Women's Struggles

May 23, 2006: Up to 80 suspected Taliban militants and an unknown number of civilians died after U.S.-led coalition forces bombed a village in southern Afghanistan.

May 14, 2006: One man lives penniless in a field under a patchwork tent with baying dogs roaming outside. Another, wearing a suit jacket and tie, glides past his silver Mercedes as he welcomes guests into his plush Kabul villa. Both are Kuchis, which means "nomads" in Pashtu language. Yet they have little in common, except their shared heritage and the view that the life of Afghanistan's wandering peoples is fading. Ten of the 249 seats in Afghanistan's parliament have been allotted to Kuchis, but many are filled by people who aren't nomads.

May 9, 2006: Afghanistan has some 25 million people; the country's unemployment rate is 40 percent, according to a CIA World Factbook estimate.

May 9, 2006: BOTTLES were thrown, insults traded and chairs knocked over in the bedlam. This was no bar-room brawl, however. It was the scene in the Afghan parliament on Sunday when a woman MP dared to stand up to a male colleague. Malalai Joya, 28, interrupted a former warlord as he praised the holy warriors — or Mujahidin — of Afghanistan during a debate to mark the anniversary of their defeat of communism. She declared that there were “two types of Mujahidin — one who were really Mujahidin, the second who killed tens of thousands of innocent people and who are criminals”.

May 5, 2006: The United States and its western allies have no interest in a stable and peaceful Afghanistan as the ravaged country continues to worsen under the Northern Alliance rule, who have big stakes in drug businesses and civil strife, says Kathy Gannon, a veteran journalist and Afghanistan expert.

May 4, 2006: ... at least four of the current candidates for provincial police chief were barred from standing as candidates in last year’s parliamentary elections for having links to illegal militias.... Kabul’s police chief, Jamil Jumbish, has been implicated in murder, torture, intimidation, bribery and interfering with investigations into misconduct by officers directly under his control.

April 9, 2006: The latest research by the underground women's rights organization the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) reveals that as many as 25,000 Afghan women worked as prostitutes in 2001 - 5,000 of those were in Kabul alone - with stark predictions that the number will rise as women and girls resort to selling themselves to escape poverty.

To condemn the Black Day of entrance of the criminal fundamentalists in Kabul in April 28,1992, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) took out a protest rally in Islamabad.

National Nine News (Australia), April 27, 2006: Afghanistan is facing a health crisis larger than that experienced by Asian countries after the 2004 tsunami, an Adelaide forum has heard. Mariam Rawi, a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), has told the forum that despite Afghanistan receiving billions of dollars in aid, little has been done to address the country's lack of health services.

April 12, 2006: In many parts of Faryab, incidents of extortion and illegal taxes by warlords have become common. "Unfortunately, these warlords are supported and equipped by some high-ranking officials from inside the government," Habibullah claimed, adding: "To tackle this, the government should avoid employing human rights abusers and war criminals and strengthen the so-called disarmament process in the area."

April 6, 2006: Hezb-e-Islami is back, green flag and all. The most radical and powerful of Afghanistan’s Islamic movements is an officially recognised political party which now claims to be one of the largest blocs in parliament.

April 12, 2006: In the last six months, education has been under attack in southern and southeastern Afghanistan in an apparent attempt to erode what hope people still have in the weak central government and to panic them about their children's safety. Up to 50 schools have been set on fire, according to the country's Education Ministry. Up to 300 have shut down at some point, largely out of fear.

April 11, 2006: At least six children were killed and another 14 injured after a rocket hit their school in eastern Kunar province, officials said on Tuesday. The rocket landed in the yard of the Salabagh primary school in the provincial capital of Asadabad, close to a US-led coalition base, said Zahidullah Zahid. “The students were studying in the yard when the rocket landed, killing six innocent girls and boys,” Zahid explained.

April 9, 2006: RAWA is expanding its successful child sponsorship program in Afghanistan. As a result of world-wide support, RAWA has substantially increased the number of sponsored children in recent months and immediately needs to add space to house and educate more children.

March 26, 2006: When Abdul Rahman, an Afghan Christian convert was arrested in Kabul, the U.S. and many other governments in the West seemed to wake up! Suddenly over this one man, there was an overwhelming --even global-- response to the fundamentalist Chief Justice Mullah Fazal Hadi Shinwari and the other mullahs surrounding him. Suddenly, all eyes in the Western World focused on single freedom while we are fighting for so much more. There are many others in our country that are not as “lucky” as Rahman to generate such global interest.

March 21, 2006: UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director, Ms. Rima Salah, has warned of a continued threat facing Afghan women and children from high rates of child and maternal mortality, low levels of school enrolment and neglect of children's fundamental rights. Speaking at the start of a week-long visit to Afghanistan, Ms. Salah expressed concern at the health, education and protection status of children and women; an estimated 600 children under the age of five die every day in Afghanistan, mostly due to preventable illnesses, some 50 women die every day due to obstetric complications, less than half of primary school age girls attend classes, while a quarter of primary school age children undertake some form of work, and an estimated one-third of women are married before the age of 18.

March 20, 2006: A man could be sentenced to death after being charged with converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under Afghanistan's shariah laws, a judge said yesterday. The trial is thought to be the first of its kind in Afghanistan and highlights a struggle between religious conservatives and reformists over what shape Islam will take four years after the fall of the Taliban. Abdul Rahman, 41, was arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told Associated Press. The accused was charged with rejecting Islam.

March 6, 2006: Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has voiced concern at the situation of women's rights in the country in 2005. In a report released here on Monday, the leading rights watchdog pointed out that self-immolation and forced marriage cases remained high and there was still a shortage of healthcare and education facilities for the other half.

Over the past few months, anti-government groups in the southern provinces have stepped up their attacks on Afghan army units and police as well as international military forces. Most officials and commentators, including President Hamid Karzai, have said the source of the violence is training camps and bases in Pakistan. However, a series of arms seizures in the north indicates that logistical support for the Taleban may be coming from an unlikely source: their former foes in the so-called Northern Alliance.

Girl students in the western Herat province grumble in spite of their enthusiasm they are not allowed by school administrations to do take part in sports and recreational activities. As a result, they are left with no option but to join private sport clubs. But the director of the provincial education department says there is no hitch in female sports if Islamic veil (hejab) is observed and appropriate playgrounds are provided to schools.