Women's Welfare Association

Muassasa-i Khayriyya-i Zanan or the Women's Welfare Association (WWA), also known as the 'Women's Society' and from 1975 called '(Afghan) Women's Institute (WI)', was a women's organization in Afghanistan, founded in 1946.[1] The WWA became independent of the government in 1975 and was renamed the "(Afghan) Women's Institute" or WI.

History

It was established by the Ministry of Finance in the city of Kabul in 1946. Among its founding members were Zaynab Inayat Siraj and Bibi Jan, women of the royal family. Queen Humaira Begum acted as its first Head and patron.[2] It was administered by the Ministry of Education until 1950. From 1953, it published its own publication, Mirman.

King Amanullah Khan and Queen Soraya Tarzi had promoted women's rights in the reform program in the 1920s, as well as establishing the first women's organisation (Anjuman-i Himayat-i-Niswan), but after their deposition in 1929, their reforms had been abolished. After the Second World War, however, the government saw a need to reform Afghan society, and women's emancipation was a part of that policy. The WWA was established during a period of reform in women's rights, such as women being allowed to study at the Kabul University in 1950.

The object of the WWA was to work for the elevation of women's status in society. They promoted women's emancipation from gender segregation by encouraging unveiling, but mainly by promoting women's work, literacy, family planning, and vocational classes. In 1957, Afghanistan sent their representatives to the Asian Women's Conference. A delegation from the WWA was sent to the USSR in 1962, and to the Women's International Democratic Federation's Fifth World Congress of Women (June 24–29, 1963) in Moscow. The WWA worked for women's reforms in collaboration with the government's modernization process: the director of the WWA, Kubra Noorzai, participated in the work on the new Constitution of 1964, which introduced women's suffrage, and was elected as one of the first women of parliament.

Branches of the WWA were founded in Herat, Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif. Eventually, it had branch offices in ten cities, and eight thousand members. However, despite their work in establishing local offices and their attempts to engage rural women, the WWA never managed to spread outside of the circle of urban elite women.

See also

References
  1. Julie Billaud: Kabul Carnival: Gender Politics in Postwar Afghanistan
  2. Rahimi, Wali Mohammad: Status of women: Afghanistan, UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand). Regional Unit for the Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific (1991) BKSS/91/277.1000
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