Afghan Women in the News
Comprehensive, daily update of news stories involving women in Afghanistan. Subscribe 
Articles referenced are for informational purposes only, and do not reflect the opinion or policies of UNIFEM and the United Nations. Content is protected under international copyright laws, and should be cited from the original source.
Exclusive: The Secret Shelters That Protect Afghan Women
March 11, 2010 |
ABC News 
By MARGARET ARO and MARK MOONEY
Not every Afghan is hoping the Americans soon leave their country. Some are actually dreading it.
Meet a remarkable girl Diane Sawyer encountered on her trip to Afghanistan.
"You can't leave Afghanistan," Manizha, who helps run a shelter for battered women, recently warned "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer. Behind Manizha, women who were beaten, bruised and badly scarred shake their heads in urgent agreement.
The secret women's shelter is run by Manizha -- who, like most Afghans, goes by only one name -- and by New Yorker Esther Hyneman. It is one of a string of shelters and counseling centers that opened in 2007 and have since helped about 1,500 Afghan women escape beatings and abuse that can shock even battle-hardened combat surgeons...
My fight to protect the women in my country
March 10, 2010 |
Coventry Telegraph
By Catherine Vonledebur
AFGHAN women's rights defender Wazhma Frogh rubbed shoulders with Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama when she won the 2009 US State Department’s International Women of Courage Award.
She has faced prejudice, intimidation and death threats to speak out against domestic violence, marital rape and child abuse in Afghanistan.
Yet the 30-year-old post graduate student at Warwick University says: "If I am able to open doors for 10 other women in my country, then it is worth it."
Day 3 of our series on women's rights to coincide with International Women's Day. By Catherine Vonledebur...
Panel cites women's critical role in building sustainable peace in Afghanistan
March 09, 2010 |
UNICEF
By Tim Ledwith
NEW YORK, USA, 9 March 2010 -- More than eight years after the fall of the Taliban regime, the women of Afghanistan still face enormous challenges. Perhaps the most daunting of these are the continuing violence and insecurity that disproportionately impede women's access to essential rights and services for themselves and their children...
HAIDARI: A new chance for women
March 09, 2010 |
Washington Times
By M. Ashraf Haidari
The long agony for Afghanistan's women ended with the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The story of Farida Tarana, for example, is no longer unique and gives Afghan women increased hope for equal rights under Afghanistan's progressive constitution.
Miss Tarana was among the first female contestants to appear on "Afghan Star," the local version of "American Idol." She impressed many by her performance of Afghan folk and pop songs, ascending to the No. 8 position on the widely watched TV program. Miss Tarana's achievement was no small feat. Her debut came just a few years after the Taliban, who publicly executed women for immodesty and had banned all forms of music and entertainment...
March 8 for Afghan women
March 08, 2010 |
The News International
By Sahar Saba
Dr Anahita Ratebzad was leading women on March 8, back in 1965, when International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time in Kabul under the auspices of the Democratic Organisation of Afghan Women (DOAW). The arrival of feminists on the Afghan stage coincided with the emergence of left factions like Parchamis, Khalqis and Sholais. Campaigning against child marriage, bride price and women's illiteracy, the DOAW was launched by Parcham sympathisers.
In 1977, Meena Kishwar Kemal, a Sholai, founded Jamiat-e-Inqelabi-e-Zanan-e-Afghanistan (Revolutionary Organisation of the Women of Afghanistan), or RAWA...
Global Bridge Gatherings Rally Support for Women in War Zones
March 08, 2010 |
Voice of America
By Natasha Saini
Men and women gathered on bridges in 18 countries in a symbolic effort to stand up for peace and development for women in war-torn nations. One such gathering of Afghan men and women in London marked International Women's Day...
AFGHANISTAN: Women's rights trampled despite new law
March 08, 2010 |
IRIN
KABUL, 8 March 2010 (IRIN) - As the world marks International Women's Day, ambivalence, impunity, weak law enforcement and corruption continue to undermine women's rights in Afghanistan, despite a July 2009 law banning violence against women, rights activists say.
A recent case of the public beating of a woman for alleged elopement - also shown on private TV stations in Kabul - highlights the issue.
In January domestic violence forced two young women to flee their homes in Oshaan village, Dolaina District, Ghor Province, southwestern Afghanistan. A week later they were arrested in neighbouring Herat Province and sent back to Oshaan, according to the governor of Ghor, Mohammad Iqbal Munib.
"One woman was beaten in public for the elopement and the second was reportedly confined in a sack with a cat," Munib told IRIN...
Female Afghan Police Officer honoured by Hillary Clinton
March 07, 2010 |
CanWest News Service
By Matthew Fisher
KABUL -- Col. Shafiqa Quraishi has an improbable dream. It is that, before too long, women will assume command positions in the Afghan National Police.
A policewoman for 28 years, Quraishi is a towering exception in a country where most women dare not leave their homes without their husband’s or father's permission, and then only if cloaked from head-to-toe in the infamous, shapeless, anonymous, usually powder-blue dress known as a burka.
"No one will give your rights to you as a gift, you have to take them," Quraishi told about 300 women who, most unusually for Afghanistan, all had their faces uncovered at a recent ceremony to mark International Women’s Day...
More Afghan women using birth control
March 02, 2010 |
Toronto Star
By Margie Mason
Some mullahs in Afghanistan are distributing condoms. Others are quoting the Qur'an to encourage longer breaks between births. Health experts say contraception is starting to catch on in a country with the world's second highest maternal death rate.
Afghanistan has one of the world's highest fertility rates, averaging more than six babies per woman despite years of war and a severe lack of medical care. Awareness of, and access to, contraceptives remains low among many couples, with UNICEF estimating 10 per cent of women using some form of birth control...
Afghan women our sisters, will continue work: SEWA
February 28, 2010 |
Indian Express
By Syed Khalique Ahmed
The SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association), three of whose trainers escaped unhurt in Friday's blast in Kabul, has put on record its determination to continue its activities to promote livelihood training and peace-making in the war-torn country. SEWA has, since 2008, been running a centre at Bagh-e-Zenana in Kabul training Afghan women in tailoring, handicrafts, embroidery, food processing and eco-regeneration activities to make Afghan women financially independent...
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