the internet – information is a basic right and this should not be allowed to happen.

5. We need women in positions of leadership - because otherwise how we can know about our rights.

6. We need the schools to reopen for girls. The girls of our country must have equal access to the education system.



The Taliban make promises that they don’t keep. We know that, and by now, all the world knows that. Shutting the doors of the schools for girls, they showed once again that they do not respect freedom and human rights and they are leading our country into a crisis. The foreign ministers of many countries and many women senators from the US have condemned this, and we really appreciate this. The Taliban should be measured according to their actions, not their speech.

In the spirit of your philosopher Aflatun - Plato: if we send a boy to school, there will be one educated person in the family. If we send our girls to school, all the country will be educated. We hope all of the mothers and girls will have the right to be educated, we need to support them even in the most distant village, even the poorest people. We need women with education and experience.


We are now seeing the war in Ukraine and feel it with all our bodies, with all our soul and know how many suffer from this war. Because people suffer in every war. In war there is no winner no loser. Peace is a collective responsibility.

We are the generation of war, we are the generation of the smoke, but in the future, we don’t want any mother to lose her child, any woman to lose the husband, any girl to lose her brother, any child to lose their hope for the future.

I hope for a peaceful world. We must work together for a peaceful world.”

“I am the living history of the 43-year-long war imposed on Afghanistan. I thank the leader of the Afghan Women Parliamentarians and Leaders Network that is launching today, in collaboration with the strongest Afghan women in Greece, far from our homeland, in order to be the voice of the Afghan people. Congratulations. I believe that the members of the network will stand and fight with patience and courage to support human rights, men, women and children’s rights, and try for the fundamental rights of our people according to the religion of Islam, the Afghan constitution and the universal declaration of human rights. To fight tirelessly for the right to life, the right to education, the right to hold meetings, the right for freedom of expression, the right to choose, the right to marry, the right to travel, the right to choose accommodation, etc.

Regarding the current political, social, economic and cultural situation in Afghanistan, I must say that after the sudden fall of the republic, all the achievements of the people for 20 years were reduced to rubble. The Doha talks, in which all sections of society were waiting for a lasting peace, ended in failure. The United States' commitment was broken and people lost faith. The government fell into the hands of the Taliban terrorist group, contrary to the people's expectations.
Professional and scientific cadres of the country's elite men and women leave their homeland and are displaced, migrating to foreign countries.
The gates of education have closed to women, the country's economy has been reduced to zero, the right to work in government offices was taken away from men and women, freedom of expression was stifled, the right to demonstrate and assemble was also from people, women and adolescents faced violence and torture.
Children are sold in the markets for a piece of bread; a number of men are hanging themselves, unable to support their families - this is the current situation of the Afghan people, to which we should pay special attention in the international community, and pave the way for a legitimate government to be established by the will of the people. To end the war, to ensure peace, and then to have that government recognized by the world.” Wagma Safay, former MP and member of AWPLN.

“The starting of this network was difficult because of all the challenges we faced in diaspora, because our family was under the shade of the Taliban and all these things affected our minds and our souls. But we bear a responsibility towards our people that does not allow us to stay silent. Week after week, we held meetings among ourselves, shared the horrific news coming out of our country, news that are not always broadcasted in the rest of the world, and tried to see what we can do from afar and how. (…) We decided that we must take immediate action, and despite all the challenges, we found the strength to move forward. (…) The aim of this network is all about a better future for Afghanistan, anti-discrimination and gender equality. So that no family has to sell their children at the market, so that girls can access their schools and women their workplace. (…) We also want to raise awareness about the plea of Afghans worldwide, as we came to know many of them in Greece and learned about the challenges they face. Because of these reasons we are making every effort to find solutions and to liaise with the international community, in order to support our people and one day be able to see lasting peace and a strong democracy in our country” - Nazifa Yusufi Bek, president of the Afghan Women Parliamentarians and Leaders Network, delivering her keynote speech.

The inauguration of the Afghan Women Parliamentarians and Leaders Network (AWPLN) was held on Tuesday, April 5th at 17:00 at the Old Parliament House in Athens in an emotional atmosphere. The historically unprecedented event of a political advocacy network led by women in exile, also had a profound symbolism: that of being created in Greece, the country that gave birth to the idea of democracy, after the collapse of democracy in their own country,

The organization was founded by Afghan women parliamentarians and other leaders, who were evacuated to Greece after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan last August, with the support of an international chain of solidarity.

Opening remarks were held by the guest speakers, Maria Syreggela, Deputy Minister of Demographic Policy, Family and Gender Equality, Stella Ronner-Grubačič, Ambassador for Gender and Diversity, European External Action Service (EEAS), Hannah Neumann, Member of the European Parliament, Group of the Greens/EFA, Manos Moschopoulos from the Open Society Foundations, and Nadina Christopoulou, from Melissa Network, while present were Chara Kafantari and Giorgos Psychogios, Members of the Parliament (Syriza), and George Kaminis, Member of the Parliament, and Vassilis Chronopoulos (Kinima Allagis), as well as embassy representatives and migrant and refugee community leaders. Women leaders from the Ukrainian community attended the event, sharing a moving moment of silence for Ukraine and Afghanistan.

Since the beginning of their days in exile in Greece, these women leaders met regularly at Melissa Network in Athens, in order to work for their people within and outside Afghanistan. Τhey have set up thematic committees, and have been systematically liaising with their counterparts worldwide, holding high-level meetings and consultations within and outside the EU. They are part of the Afghan Women’s Forum of the European External Action Service, and will operate globally.

Other than its president Nazifa Yusufi-Bek, an MP and academic, the main speakers were MPs Halima Askari, Shagofa Noorzai and Wagma Safay, judge Hasina Haidari and civil society leader Mobina Akbari. The event opened with a message of peace and solidarity from the Quran and a poem by 13-year-old Elhama Hashimi and closed with a Letter to the World, by 11-year-old Nurina Karimi.