DAI KUNDI - In a series of United Nations-facilitated round-table discussions held across Afghanistan over the past week to mark the International Day of Families (15 May), officials, local elders and rights activists highlighted the negative consequences that decades of war and political instability have had on Afghan families and stressed the urgent need to address them.

In one of such round-table, organized in central Dai Kundi province, the head of the provincial Women’s Affairs Department, Zakia Rezai, said families can grow, girls can go to schools, and women can work and help their families progress economically in a peaceful environment only.

“War and insecurity in Afghanistan have made the families sick; most of the Afghan families have psychological problems because of many decades of war and insecurity,” said Ms. Rezai, during the round-table aired by Radio Nasim.

In a survey conducted in 2007/2008, Afghanistan’s Central Statistics Organization recorded 3.5 million Afghan families, with an average of just over seven members per family and with more than 70 per cent of the families living in rural areas.

The discussions, which were also held in western Herat province, eastern Nangarhar province, and the south-eastern provinces of Paktya and Khost, were facilitated by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) in partnership with local radio stations.

Proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1993, the International Day of Families aims to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families. This year’s theme of celebration is ‘Advancing social integration and intergenerational solidarity.’

In his message for the Day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it is an opportunity to reflect on how families are affected by social and economic trends – and what can be done to strengthen families in response.

“Around the world, family members are doing their part,” said the UN chief. “They deserve support from policy-makers and decision-makers, from public institutions and private businesses.”

Afghanistan’s budding media industry has seen significant progress in the past 11 years, with some 800 newspaper/online media outlets, 175 radio stations and more than 75 television channels and four news agencies now operating. According to an Asia Foundation survey conducted last year, more than three quarters of Afghans listen to radio and it is the main mass medium to reach the majority of the population.

Some radio stations, including Radio Nargis in eastern Jalalabad City, also aired live phone-in programmes to highlight issues pertaining to Afghan families. Participating in the phone-in, a 20-year-old woman, Fatima, said decades of war has “seriously affected” the minds of Afghanistan’s younger generation.

Giving an example, Ms. Fatima said older Afghans, who grew up in a time of peace, are more liberal than the younger generation.

“It means that during the war, the mind of youth has been severely affected,” she added.

Participating in a round-table discussion aired by Safa Radio in Jalalabad, a psychology lecturer at Nangarhar University, Abdul Rashid, said Afghan families have been growing up in “anxiety and sorrow” over the last 35 years of decade.

“Experience shows that the people who have grown up amid war are very cruel, aggressive and they see every solution in conflict as they have never known what peace is,” said Mr. Rashid.