Labour peer Baroness Prosser sets out the concerns which have prompted her question to ministers in the House of Lords on women's human rights in areas of conflict.
Why does it matter to Western governments that women in far flung corners of the world should be treated with dignity and respect – equality even? What business is it of ours that girls in Afghanistan can go to school or that women in Iraq can follow a career, be in the public eye and generally go about their business?
The UK government has entered these two countries with the published intention of introducing change - for the better of course - in part by demanding some form of democratically elected leadership and in part by opening up a debate about citizenship and participation.
Certain forces both in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to demonstrate their opposition to what they see as outside influences in their own traditions and cultural norms. These traditions and cultural norms are often interpreted to retain the male/female hierarchical status quo.
Girls on their way to school in Afghanistan have been attacked and beaten. Countless women in Iraq have been murdered and/or kidnapped and killed because they were perceived to be challenging these traditional norms.
And now President Karzai, supported as leader of Afghanistan by the West and guest international speaker at the Labour Party conference a few years ago, has buckled under pressure from Shia clerics and has proposed legislation which among other things would forbid a woman from leaving her house without the permission of her husband.
It must be the case that if the intention of the UK government is to introduce societal structures which are designed to allow true citizenship then the freedom which flows from true citizenship must be available to all - male and female. This means the ability to make choices free from the cloak of tradition and culture and certainly free from the constraints of statute.
United Nations Resolution 1325 requires member states to take full account of the needs of women and girls in areas of conflict, in particular when rebuilding countries post conflict.
The National Action Plan on Resolution 1325 which applies to Afghanistan must be supported more rigorously not only because women's human rights are just as important as are the rights of men but because the involvement of both women and men in society will provide for more balanced decision making and a more stable future for citizens worldwide.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd