Emma Bonino will be in Kabul from 8 to 11 June to witness the inauguration of the Loya Jirga (the national assembly of all the traditional leaders) and to take part in the international conference "Women on the March for Afghanistan", organised by women’s movements in Afghanistan itself and among the Afghani diaspora.
While the Loya Jirga is called on to decide on the future institutional and political system and on the reconstruction of Afghanistan, ruled since December by an interim government and assembly, the conference "Women on the March for Afghanistan" – which will be attended by leading figures like Emma Bonino who fought around the world against the segregation of women under the Talebans – aims to call the attention of the international community to the continuing problems of Afghani women. For the presence of several women in the interim government, achieved in December thanks also to the international campaign promoted by Emma Bonino, has still not brought the female population the role that was hoped for in the social and economic life of the country.
Emma Bonino, currently a Member of the European Parliament, visited Kabul in September 1997, in her capacity as European Commissioner for humanitarian aid, to give her support to the women of Afghanistan, discriminated against even in the distribution of international aid. Together with the entire delegation that accompanied her, she was arrested and expelled by the Taleban regime. On her return to Europe, with the help of the European Union she launched the international campaign "A Flower for the Women of Kabul", which ended on 8 March 1998 with demonstrations of solidarity with Afghan women in many cities around the world.