Afghanistan
Facing social pressures, families disguise girls as boys in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Six-year-old Mehran Rafaat is like many girls her age. She likes to be the center of attention. She is often frustrated when things do not go her way. Like her three older sisters, she is eager to discover the world outside the family’s apartment in their middle-class neighborhood of Kabul.
Afghan Women's Movements Deserve More From the West
Time magazine's is a tribute to their heroism and silent suffering. However, the poignant images and story fail to reflect the determined achievements of a women's movement that has battled cultural and Islamist misogyny. They deserve more from the West.
Ironically, women in Afghanistan had greater opportunities for education and employment under colonial rule, including that of the Soviets. Tribal traditions and a male-dominated reading of Islam have produced a deeply rooted ideology of women as temptresses, who must be kept under control to avoid "fitna" or social strife, thereby safeguarding the "peace of Islam." In this patriarchal society, a man's honor, bound by the behavior of his female relatives, may be defended with violence. Girls are traded to settle family disputes, and rural tribal courts dispense summary justice that can overrule central authority.
Crime (Sex) and Punishment (Stoning)
It may be the oldest form of execution in the world, and it is certainly among the most barbaric. In the West, death by stoning is so remote from experience that it is best known through Monty Python skits and lurid fiction like Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery.”
Yet two recent real world cases have struck a nerve: a young couple were stoned to death last week in northern Afghanistan for trying to elope, in a grim sign of the ’s resurgence. And last month, an international campaign rose up in defense of an Iranian woman, , who had been sentenced to death by stoning on adultery charges.
AFGHANISTAN: Stop stoning and other forms of cruel punishments by the Taliban
The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women and the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) International Solidarity Network condemn the recent incidents of violent punishments by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
On Sunday 15 August, a couple in their twenties were publicly executed by stoning by the Taliban in a village controlled by their forces in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan.The couple had eloped to Pakistan, although they were reportedly engaged to other people, but later returned to their village of Mullah Qulli in the Archi district of Kunduz. Some reports indicate that their families had agreed to marry them, while others conclude that a jirga had ruled they would be pardoned if the accused male paid compensation. However, the Taliban arrested and stoned to death the two young people in a bazaar of Dasht-e Archi district on the accusation of committing an act of adultery, as confirmed by Mohammad Omar, the governor of Kunduz.
Female Afghan Governor Fears Taliban Deal
On the eve of an international conference in Afghanistan, the country’s only female governor that Afghan women should not have to sacrifice their rights as part of any peace agreement with the Taliban.
Afghanistan: 'Shaming' her in-laws costs 19 year old her nose, ears
"When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out," 19-year-old Bibi Aisha of Afghanistan says with chilling candor.
Her beauty is still stunning and her confidence inspiring. It takes a moment for the barbaric act committed against her to register in your mind and sight.
Wearing her patterned scarf and with roughly painted nails she shares her story.
"It felt like there was cold water in my nose, I opened my eyes and I couldn't even see because of all the blood," she remembers.
It was an act of Taliban justice for the crime of shaming her husband's family.
This story began when Aisha was just 8 years old.
Afghanistan: Talks shouldn't ignore Taliban abuse of women
Any Deals With Insurgents Should Guarantee Women's Rights
(Kabul) July 13, 2010 -- Ongoing Taliban attacks on women in Afghanistan show why women's rights should be a priority in any political agreement with insurgent forces, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Afghan government and its international supporters have ignored the need to protect women in programs to reintegrate insurgent fighters and have not guaranteed that women's rights will be included in potential talks with the Taliban, Human Rights Watch said.
The 65-page report, "," addresses the potential challenges to women's rights posed by future government agreements with insurgent forces. The report describes how in areas under Taliban control, women are often subjected to threats, intimidation and violence, girls' education is targeted, and women political leaders and activists are attacked and killed with impunity.
"Afghan women shouldn't have to give up their rights so the government can cut a deal with the Taliban," said Tom Malinowski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. "It would be a tragic betrayal to snatch away the progress made by and for women and girls over the past nine years."
Afghanistan: School girls hospitalized - Suspect poisoning
Kabul, Afghanistan -- About 60 schoolgirls in Afghanistan's Balkh province appear to have been poisoned and required hospitalization, the Ministry of Health said Sunday. The victims ranged in age from 9 to 14.
Afghanistan: Attack on female politician highlights growing risk for Afghan women in public life
The shooting of a female Afghan politician on Monday demonstrates the fragility of the modest gains made by Afghan women after the fall of the Taleban, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
Nida Khyani, a female Provincial Council member, was left in critical condition after being attacked in a drive-by shooting in Pul-e-Khumri, the provincial capital of Baghlan in northern Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: Any agreement with Taliban must include women's rights - UN CEDAW Committee
Afghanistan: any agreement with the Taliban must include women’s rights - UN experts’ body
GENEVA (5 February 2010) - The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women said Friday that “any agreement reached with the Taliban in Afghanistan should include a clear commitment to respect and protect women’s human rights.” The Committee urged the Afghan government and its international allies “to ensure that women representatives are included in the upcoming peace and development dialogues and negotiations with the Taliban,”