Theme: Afghan Women and Their Resilience

Organized jointly by UNDP and UN Women in Afghanistan

Film Festival and Ceremony: 8 March 2023.  

Background

Today, 25^th November is the first day of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence against Women and Girls. It calls for global action to increase awareness, stimulate advocacy efforts and share knowledge and innovations to end gender-based violence for all.

This year's theme is UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women initiative.

Afghanistan has one of the highest rates of violence against women globally. Following August 2021, and the dismantling of the gender equality architecture in the country, access to coordinated, comprehensive and quality services for women and gender-based violence (GBV) survivors have been deteriorated with the imposition of laws on women’s mobility, their rights to participate in higher education, and their participation in employment and governance system. There is a great weakness in the legal and policy framework that protect and promote gender equality and women’s rights along with the underlying root causes that derives from the social norms, which further perpetuate inequality.

In this occasion, UNDP and UN Women in Afghanistan are pleased to launch a short video contest on the theme “Afghan Women and Their Resilience” under the global umbrella theme of the 16 Days of Activism, “UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women,” on the selected topics:

The videos may focus, but not limited to:

• Main Theme: Afghan Women and Their Resilience
• Sub-Themes:
  • Dreams and aspirations of Afghan women
  • Women’s rights to safety and protection
  • Access to health Services
  • Access to education and training
  • Women’s rights to work
  • Voices of women refugees
  • Role of men and boys to prevent Gender Based Violence
  • Role of religious and community leaders to promote women rights
  • Women’s access to justice
  • Any other topics

The competition invites filmmakers to present Afghan women in different thematic areas that will enhance our understanding and foster further dialogues on how we can promote a life of dignity and respect for women and girls in Afghanistan.  

Technical guidelines

• The competition is open to 15 - 35 years old women living in Afghanistan
• The video should be a maximum of 2 minutes and 20 sec and must be submitted in MP4, 1080 HD quality.
• The video can be in any language, but if in a local language, they should have English sub-titles.
• The video can be an acted-out film, animation, or silent/montage with voiceover, etc.
• Focus on inclusivity or specific political entities is strongly discouraged. No political criticism that may jeopardize the safety and security of the participants. Videos of a political nature will unfortunately be disqualified, as UNDP and UN Women will not take any responsibility in this regard.

• The video should be sent to communications.af@undp.org through Dropbox, Wetransfer, GoogleDrive, YouTube, Vimeo by  31 January in 2023 with the title “(Competitor’s Full name OR Team Name)_Short Film on Afghan Women and Their Resilience”. Keep as “Unlisted Video”
• An independent panel of judges will share their evaluation based on content, quality, and message of the video.
• Contestants should share the work with the evaluation committee first before uploading on their private social media. Only shortlisted videos will be uploaded in UNDP and UN Women’s social media account.
• The video will be judged based on audience engagements (50%) and evaluation by an independent jury (50%):
• Audience reactions will be based on the number of interactions on UNDP and UN Women’s Facebook and Twitter platforms (Likes/Shares/Comments).
• Ten best films will be selected for Prizes
• The Organizer reserves the right to disqualify or reject, at its discretion, any entrants at any stage of the challenge without prior notice.

For more information, contact: communications.af@undp.org.