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What We’re Reading – December 12, 2013

Our Human Freedom team recognizes Human Rights Day this week with a piece in The Huffington Post. Amanda Schnetzer, Director of the Bush...

Our Human Freedom team recognizes Human Rights Day this week with a piece in The Huffington Post. Amanda Schnetzer, Director of the Bush Institute’s Human Freedom initiative, and Elizabeth Hoffman, Program Manager for the Freedom Advocate Initiative, write that the anniversary recognizes important developments worldwide, “but it's also an opportunity to acknowledge the unthinkable violations of human rights and dignity that continue to take place around the world in places like North Korea.”  They point to several interviews in the Bush Institute’s Freedom Collection, including contributions from Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Burmese women's rights activist Charm Tong, and Syrian activist Ammar Abdulhamid, which all call for international attention to support democratic dissidents and advance human freedom.

Also this week, The Asia Foundation released to the public its findings from Afghanistan in 2013: A Survey of the Afghan People. Over 9,000 Afghan citizens across 34 provinces were surveyed and shared opinions security, political participation, the economy, women's rights, and development. Highlights of the survey show that a majority of Afghans (57 percent) say their country is moving in the right direction, pointing to reconstruction, security, and the opening of schools for girls as reasons for optimism. The results, however, also show pressing problems for Afghan women, including education and illiteracy, lack of job opportunities, women’s rights, and domestic violence.

Many Afghan women live in an environment of fear, and they worry that with a drawdown of American troops, the Taliban will reverse the progress that has been made. The Bush Institute’s Afghan Women’s Project continues to highlight these issues. Read stories of Afghan women, learn more about girls’ education in the country in our report, and find out how to support the women and children of Afghanistan