Weren't you talking earlier about the dramatic advancements for women's rights in Afghanistan under Karzai? It looks like they are making progress, but for rural women it is still very, very difficult:
Amnesty reports Afghan women persecuted
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan women are in constant risk of abduction, rape and forced marriage and the government is doing little to address their plight, the human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released Monday, 3 1/2 years after the ouster of the hardline Taliban regime.
A spokeswoman for the Afghan Women's Affairs Ministry, Nooria Haqnagar, acknowledged that abuse was still rife and said, "In some remote areas, men deal with women like animals."
In its report, Amnesty called on the government and the international community to do more to improve the lives of women.
"Throughout the country, few women are exempt from violence or safe from the threat of it," the London-based organization said in its report.
It said women are traded like commodities to settle debts and disputes and that some women commit suicide to escape being forced into unwanted marriages.
"Afghanistan is in the process of reconstruction after many years of conflict, but hundreds of women and girls continue to suffer abuse at the hands of their husbands, fathers, brothers, armed individuals," the report said.
"Societal codes, invoked in the name of tradition and religion, are used as justification for denying women the ability to enjoy their fundamental rights. Perceived transgressions of such codes have led to the imprisonment and even killing of some women," it added. "Some authorities treat women who run away to escape these situations as criminals and imprison them."
The rights group urged President Hamid Karzai's government to condemn violence against women and reform the justice system so it is better equipped to protect women's rights.
Haqnagar, the spokeswoman, said the government was working to improve the lives of women, but that the number of abuse cases reported to authorities had increased in recent months. She said on average 10 women were lodging complaints every day.
"In Herat province, women are burning themselves to escape abuse. They must have huge problems to take such violent measures against themselves," she said.
Haqnagar, who is also the director of her ministry's awareness and education department, said improvements had been made for women in cities, where the central government's authority is strongest, but in remote rural areas where it has little control, few gains had been made.
Haqnagar said teams from her ministry had been dispatched to 10 provinces to raise awareness about women's rights.
"We are trying our best to find solutions to these problems," she said.
Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, millions of women and girls have returned to work and school. Equality before the law is embedded in a new constitution, and some women have abandoned the head-to-toe public veiling that was mandatory under the tough Islamic regime.
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