Livia Wears Green for Afghan Women

Joins Helen Mirren and Alesha Dixon in new campaign for women's rights

Livia Firth ( wife of actor Colin Firth) donned a green scarf on Friday to show solidarity with women in Afghanistan.

The Chiswick based eco-rights campaigner joined celebrities to highlight the difficulties faced by girls and women in the war-torn land.

Dame Helen Mirren, model Laura Bailey and singer Alesha Dixon are also supporting the Green Scarf campaign which is organised by Oxfam and
other human rights charities to mark the tenth anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan .

An Oxfam report on the position of women in Afghanistan found that things were slowly improving in the areas of education and equal rights since the fall of the Taliban.

However , most women surveyed said they feared that the withdrawal of international troops would make things worse for them. Over 80 per cent of women in Afghanistan have experienced gender-based violence.

The campaigners want people to wear a green scarf ( the Afghan flag is black, red, and green) and sign a petition calling on world leaders to discuss the issue of women's rights at conference in Germany . The conference will take place in Bonn in December to discuss the peace process in Afghanistan.

October 7, 2011