Forgotten half, Afghan women seek right to identity

“Most men do not call them by their names because they think women are nameless objects,” says Maryam Sama, an MP who represents Kabul in the Afghan parliament. “We try to include mother’s name in birth certificates,” she wrote on her Facebook account.

The Afghan parliament has begun debating on whether the name of a mother should be mentioned in national ID card or not. MPs, who support inclusion of mother’s names in national IDs, say that inclusion of women names in national ID cards would help the Afghan women to gain more self-confidence and achieve equal social and political rights.