Women's Rights Activist Suspended from Afghan Parliament
May 22, 2007 – (Feminist Daily News Wire) Women's rights activist and lawmaker Malalai Joya, a 29-year-old from the Farah province, was suspended from the Afghan Parliament yesterday after she described the Parliament as a barn full of animals.

A Snapshot Of Afghan Women
April 5, 2007 (Coastal Post Online) - There never has been any reliable demographic statistics on Afghanistan for the past two decades. Of the estimated 16 million Afghans at the end of the 70s, over two million have been killed in the war of resistance against Soviet occupiers and later on in the civil war unleashed by fundamentalist groupings enjoying the support of foreign powers.

New contract to curb child marriages
March 14, 2007 - (IRIN) Kabul: The Supreme Court of Afghanistan has approved a new marriage contract which is expected to help stop child and forced marriages in the country. The new 15-page formal marriage contract, the ‘Nikah Nama’, has been welcomed by women’s rights NGOs in a country where 60 to 80 percent of marriages are forced, according to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

Afghan women battling repression
March 8, 2007 - (Toronto Star) Five years after the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan, many women are still facing violence and discrimination

Girls and women traded for opium debts
January 23, 2007 – (IRIN News) On 4 November 2006, Nasima, 25, a member of a local women’s council, grabbed the AK-47 from the policeman guarding the council meeting in the Grishk district of southern Helmand province and killed herself.

Afghanistan's efforts to boost women falter
January 19, 2007 (Chicago Tribune ) Sharifa Hamrah does not go to work much anymore. Her job is just too dangerous, considering the rocket attacks, the threats on her life and the would-be suicide bomber who disguised himself as a woman in an attempt to get to her office. She is no soldier. She carries no gun. Yet Hamrah, 48, a short woman with a sly smile and a head scarf, has become an unwilling participant in a war, a potential target like the other women who work for the Women's Affairs Ministry in Afghanistan. "Our problem is we cannot go out," said Hamrah, who is head of women's affairs in troubled southern Paktika province but spends much of her time in Kabul. "We cannot go to the districts. We cannot go to the villages. We cannot talk to village elders. We cannot even talk to women."

2006

Pain of Afghan suicide women
December 7, 2006 -(BBC News) Gulsoom is 17-years-old and married. Last year she tried to commit suicide - she failed. She set fire to herself but, against the odds, survived with appalling injuries. Her plight reflects that of a growing number of young Afghan women, campaigners say. Driven to desperation by forced marriages and abusive husbands, more and more are seeking release through self-immolation.

Abuse of Afghan women: 'It was my decision to die. I was getting beaten every day'
November 24, 2006 - (The Independent) In parts of Afghanistan, women are treated as chattels. Domestic violence leaves many with no escape. Halima spends her life in the shadows. The light shows up her face, which bears the marks of her pain and humiliation - damage inflicted by her violent husband, while his family stood and watched. The 22-year-old woman's left cheekbone was shattered during one of the many beatings she had to endure for four years.

Five years on, conditions for women in Afghanistan are still poor
November 15, 2006 – (The Raw Story) Late in 2001, after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and the opening of that country's doors to the international community, the treatment of Afghan women almost overnight became a cause célèbre throughout the world. Organizations flocked to Kabul to open offices and begin projects aimed at the needs of women.

No 'real change' for Afghan women
October 31, 2006 - (BBC News) Millions of Afghan women still face discrimination, the report says
An international women's rights group says guarantees given to Afghan women after the fall of the Taleban in 2001 have not translated into real change.

Afghan Women Demand Greater Protection from Government
October 11, 2006 - (Feminist Daily News Wire) Four Afghan women's groups came together to demand greater protection from violence against women in a demonstration on Thursday.

‘AFGHANISTAN LIKE A TICKING BOMB,’ SAYS WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVIST ON 5TH ANNIVERSARY OF US BOMBING
October 10, 2006 - (Afghan Women's Mission) Today Afghanistan is still chained and burning in the fires of both the Taliban and the criminal ‘Northern Alliance’ fundamentalists and the future of Afghanistan is in serious jeopardy,” warned Zoya, a member of RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) five years after the start of Operation Enduring Freedom.

For Afghan women, the veil prevails
October 5, 2006 - (The Philadelphia Inquirer) A female shopkeeper pictured in Bamiyan, by Afghan standards, one of the more progressive areas. Pressure to change is coming mostly from women who were exiles in the Taliban area.

SEptember 2006

Afghan women's official shot dead
September 25, 2006 - (BBC News) A leading Afghan official working on women's rights has been shot dead in the southern province of Kandahar. Safia Amajan, head of the province's women's department, was leaving her home for work when a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire, police said.

Afghanistan: Rights Watchdog Alarmed At Continuing 'Honor Killings'
September 20, 2006 - (RFE/RL) A UN-backed rights watchdog has expressed continuing concern over violence against women in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) released disturbing figures in mid-September on violence against women and girls, including dozens of cases of so-called honor killings.

5 Afghan women killed in wedding attack
September 20, 2006 - (The Associated Press) An outdoor wedding celebration north of the Afghan capital was attacked by assailants who threw a grenade, killing five women and wounding 18, an official said.

Honour killings on the rise
September, 15 - (IRIN) A weak judiciary, a lack of law enforcement and widespread discriminatory practices against women are fuelling a rise in honour killings in Afghanistan, officials from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said on Friday.

AUGUST 2006

UN Study Declares Violence against Women a Widespread Problem in Afghanistan
August 17, 2006 - (Feminst Majority Foundation) A new report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) is shedding light on the extent of violence against women in Afghanistan. Uncounted and Discounted is based on over 1,300 incidences of violence against Afghan women between January 2003 and June 2005.

With UN help, parliamentarians' resource centre for women opens in Afghanistan
August 9, 2006 - (UN News Centre) A new resource centre aimed at helping women Members of Parliament in Afghanistan to become strong political leaders and gain the knowledge they need to help shape the country's future has opened thanks to support from the United Nations.

Italians Train Afghans for Non-Traditional Jobs
July 30, 2006 -(WeNews) In post-Taliban Kabul, an Italian aid agency is training women to enter fields that are dominated by men. Sixty women are now ready to start work as caterers, lantern-makers, gem-cutters and mobile phone repair technicians.

Afghanistan: Vice and Virtue Department Could Return, Women and Girls Again at Risk
July 18, 2006 – (Human Rights Watch) Proposal to reestablish the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Afghanistan raises serious concerns about potential abuse of the rights of women and vulnerable groups, Human Rights Watch said today.

AFGHANISTAN:Girls' Schools Under Siege
July 10, 2006 - (IPS) Despite popular support for girls' education, attacks by a resurgent Taliban and other groups in southern and southeastern Afghanistan are forcing the closure of schools throughout the region and beyond, according to a new report released Monday by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

A War on Schoolgirls
June 26, 2006 – (Newsweek) Summer vacation has only begun, but as far as 12-year-old Nooria is concerned, the best thing is knowing she has a school to go back to in the fall. She couldn't be sure the place would stay open four months ago, after the Taliban tried to burn it down.

Afghanistan: Fatima Galiani - promoting women's rights under Islam
May 15, 2006 -(The Jakarta Post) "War is the ugliest thing that people can experience," said Fatima Galiani, a courageous woman activist who has spent more than 25 years rebuilding ruined Afghanistan from a devastating war.


Afghanistan should make room for its female leaders: Denying women positions of influence is fundamentally undemocratic
April 24, 2006 -(The Christian Science Monitor) Last month Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced his nominations for his cabinet and the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, President Karzai did not nominate a single woman to the Supreme COurt, dropped all three ministers who were women from the last cabinet, and nominated only one woman to the new cabinet, as minister of women's affairs. On Thursday, she was rejected.

A Brave Sisterhood: Throughout Afghanistan, women overcame sexism, illiteracy - even bullets - to run for office and vote.
April, 2006– (Ms. Magazine)On election morning, the Jefaya mosque in eastern Kabul is packed with women of all ages, many in blue burqas, squeezed together in disorderly lines. While other polling sites across the Afghan capital remain quiet, with a lower turnout than expected, this one bustles with activity.

Report Shows Continued Violence and Discrimination Against Afghan Women
April 17, 2006 -(Feminist Daily News Wire) A new report on the current status of Afghan women and girls issued by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) demonstrates that Afghan women and girls continue to face extreme obstacles and discrimination as they seek to exercise their rights. The “Evaluation Report on General Situation of Women in Afghanistan” states that despite the Afghan government’s constitutional obligation to “observe and respect women’s rights” and the numerous human rights treaties Afghanistan has signed, women face many problems in all aspects of their lives.

UNIFEM Launches Database to Track Violence against Women in Afghanistan
February 28, 2006 -(UNIFEM) A new pilot project to capture cases of violence against women in a comprehensive database has been launched by UNIFEM in Afghanistan. The database will be used to analyze trends and determine strategies to tackle the issue, including identifying gaps in nation-wide response mechanisms and service provision for victims.

American Organization Brings Women Together to Build Peace
February 8, 2006 -(VOA news) Even if they don't carry guns, women in war zones around the world pay the high cost of armed conflicts. They witness the loss of family members. They struggle to support their children and sustain life in their communities under dangerous conditions. But they can also lead their countries to peace and post-conflict reconciliation. A group of these extraordinary women have recently met and shared their experiences on rebuilding lives.

AFGHANISTAN:Women Pass a European MilestonE
February 3, 2006 (IPS) - Between a conference on Afghanistan in Bonn four years back and the one in London this week, a good deal has changed for women in Afghanistan -- for Afghan women around capital Kabul anyway.

Afghan human rights advocate launches new lecture series
February 2, 2006 - (The Ring) A woman who defied the brutally oppressive Taliban to provide health care for women and educational opportunities for girls will present the inaugural University of Victoria guest lecture on "lived rights."

Afghanistan's First Family Response Unit Open for Business
January 24, 2006 - (UN News) A new centre that deals with family violence, children in trouble, and female victims of crime started its operations in Kabul on Sunday, 22 January. The Family Response Unit is the first of its kind in Afghanistan, where violence against women and children is so common that it has become a serious public health problem.

Pervasive gender gaps need urgent addressing, says World Bank
26 Jan, 2006 (IRIN) - A new World Bank report has warned that reconstruction and development in post-conflict Afghanistan will be severely affected unless pervasive gender gaps are addressed. In the report, National Reconstruction and Poverty Reduction (NRPR): The Role of Women in Afghanistan's Future, issued on Wednesday, the bank called for legal reforms to remove gender inequities within family law in the country.

National police to open first family response unit
January 17, 2006 - (IRIN) In an effort to reduce violence against women, the Afghan National Police (ANP) is set to inaugurate the first ever Family Response Unit (FRU) in the post-conflict nation.

2005

Women's Rights Await New Parliament
December 18, 2005 - (IPS) As a new parliament opens in the Afghan capital, Monday, all eyes are on Malalai Joya, a 27-year-old woman, who has emerged as a fearless critic of the warlords that control the country.

Calls for an end to violence against women
November 24, 2005 – (IRIN) Although the plight of Afghan women has improved somewhat following the collapse of the hard line Taliban regime in late 2001, acts of intimidation and violence against them have continued unabated, with many women - particularly in rural areas – believing that their situation remains unchanged.

Women's Work
October 9, 2005 – (NYT) After bumping along five hours of potholes and rock-strewn mountain switchbacks on the main commercial artery from Kabul to Pakistan early last month, I was surprised as we entered the Jalalabad Valley to see an enormous campaign poster, the size of a Times Square billboard, featuring not the boyish face of Hazrat Ali - Jalalabad's most famous ex-warlord and a parliamentary candidate - but that of Safia Siddiqi.

Defiant Critic Among First Afghan Winners
October 6, 2005 (AP) - A 27-year-old woman who is a defiant critic of Afghanistan's powerful warlords won one of the first seats declared Thursday in provisional results from landmark parliamentary elections, a key step in the nation's transition to democracy.

september 2005

Self-Immolation Seen as Only Escape
September 30, 2005-(IWPR London Reporters) Family problems and desperate circumstances lead many young women to burn themselves to death.

AFGHANISTAN: Was Women's Vote a Roar, or a Whisper?
September 27, 2005 (IPS) - While the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush describes the recent elections in Afghanistan as a major step forward for the war-torn nation, human rights groups here wonder if women will have an effective voice in the new parliament.

Afghan women brave death threats to stand for election
September 20, 2005 – (Christian Aid) Afghans went to the polls on Sunday to elect members of the new lower house of parliament – known as the Wolesi Jirga – and local councils throughout all 34 provinces.

Quiet revolution underway in Afghan girls' schools
September 20, 2005 - (Reuters) A quiet revolution is going on in Afghanistan's schools, behind the high walls and the blue-uniformed police guards with their AK-47s. "Afghanistan's beautiful girls are learning!" proclaims a cheerful U.N. poster at the Zarghona Ana school for girls in the hot and dusty southern trading city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the hardline Taliban.

Afghan women take special joy in vote
4 years after Taliban, 27 percent of assembly is reserved for them
September 19, 2005 - (Boston Globe) The sun had hardly risen yesterday over the women's polling center, and a crowd in blue burkas already waited at the door.

Afghan Women Wind Up Tough Campaigns
September 18, 2005 – (WOMENSENEWS) Women in Afghanistan are about to achieve political representation here as ballots are cast Sunday in the nation's first parliamentary elections. Sharifa Zurmati Wardak is one of hundreds of women whose names will appear on the ballot.

AFGHANISTAN: Female candidates speak out as campaigning closes
September 16, 2005 - (IRIN) 45-year-old Farema Warakzai from the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, is standing in Sunday’s parliamentary election. She’s confident that women candidates will do well in the historic poll – because they had not been responsible for the decades of violence the nation endured.

AFGHANISTAN: Housing for a million women planned
September 6, 2005 – (IRIN) Mah Gul is a 40-year-old widow living with her four children in the dusty shell of a battle-scarred building in the Bari Khot district of the Afghan capital Kabul.

august 2005

AFGHANISTAN: Plight of woman and children continues, says UNICEF
August 4, 2005 -(IRIN) While Afghanistan moves from a state of emergency to a focus on development, the reality of the situation for women and children remains serious, UNICEF warned on Thursday in the capital Kabul.

AFGHANISTAN: Women show greater interest in September polls
August 2, 2005 - (IRIN) With less than seven weeks to September's historic parliamentary elections, women have shown greater interest in
participating, the Afghan-UN joint electoral management body (JEMB) announced on Wednesday in the capital Kabul.

AFGHANISTAN: Tough road for women standing for election
July 6, 2005 - (IRIN) Female candidates hoping to stand in the forthcoming parliamentary electionsscheduled for September, say poor security and strong conservative traditions are hampering their ability to compete in the historic poll.

JUNE 2005

Afghan girls' school burned
June 24, 2005 - (United Press International) A girls' school in the Afghan province of Logar has been attacked and burned to the ground by armed men.

Health Crisis Hits Rural Afghans
June 16, 2005 - (The Institute for War and Peace) We could hear the women's moans very clearly outside Paktika's only hospital, where relatives of the patients waited in the cold, windy weather. Esmatullah, 55, wiped dust from his eyes with the end of his turban. He told me that his daughter was inside, and that he had brought her here from his home in Khair Koot, a remote part of Paktika. Travel in the mountainous south-eastern province is difficult and expensive - the trip had cost him fifty US dollars.

Anti-US riots set back women's political progress in Afghanistan
June 15, 2005 - (AFP) After pushing through thousands of protesters on the streets of Jalalabad, Sharifa Shahab was determined press on with her political education workshop.

IN AFGHANISTAN, DANGER STILL STALKS WOMEN
June 10, 2005- (WeNews) Until this past March, Shaima Rezayee was a co-host of Kabul's No. 1 television show "Hop," an hour-long program of foreign music videos introduced by hip young presenters.

LOVE AFGHAN STYLE: WOMEN ARE STILL BEING USED AS CURRENCY IN THE MARRIAGE MARKET
June 2, 2005 - (The Institute for War and Peace Reporting) Zakira was given away in marriage to stop a blood feud. Her uncle had murdered a man and, rather than start a round of revenge killings between the families, 20-year-old Zakira was bestowed on the murdered man's brother who happened to be three times her age.

MAY 2005

THE BURQA: PRISON OR PROTECTION
May 20, 2005 - (Institute for War and Peace Reporting) The oppressive Taleban regime is long gone, but many Afghan women are still afraid to abandon their burqas. "I feel naked without my burqa," said Kabul woman Roqia, dragging large shopping bags and gasping in the heat. "I cannot take it off. I would feel that everyone was looking at me."

Afghanistan: Fears Over Backlash
May 12, 2005 -(Ockenden International) INTERNATIONAL NGOs have reacted with increasing concern to the murders of four women, including aid workers, in Afghanistan within the past two weeks.

Rally Calls for Protection of Women Following Triple Murder
May 5, 2005 - (IRIN) Several hundred women demonstrated on the streets of the Afghan capital, Kabul on Thursday, calling on the government to improve their security and to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of five women over the past two weeks, three of them on Wednesday.

U.N. Urges Afghan Officials to Find Murderers of Female Aid Workers
May 5, 2005 - (Deutsche Presse Agentur) The United Nations urged Afghan officials Thursday to bring the murderers of three Afghan women employees of a foreign non-governmental organization recently raped and killed by unknown people in northern Afghanistan to justice swiftly.

Afghanistan: Woman Executed for Adultery
May 3, 2005 - (IRIN) It's less than a week since the tiny Afghan village community witnessed the execution of 25-year-old Bibi Amena for adultery, but by Tuesday life appeared to have returned to normal. Bibi was sentenced to death by local religious leaders in the Spingul valley in the isolated northeastern province of Badakhshan.

Three Afghan Women Found Dead with Warning Note
May 2, 2005 - (Reuters) Authorities have found the bodies of three Afghan women, one of whom worked for an aid group, who were raped, strangled and dumped with a warning for women not to work for such groups, an official said on Monday.

April 2005

Alleged Adulterer's Death Highlights Lack Of Rights For Women
April 28, 2005 - (Radio Free Europe) Human right groups are expressing concern over the killing of an Afghan woman accused of committing adultery. The 29-year-old was reportedly sentenced to death by local religious leaders after she was found in the house of a man other than her husband. As contradictory reports emerge as to the specific cause of death, many observers say the Afghan government must do more to protect women from violence and guarantee their rights as granted in the constitution.

Profile in courage: Afghanistan's first woman governor
April 26, 2005 - (Guardian UK) In yet another sign that Afghanistan is making progress on women's rights since the fall of the Taliban regime, the country recently appointed its first female governor. The Guardian profiles Habiba Sarobi, a "mild-mannered mother" who so far has seen a warm reception, but faces a challenge in improving an area long seen as one of the world's worst for women.

Afghanistan woman stoned to death
April 23, 2005 - (BBC) A woman has been stoned to death in Afghanistan, reportedly for committing adultery. The killing is said to have taken place in the Urgu district of north-eastern Badakhshan province.

Religion and community powerful tools in addressing gender issues among Afghan returnees
April 21, 2005 - (UNHCR) "There are four types of women," says the elderly man, stroking his beard as though for dramatic effect: "The polite, the dog, the donkey and the cat." The polite is straightforward, he explained, she is a woman who is obedient and respectful of her father-in-law. The other descriptions are less complimentary. They range from argumentative, to lazy, to a woman who is a gossip.

Hamid Karzai seeks ban on forced marriages
April 21, 2005 - (Daily Times) Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday called on the country’s Islamic clerics to help stop forced marriages of young girls. At a religious gathering in Kabul, Karzai urged Afghan scholars to follow the lead of Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, who earlier this month termed forced marriages un-Islamic and said violators should be jailed.

FEMALE GOVERNOR SETS OUT AGENDA
April 16, 2005 - (IWPR) Habiba Sorabi hopes to show that women are equally capable of governing and reviving the country's shattered economy. As the new governor of Bamian province in central Afghanistan, Habiba Sorabi has a clear idea of what she hopes to accomplish.

New generation of Afghan midwives fights 'silent tsunami'
April 14, 2005 - (AFP) The first generation of professional midwives to undergo full training has graduated in Afghanistan, where maternal and child mortality are the worst in the world, officials said.

Domestic violence intolerable, say battered women and girls
April 13, 2005 - (IRIN) The story of Zaynab, (a name adopted to conceal her identity) an 18-year-old mother of five who has taken refuge in a new women’s shelter in the capital Kabul, illustrates how routinely women continue to suffer rights violations in conservative, patriarchal Afghanistan.

Afghan businesswoman defies gender barriers to business success
April 12, 2005 - (Relief Web) When Afghan women were freed from confinement in their homes following the fall of the Taliban regime, a new world of opportunity opened before of them. But while many women have ventured out to rejoin the work force, few have seized the opportunity in as bold and unconventional a way as Kamela Sediqi.

Afghan Women Prepare to Take Wheel
April 11, 2005 - (Washington Post) Sima Kazemi smiled proudly as she considered whether she would pass the first driver's license exam to be offered to women in this western city. There was, she said, no doubt. But the confidence drained from the 20-year-old college student's voice as she acknowledged the harassment that she would probably face as a female driver in Afghanistan.

MARRIAGE SWAPS SPARK TRAGEDY
April 4, 2005 - (IWPR) The practice of marrying off daughters to allow sons to afford a bride is sometimes doomed to failure. It sounds like the stuff of romance: Obaidullah, a 28-year-old from Logar province, finds the woman of his dreams, Nooria, 25, but is unable to marry her because he doesn't have the money. So in lieu of the bride price, the young man offers to give his own sister, Sharifa, 22, in marriage to Nooria's elder brother, Latif, 28.

FORGETTING AFGHANISTAN AGAIN
April 2, 2005 - (Alternet) Laura Bush's visit to Afghanistan focused media attention on the still-struggling country. But not a single news article dared to question her empty talk of solidarity with Afghan women. In the past two years the US media have drastically reduced their coverage of Afghanistan. According to the American Journalism Review only three news organizations--Newsweek, Associated Press and The Washington Post--have full-time reporters stationed in Kabul. What little is published focuses mostly on feel-good stories, superficial change and unopposed reportage of the Bush administration's claims.

Kabul to Launch Campaign on Women's Rights
April 1, 2005 - (AFP)The Afghan government will launch a nationwide campaign to promote women's rights in the war-shattered country, officials said. The campaign, in coordination with non-government organizations, will address issues like violence against women, girls' education and health care.

 

March 2005

Afghan government to launch campaign on women rights
March 31, 2005 - (AFP) The Afghan government will launch a nationwide campaign to promote women rights in the war-shattered country, officials said Thursday. The campaign, in coordination with non-governmental organizations, will address issues like violence against women, girls education and health care, senior women ministry official Nasreen Haqnigar told AFP.

Afghanistan to work out national plan on women's rights
March 27, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Afghan government has launcheda massive consultation with different authorities to work out a national plan on protecting and ensuring women's rights in the post-conflict country, an Afghan official said Sunday here.

Hiding to get an education
March 18, 2005 - (BBC) A group of frightened girls crept through the back alleys of Kabul, avoiding adults who might turn them in to the authorities.

A DAY FOR WOMEN TO SHINE
March 18, 2005 - (IWPR) Advocates of women's rights mark International Women's Day by noting progress while looking ahead to how much still needs to be done. The Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul buzzed with excitement earlier this month as more than 500 men and women, some of the latter stylishly dressed and even a few without the once-obligatory headscarf, marked International Women's Day.

Demand Justice for Women in Afghanistan
March 17, 2005 - (Amnesty) A woman from the central highlands of Afghanistan was raped by a local commander, who also threatened to kill her father- and brothers-in-law. This prompted them to leave for Kabul. Repeated reports of this case to the authorities did not yield any investigations.

Women of Islam
March 14, 2005 - (Washington Post) They met the new secretary of state, spoke to women's organizations and conferred with the U.S. Agency for International Development. But the delegations of Afghan and Iraqi women -- led by Massouda Jalal, Afghanistan's minister of women's affairs, and Narmin Othman, her counterpart in Iraq -- were not in Washington last week merely to make courtesy calls. They were here to stress that women's issues, in the new democracies of Iraq and Afghanistan, are not peripheral. How these two countries resolve them may determine whether they remain democratic societies, or even open societies.

Warlords blamed for widespread rape in Afghanistan
March 12, 2005 - (Alertnet) Warlords and their private armies are involved in widespread rape, murder and human trafficking in Afghanistan, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). In a letter to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights ahead of a meeting in Geneva next week, HRW called on the Commission to request NATO-member countries to expand their peacekeeping force in Afghanistan and amend its mandate to protect human rights.

Marking International Women's Day
March 8, 2005 -(IRIN) Thousands of Afghan women marked International Women's Day in the capital Kabul and some provinces on Tuesday 8 March. In Kabul, women pointed to the appointment on 4 March of the first female provincial governor and the appointment of three women cabinet ministers and several deputy ministers as positive evidence that women were making progress in male-dominated conservative Afghan society.

Struggle for Rights
March 1, 2005 - (HRW) Images of long lines of Afghan women patiently waiting to cast their votes in last October's presidential election, and the candidacy of a female doctor for president, seem vividly to symbolise the progress of women since the fall of the Taliban just over three years ago. The images of hope are not wholly misleading. Large numbers of women participated as voters, poll workers, and civic educators in many parts of the country. However, the real test for women's rights, and for Afghanistan itself lies ahead, with local and parliamentary elections. This time women will run for office in greater numbers, and the rule of local warlords will be at stake as never before.

February 2005

Women face misery in Nuristan
February 24, 2004 - (Irinnews) The wooden hut of Zulaikha, a 45-year-old midwife, remains the only ray of hope for destitute women in the Nuristan valley, in northeastern Nuristan province. Dozens of women gather around Zulaikha, many of them after travelling from snow-capped mountains after a day's journey by foot.

Women dying to give birth in Afghanistan
February 22, 2005 - (Reuters) Gulnama Shamsali sips tea and tries to calm her screaming six-month-old son as her husband and his four siblings quietly nibble their lunch -- a few pieces of stale wheat bread -- in their cold, dark mud house. In two months, Gulnama, still only 22, will give birth to her second child. And she could die from doing so.

Observance of Afghan women's rights improves, but backlash always threatens
February 14, 2005 - (UN News) Since Afghanistan's Taliban Government fell in 2001, Afghan women have "made historic gains, with the support of the international community," but their participation in public life has been circumscribed by the continuing lack of security and reformers had to be careful not to stir up the traditional hostility to women's advancement, a new United Nations report says.

U.N. sleuth hits Afghanistan over women's rights
February 10, 2005 - (Alertnet) A United Nations investigator on Thursday urged Afghanistan's government to make more effort to promote the rights of women and especially to halt violence against them both inside and outside the home.

Dire prison conditions, violence against women persist in Afghanistan
February 7, 2005 - (UN News) Despite some human rights improvements in Afghanistan such as the release of hundreds of prisoners, matters of concern still persist, including domestic violence against women, a deficient justice system, the deleterious impact of drugs and the dire conditions of prisons, according to a United Nations rights expert.

Women, Democracy and Hope
January 24, 2005 - (Ms. Magazine) A dust storm had blown up the night before around Kabul, eclipsing the sun and making Saturday, October 9, the chilliest and most unpleasant day of the year so far. At 6 a.m., while the murderous specter of the Taliban still hung over a palpably tense and barricaded city, Parween Dalilee and Zohra were already at their appointed polling station, pulling on their distinctive blue vests.

Relaunch for Afghan women's radio
January 18, 2005 - (BBC) The first radio station dedicated to the interests of women has been relaunched in Afghanistan. The Voice of Women station promises to help women deal with the violence and discrimination they still face in many parts of the country. It is expected to reach hundreds of thousands of women in the capital, Kabul, and more distant provinces.

2004

Women Enter Business World
December 9, 2004 - (IWPR) In a country where their activities are still often severely restricted, women are playing a leading role in developing small businesses all across the country.

Gender and local level decision making: Findings from a case study in Panjao
November 29, 2004 - (Relief Web) The enthusiasm with which many donors set out to support Afghan women's right to participate in public life at the fall of the Taliban, has proved more difficult to act upon than originally acknowledged. Some gains have been made at the policy level, but for many women these have been largely rhetorical. This is in part due to an emphasis on addressing the concerns of educated and urban women which are likely very different from the concerns of uneducated and rural women.

Risky revival of Afghan theater puts women center stage
November 26, 2004 - (CS Monitor) Barely three years ago, at a time when women in Afghanistan were not permitted even to leave their homes, the idea of a woman performing on stage - and in mixed company! - seemed inconceivable. Any woman who did so risked life and limb.

GIRL'S DEATH DEVASTATES FAMILY
November 25, 2004 - (IWPR) The death of a 13-year-old during the Kabul suicide attack points to the dangers chidren face as they try to earn a living to support their families.

Rally to stop violence against women
November 24, 2004 - (IRIN) On the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, hundreds of women rallied in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to promote their cause. "Afghan women suffer from violence from the womb of their mothers until the end of their lives," Shukria Barekzai, one of the rally's participants, told IRIN on Wednesday. Barekzai, who runs a weekly women's newspaper, explained that although domestic violence had traditionally been a problem in conservative Afghan society, 25 years of war had fuelled the problem even more so.

Gender topics enshrined in higher education curriculum of Afghanistan
November 23, 2004 - (UNDP) The Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul hosted a ceremony for the signing of a MOU between the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA), Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) and UNDP, establishing a new Gender Training Institute at Kabul University.

Women Braving Peace
November 2004 - (Café) Many brave women act boldly for peace every day; some even risk their lives. What follows is one woman's quest for peace in Afghanistan .

Kandahar's woman detective
November 22, 2004 - (BBC) The number of women joining the police in Afghanistan is on the rise - thanks in part to the high-profile efforts of Malalai Kakar, the only female detective in the southern city of Kandahar.

Cultures Clash Over Women's Rights
November 18, 2003 - (IWPR) A European activist and a liberal religious scholar differ on the roles women can play in Afghan society.

Tragic Endings for Many Child Brides
November 18, 2004 - (IWPR) Many young girls continued to be forced into marriages with older men. Zeinab was 10 and had no choice. Her father sold her for 1,200 US dollars into marriage to a 50-year-old deaf mute. Her wedding night was a brutal affair, which she later described it as "rape".

Taliban Says Women as Hostages Is Against Islam
November 18, 2004 - (Reuters) Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas reiterated on Wednesday that they had nothing to do with the kidnapping of three U.N. workers and said they opposed the use of women as hostages for the release of prisoners.

Interview with a female ex-combatant
November 17, 2004 - (IRIN) As Afghanistan's Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme entered its second year in early November, over 20,000 of approximately 60,000 Afghan militia forces (AMF) have been disbanded and reintegrated into civilian life.

New local women's radio to fight gender violence and illiteracy
November 16, 2004 - (IRIN) Sitting around a table with their burqas (top to bottom covering veil) on chairs, Arefa Zareh, a school teacher and her fellow women were preparing to broadcast the first trial programme of Quyash (the Sun), a newly established local women's radio station in the northern city of Maimana.

Veil of Tears
November 16, 2004 - (Alternet) "Afghanistan Unveiled" (airing on Tuesday, Nov. 16 on PBS) makes much of its powerful backstory, and with good reason: the documentary is the first film "about Afghan women, by Afghan women," says one of its 14 native filmmakers, a graduate of an international program that produced the country's first newly trained women journalists in years.

Afghan Women Building Lives Amid Rubble
November 12, 2004 (WeNews) Women, often uneducated, unemployed and still covered by the burqua, are heads of at least 30 percent of Afghan households. But with close to 70 percent unemployment, the stigma against hiring a woman remains widespread.

Women offer to replace hostages
November 11, 2004 - (BBC) A group of women have offered to take the place of three UN workers, one from Northern Ireland, being held hostage in Agfhanistan.

After the Taliban, women still suffer
November 7, 2004 - (Observer) Kidnappings and wife beatings go on, three years after the liberation of Afghans from the Taliban regime.

AFGHAN ELECTIONS: Women Get to Sing and Want a Place in Mosques October 29, 2004 - (IPS) In a move to exercise their rights in a new government to be headed by incumbent President Hamid Karzai, Afghan women have asked for separate places to worship in Afghanistan's mosques venturing for the first time into a controversy that has divided religious authorities in the war-torn country for years.

Women failed by progress in Afghanistan
October 28, 2004 - (Amnesty) Among the principles of Security Council Resolution 1325 is that women must have equal participation in the resolution of conflict and in peace processes. It also calls for an end to gender-based abuses and impunity for such abuses during and after the conflict. Afghanistan’s first post-conflict elections earlier this month looked set to be a defining moment for some of these issues. Nazia Hussein, the Amnesty International (AI) researcher on Afghanistan, assesses the situation.

Afghanistan lagging behind in human rights treatment, UN expert finds
October 25, 2004 - (UN News) While Afghanistan has made great progress since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, "gross violations of fundamental human rights" continue, from extrajudicial executions to inhuman detention to the frequent abuse or assault of women and girls, a United Nations expert says in his latest report to the General Assembly.

Strong Showing by Women Voters
October 22, 2004 - (IWPR) In three Afghan provinces Faryab, Daikundi and Nuristan - more women than men turned out to cast ballots for president during elections October 9.

For Afghan women, there are still bigger battles than the right to vote
Oct 18, 2004 (AFP) - Lying in the hospital bed with her baby on her breast, Momagul is one of the lucky ones. Her husband allowed her to go to hospital, her home was only 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) away, and she received medical attention in time to save her life.

FREE OF TALIBAN'S YOKE, 2 AFGHAN WOMEN RISE AGAIN
October 17, 2004 - (NY Times) The first sign of change is a sign, posted on the brown mud exterior wall of Soheila Helal's house and garden to announce her private courses. When the Taliban controlled this western city, Ms. Helal had to teach in secret. Now she is free to advertise.

WOMEN AND ELECTIONS IN AFGHANISTAN
October 7, 2004 - (HRW) Widespread intimidation of women and general insecurity threaten women's right to vote freely in the October 9, 2004, presidential elections, stand for political office, and fully participate in public life. Parliamentary and local elections planned for next year will present even greater challenges for women.

Silence over Afghan women's rights
October 7, 2004 - (BBC) Forty per cent of the registered voters for Saturday's presidential election in Afghanistan are women - so why is there so little debate about women's rights?

Men Say Wives, Daughters Won't Vote In Afghan South
October 7, 2004 – (Reuters) "I will not allow my wife to vote." Issa Mohammad, a young shopkeeper in Kandahar, was speaking for hundreds of thousands of families across the south of Afghanistan, where religious and social conservatism twinned with the threat of militant attacks means women will barely have a say in Saturday's landmark election.

Afghan Women Face Inequity, Abuse, Jail
October 7, 2004 – (WeNews) As Afghanistan holds its first democratic elections this weekend since the fall of the Taliban, the situation for women in the country remains dire. For many women, refusing to accept inequities like arranged marriages can mean jail time.

Beaten Afghan Brides
October 6, 2004 - (NYT Op-Ed) I had an inspiration about where Osama bin Laden might be hiding. But when I visited the women's detention center in Kabul, there was no sign of him.

Afghanistan: Women Under Attack for Asserting Rights
October 5, 2004 – (HRW) Warlords and the Taliban are undermining Afghan women’s participation in the political process through ongoing threats and attacks, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Widespread intimidation of women and general insecurity threaten women’s right to vote freely in the October 9 presidential elections, stand for political office and fully participate in public life.

MEN LAY GROUND RULES FOR WOMEN REFUGEE VOTERS
Oct 5, 2004 - (IPS) ''We are trying our level best to educate Afghan women on the election process. But their men seem determined to prevent them from voting on election day,'' says electoral officer Shahla Ghaffar Khan.

Afghan Warlords Threaten Women
October 4, 2004 – (BBC) Threats on women by the Taleban and warlords are undermining their participation in Afghanistan's upcoming elections, a human rights group says. The US-based Human Rights Watch says in a report that very few women have registered to vote on Saturday in areas where the Taleban are active. The report says even campaign workers have received death threats for raising women's issues.

Fearful Choice for Afghan Women: To Vote or Not to Vote
October 4, 2004 – (NYT) When Afghanistan votes Saturday in its first presidential election, three women, Hajira, Roshana and Farida, will face a choice, but not the one many people expect. But in the face of threats from Taliban insurgents to attack the election process, they cannot decide whether to vote at all, let alone whether to work at the polls as they have been asked to do.

ELECTION A MILESTONE FOR WOMEN
October 4, 2004 - (IWPR'S AFGHAN RECOVERY REPORT, No. 138) Even conservative presidential candidates are making a bid to attract female voters, but has anyone's programme gone far enough?

Leadership training for women
September 22, 2004 - (IRIN) Female civil servants and qualified Afghan women will be trained in leadership and decision-making skills through a joint UN-government programme.

Afghan Chief Justice Attacks Male Candidate for Remarks on Women's Rights
September 9, 2004 - (Feminist Daily News Wire) The Chief Justice of the Afghan Supreme Court has demanded that candidate Latif Pedram be expelled from the presidential race for questioning marital laws. Speaking at a women’s forum, Latif Pedram suggested that the issue of divorce and polygamy be debated, reports the Washington Post . According to Pedram, it is impossible for a husband to treat all four wives equally and that it is unfair that men can divorce their wives at any time, while women must obtain their husband’s consent.

AFGHANS STORM AGHA KHAN AID OFFICE, BEAT STAFF
September 7, 2004 - (Reuters) Hundreds of irate Afghans attacked an aid agency run by the spiritual leader of the Ismaili sect after rumors spread the office was involved in converting majority Sunni Muslims to Ismaili beliefs, officials said.

AFGHAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN BEGINS
September 7, 2004 – (BBC) Campaigning has begun in earnest for Afghanistan's first presidential election, with a series of rallies across the country.

DIVORCE - AFGHAN STYLE
August 27, 2004 - (IWPR) Although the numbers are still small, women are increasingly turning to the courts to end their marriages.

AFGHAN VOTING NUMBER PUZZLE
August 27, 2004 – (BBC) Fears are growing that the numbers of people registered to vote in Afghanistan's presidential elections simply do not add up. When the elections were announced there were plenty of people standing in the way. The Taleban were busily intimidating would-be voters, while other conservatives bitterly opposed the idea of women taking part.

COMFORT CLASS
August 27, 2004 - (Mercury News) Saraya Ahmadzai has lived through more war and tragedy than most people could imagine. A refugee from Afghanistan, her husband was killed by mujahedeen fighters after the Soviet invasion ended. Her 21-year-old brother and several cousins were killed by the Taliban. A nephew's legs were blown off by a land mine.

MS MAGAZINE RENEWS COMMITMENT TO REPORTING ON AFGHAN WOMEN
August 25, 2004 - (Ms. Magazine) As Ms. Magazine celebrates Women's Equality Day, they are renewing their commitment to educating the world on the plight of women in Afghanistan. With limited deployment of peacekeeping troops, the Taliban and other extremists have become more active. The Taliban have threatened, kidnapped, and killed women's rights activists and aid workers as a way to derail the democratic elections scheduled to take place in October. And once again, the media is failing to report what is happening to women in Afghanistan. They’re pleased to announce Robin Morgan - poet, prize-winning author, and activist - has rejoined Ms. as our Global Editor. Robin's network of indigenous journalists will not only be reporting to Ms. readers on Afghanistan but dispatches from around the globe.

U.S. FORCES KILL 3 AFGHANS AT CHECKPOINT
August 20, 2004 - (AP) U.S. soldiers sprayed a pickup truck with bullets after it failed to stop at a roadblock in central Afghanistan, killing two women and a man and critically wounding two other people, the latest in a string of civilian deaths at the hands of American forces.

LITTLE AID FOR REFUGEES FORCED OUT OF PAKISTAN
August 20, 2004 - (IWPR) The sudden closure of camps along the Pakistan-Afghan border drove thousands into a danger region beyond the reach of relief agencies. Last March, Shamsul Haq and his family were given 72 hours to leave their home of four years in the Azam Worsak refugee camp in the Southern Waziristan area of Pakistan.

AFGHANS AT THE OLYMPICS
August 20, 2004 - (IWPR) After missing the 2000 games entirely, Afghanistan has produced a squad that includes women for the first time.

AFGHANISTAN: VOTERS KEEN TO CAST THEIR BALLOTS DESPITE RISKS
August 18, 2004 - (IRIN) As the country proceeds towards its first post-conflict presidential election, Afghans are optimistic that despite many remaining difficulties, a democratic poll will make a difference to their lives. Almost 10 million eligible Afghans have registered for the forthcoming vote, most appear enthusiastic about selecting a leader who would bring peace and prosperity to the country.

AFGHAN WOMAN RUNS FOR PRESIDENT DESPITE DEATH THREATS
August 16, 2004 - (Feminist Daily News) Massouda Jalal, an Afghan woman who is one of the 18 candidates for President in Afghanistan, is determined to defeat President Karzai in the first post-Taliban elections that are scheduled to take place in October. According to Eurasianet, the Religious Order Department of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court has tried to declare her candidacy as un-Islamic and illegal twice. Jalal has also reported that she has received death threats for running for President and has been a target of intimidation.

WOMEN RUN GAUNTLET FOR CHANCE TO VOTE
August 14, 2004 - (The Telegraph) It has proved difficult to bring democracy to Zabul. When the US army arrived in one of the more remote districts of the southern province last month, the residents thought the Russians had invaded again.

PROFILE: SURAYA PARLIKA - CHAMPION OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS
August 13, 2004 - (IWPR) Forty years on, a veteran campaigner is still fighting for education and rights for Afghan women.

SOLE WOMAN IN AFGHAN PRESIDENTIAL RACE VOWS TO MAKE A MARK
August 12, 2004 - (AFP) Her round face framed by a sky-blue scarf and her fist punching the air, Masooda Jalal, the only woman contesting Afghanistan's landmark presidential elections, is a picture of determination as she declares, "I'm sure of winning."

DEPLOYMENT OF EXTRA PEACEKEEPING TROOPS TO AFGHANISTAN STILL UNCLEAR
August 12, 2004 - (Feminist Daily News) Earlier this week, the French and German-led military unit, Eurocorps, took command of NATO peacekeeping forces (ISAF) in Kabul. The transition occurred two months before Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban elections are scheduled to take place. In June, NATO stated that it would increase the size of peacekeeping troops from 6,500 to 10,000 for the elections.

UN HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERT DUE TO MAKE WEEK-LONG VISIT TO AFGHANISTAN
August 12, 2004 - (UN News Service) A United Nations expert will begin a one-week visit to Afghanistan this weekend to check on the rights of prisoners and women, the exercise of political rights, human rights education and transitional justice.

THE WHO TARGETS KABUL EPIDEMIC
August 10, 2004 - (Nature) The World Health Organization has launched an emergency operation in Kabul to halt the spread of cutaneous leishmaniasis, a debilitating skin condition.

AFGHANISTAN’S LONE FEMALE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DEPENDS ON SUPPORTERS FOR STRENGTH
August 9, 2004 - (EurasiaNet) She’s back again. And for some here in Kabul, Masuda Jalal just doesn’t seem to know when to give up. She failed to gain the presidency two years ago at the Emergency Loya Jirga. And now she is challenging Karzai again in the country’s first direct presidential elections, in early October.

A WORLD AWAY FROM WAR
August 8, 2004 - (Chicago Tribune) Uzra Azizi sat in the front of the class, sharing a table with a boy. She wore her long, dark hair in a ponytail and raised a slender index finger in response to almost every question.

TWO AID WORKERS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN
August 4, 2004 - (Feminist Daily News Wire) In another deadly attack against civilians, two Afghans working for a German aid agency were killed in southeastern Afghanistan.

US LAUNCHES "TALKING BOOK" TO ALLEVIATE PLIGHT OF AFGHAN WOMEN
August 4, 2004 - (AFP) Jamila is poised to be a household name in Afghanistan --an expectant Afghan mother who sought prenatal care, delivered her baby in a neighborhood clinic and breastfed her child for six months.

MOST ADULT AFGHANS ARE DEPRESSED AND ANXIOUS - STUDY
August 3, 2004 (Reuters) - More than two out of three Afghans aged 15 or older suffer from depression after decades of conflict, with women and the disabled the worst off, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

REPORT AFGHANISTAN COULD IMPLODE WITH TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES
August 2, 2004 - (Feminist Daily News Wire) A recent British Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs report asserts that the improvement of security in Afghanistan is one of the highest priorities in the world. The report concludes that more resources for the current International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are desperately needed. According to the report, “There is a real danger if these resources are not provided soon that Afghanistan – a fragile state in one of the most sensitive and volatile regions of the world – could implode, with terrible consequences.”

 

WOMEN'S COMMISSION FOR REFUGEE WOMEN AND CHILDREN PARTICIPATION AND PROTECTION PROJECT (P&P) UPDATE
July 2004 - (Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children) The P&P team made a three-week visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan to monitor the refugee return process for Afghan women returning home from Pakistan.

WOMEN FIND A PLACE IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
July 30, 2004 - (Institute for War & Peace Reporting) While their numbers are still few, women are once again joining the police force. Nahid, 18, from Kushhal Kan in the western part of Kabul, leaned against the wall as she watched hundreds of young male recruits, march in formation in a
graduation rehearsal at Afghanistan's only police academy.

US AIR STRIKE KILLS WOMEN, CHILDREN IN EAST AFGHANISTAN
July 28, 2004 - (BBC) US aircraft have bombed civilian areas in Konar Province, eastern Afghanistan. The US aircraft, under the pretext of the war against terror, bombed the Kolangar area in Konar Province yesterday. There have been no reports on the exact number of casualties. The US aircraft, under the pretext of the war against terror, bombed residential areas of different provinces of the country several times and, as a result, dozens of civilians including women and children were killed.

AT LEAST TWO KILLED AT POLLING CENTERS IN AFGHANISTAN, AID GROUP LEAVES
July 28, 2004 - (Feminist Daily News Wire) At least two people were killed, including a member of the Afghan election coordinating body, by an explosion at a polling center in Ghazni, Afghanistan. The United State’s military puts the number of Afghans killed at six, including two UN workers, while United Nations is reporting only two deaths. According to Reuters, Afghan authorities are placing blame on the Taliban who have vowed to do everything to disrupt the election scheduled for October.

ALMOST 80 PERCENT OF AFGHANISTAN'S VOTERS REGISTER FOR POLLS
July 27, 2004 - (Bloomberg) Almost 80 percent Afghanistan's estimated 10 million eligible voters have registered to take part in presidential elections in October and a parliamentary poll next April, the United Nations said.

HARD ROAD TO VOTER REGISTRATION
July 23, 2004 - (Institute for War & Peace Reporting) While millions have signed up to participate in October's presidential election, opposition and ignorance about the process remain strong. From the rural villages to the bustling provincial cities, teams of workers are busy registering voters in advance of the country's landmark presidential election on October 9.

'SIXTEEN DIE' IN AFGHAN ATTACKS
July 21, 2004 - (BBC) Gunmen in the southern Afghan province of Helmand have killed 11 Afghans including a former district police chief, officials say.

CLASSES LIFT AFGHANISTAN'S WAR WIDOWS
July 20, 2004 - (The Christian Science Monitor) Muslima cradles a scared chicken in her arms, tending to it with all the careful treatment due a precious object. She gently hands it to her teacher, Farima, who is lecturing a roomful of about 25 women on the best way to care for the bird. Farima's students, all widows, are eagerly attentive.

ROCKET FIRED IN AFGHAN CAPITAL KILLS WOMEN
July 18, 2004 - (New York Times) A rocket fired into the Afghan capital late Sunday killed a woman living close to the headquarters of international peacekeepers, residents and the international force said.

WILL WOMEN CHANGE AFGHANISTAN?
July 16, 2004 - (Salon.com) More than two million women have registered to vote in Afghanistan's forthcoming elections, despite repeated threats and violence from the Taliban.

VIOLENCE FORCES FRESH DELAY TO AFGHAN ELECTIONS
July 10, 2004 – (The Guardian) Afghanistan's first post-Taliban elections have been delayed for a second time amid increasing violence towards voters and officials, it was announced yesterday. The presidential vote will now take place on October 9, and parliamentary elections will not happen until next spring.

UNDP ANNOUNCES NEW PHASE OF GENDER AWARENESS PROGRAMMING
July 5, 2004 - (IRIN) The United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) has announced the launch of a new phase of a programme to expedite gender awareness training in Afghan government institutions. The programme, to be implemented by the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA), aims to improve gender balance and women's priorities in government policies.

THIRD AFGHAN WOMAN POLL WORKER DIES OF WOUNDS
July 4, 2004 - (Reuters) A third Afghan woman has died of wounds sustained in a militant bomb attack on women working for a U.N.-backed voter registration body, the United Nations said on Sunday.

JUNE 2004

WOMEN KILLED IN AFGHAN BUS ATTACK
June 26, 2004 – (BBC NEWS) Two women have been killed in a bomb attack on a minibus carrying female election workers in Afghanistan.

OUT OF SIGHT, AFGHANS REGISTER WOMEN TO VOTE
June 26, 2004 — (New York Times) The male registration team sat on the terrace, waiting for the last stragglers, its job almost done. In three days in early June, the men had registered the entire male voting population of this village of 300 households in preparation for elections in September. But the going was proving to be much slower for the female team.

GIRLS' SCHOOLS BECOME TARGETS
June 24, 2004 – (IWPR) Twelve-year-old Hafizullah was surprised to see a soup pot perched on the wall that divides Afshar school in west Kabul from the home of a local family. Stranger still, a wire was dangling from the pot.

MOTHERS PAY PRICE FOR BEARING GIRLS
June 24, 2004 – (IWPR) In Afghanistan, death, humiliation and threats are often the punishment for a mother who gives birth to a girl, because of the economic hardship and social stigma brought by a daughter.

REPORT SHOWS U.S. PROGRAMS HELP AFGHAN WOMEN TO SECURE A BETTER FUTURE
June 23, 2004 - (US State Department) The Report to Congress on U.S. Support for Afghan Women, Children, and Refugees demonstrates that U.S. assistance in reconstructing Afghanistan, and the courage of the people themselves, is creating an environment that allows Afghan women to participate fully in the political, economic and social life of liberated Afghanistan. Released by the State Department on June 14 and posted on www.state.gov/g/wi, the report shows that reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan have inspired Afghan women to assume roles they never dreamed possible, in government, in politics, in the market place, in the police, in agriculture, in politics and in the media.

BUSH OUTLINES NEW AFGHANISTAN INITIATIVES
June 16, 2004 - (NY Times) President Bush on Tuesday called Afghanistan the “first victory in the war on terror,” yet both he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the nation remains on a long, rocky path toward peace and economic
prosperity.

AFGHAN-AMERICAN TACKLES HARSH LEGACY OF THE TALIBAN
June 14, 2004 – (NBC) Nasrine Gross is an Afghan-American woman, back home in her native land, determined to change an enduring legacy of the Taliban regime. She's trying to teach basic reading and writing to Afghanistan's women. The literacy rate here is among the lowest in the world at just 10 percent.

US WATCHDOG URGES IMPROVEMENT OF US STRATEGY IN AFGHANISTAN
June 14, 2004 – (Feminist Daily News Wire) The General Accounting Office (GAO) recently issued a report stating that while US humanitarian and short-term assistance benefited Afghanistan in fiscal years 2002 and 2003, longer-term reconstruction projects achieved limited results due to late funding and lack of a comprehensive reconstruction strategy. The report, entitled ‘Afghanistan Reconstruction: Deteriorating Security and Limited Resources Have Impeded Progress; Improvements in US Strategy Needed,’ asserts that in fiscal years 2002-2003 “the post-conflict environment in Afghanistan threatened progress toward US policy goals, and poor security, increasing opium cultivation, and inadequate resources impeded US reconstruction efforts.”

VIOLENCE UNSETTLING AFGHAN VOTE
June 7, 2004 - (The Christian Science Monitor) The men came at midnight, throwing stones and pounding on the front gate of Sahera Sharif's home. Then they left a warning: If Ms. Sharif didn't stop working as an election registrar for the United Nations, she would be killed.

TRADITIONS, TERRORISM THREATEN AFGHAN VOTE
June 4, 2004 – (Washington Post) At a village mosque, a leaflet printed in neat Pashto script was found last week, instructing "all good Muslim citizens" to stay away from government buildings, foreign troops and official funerals. If anyone disobeyed, the pamphlet warned, "your bodies will join theirs."

MAY 2004

LA DETRESSE DES VEUVES AFGHANES
May 31, 2004 - (Penelopes) Peshawar, au Pakistan, près de la frontière afghane : des veuves, des orphelins attendent de l'aide, désespérément. Une femme raconte son calvaire : 3 de ses 8 enfants sont pris en charge dans un centre qui bientôt fermera faute de moyens. Vivant dans un camp de petites maisons de terre, elle se débrouille sans assistance.

MILITANTS MAY HAVE POISONED AFGHAN SCHOOLGIRLS, REPORT SAYS
May 3, 2004 – (UN Wire) Three schoolgirls in Afghanistan were in critical condition last night after being poisoned in what the London Guardian reported was apparent punishment by conservative militants for attending school.

GIRLS 'POISONED BY MILITANTS FOR GOING TO SCHOOL'
May 3, 2004 – (The Guardian) Three young girls in eastern Afghanistan were in critical condition in hospital last night after being poisoned, apparently by militants as punishment for attending school.


APRIL 2004

JUST SAY NO
April 30, 2004 – (the Middle East Times) Around 300 Afghan women gathered in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Tuesday, in protest against Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s move to strengthen ties with the country’s warlords a group notorious for its human rights abuses.

ABUSED WOMEN DRIVEN TO SUICIDE
April 29, 2004 – (IWPR) Self-immolation is seen as the only way out for some who suffer physical violence and sexual abuse at their hands of their families.

AFGHAN WOMEN URGE KARZAI NOT TO DEAL WITH WARLORDS
April 28, 2004 – (The News) Some 300 Afghan women protestors here on Tuesday urged President Hamid Karzai not to rely on warlords, with notorious records of human rights abuses, for rebuilding the war-ravaged country.

DESPERATE AFGHAN WOMEN OPT FOR FIERY SUICIDES
April 23, 2004 – (Reuters) Nineteen-year-old Zahara says the day of her wedding was one of the happiest of her life. But the marriage quickly became a nightmare of quarrels and beatings. Just three month later, she lies in hospital, her pretty face and much of her body scarred by horrific burns, after she poured petrol over her head and lit a match.

ONE COUNTRY, TWO WORLDS
April 22, 2004 – (IWPR) Rural and urban increasingly have little in common in a nation where western ways have yet to make many inroads outside the cities.

AFGHANISTAN: RURAL WOMEN BENEFIT FROM WFP'S FOOD-FOR-TRAINING
April 21, 2004 – (IRIN) Sorting fruit bearing saplings in a garden, Noor Begum, a 37 year-old-widow, supports her nine-member family in Charmassa village, in the conservative eastern Nangarhar province.

UNICEF OFFICIAL SEES PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS IN AFGHANISTAN
April 7, 2004 – (UN Wire) Afghanistan still has one of the highest rates of maternal and child mortality in the world, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Karin Sham Poo said in an interview with Integrated Regional Information Networks published Monday.

MORE AFGHAN WOMEN REGISTERING TO VOTE; REGISTRATION REMAINS LOW
April 6, 2004 – (Feminist Daily News Wire) A United Nations spokesperson has reported that the number of women registering for Afghanistan's upcoming elections has increased in the last two weeks. However, overall registration is still low as Afghan women only make up 29 percent of the 1.7 million Afghans who are registered to vote, reports UN Wire.

MORE AFGHAN WOMEN REGISTERING TO VOTE, U.N. SAYS
April 5, 2004 – (UN Wire) The number of women registering to vote in Afghanistan's landmark elections has climbed dramatically in the last two weeks, U.N. spokesman Edward Carwardine said Thursday.

MALONEY INTRODUCES AFGHAN WOMEN SECURITY AND FREEDOM ACT 2004
April 5, 2004 – (Feminist Daily News Wire) Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), with Representatives Tom Davis (R-VA) and Corrine Brown (D-FL) introduced the "Afghan Women Security and Freedom Act 2004." The act (HR 4117) authorizes $300 million for each of the fiscal years 2005, 2006, and 2007. Introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in the Senate earlier this year, the act includes earmarks for $20 million for the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs and $10 million for the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission each year.

DONOR COUNTRIES PLEDGE INSUFFICIENT FUNDS FOR AFGHANISTAN
April 1, 2004 – (Feminist Daily News Wire) The United Nations and the Afghan government recently warned that Afghanistan needs $27 billion over the next seven years to avoid going back to a state of chaos and lawlessness. However, at the Berlin don or conference for Afghanistan's reconstruction, donor countries pledged only $8.2 billion over the next three years, reports BBC News.

ARMED GROUP TURNS TO POLITICS
April 1, 2004 – (Christian Monitor) General Dostum’s faction recreates itself as a party ahead of elections later this year. Supporters of one of Afghanistan’s most powerful armed factions gathered in a hotel in Mazar-e-Sharif in late March to discuss transforming itself from a military to a political party ahead of the September elections.

FORCED MARRIAGE LEADS TO TRAGEDY
April 1, 2004 – (IWPR News) A murder highlights the problems created when young women are forced to marry against their will. Four months after being forced to marry a man more than twice her age, Sultana Bibi's body was found buried in the village of Qalacha, near Balkh, not far from the residence she shared with her husband.

UNICEF TO VACCINATE 4 MILLION AFGHAN WOMEN AGAINST TETANUS
April 1, 2004 – (UN Wire) UNICEF deployed 57,000 vaccinators throughout Afghanistan yesterday in a weeklong bid to immunize 4 million Afghan women of childbearing age against tetanus.

MARCH 2004

ROLE OF WOMEN CRUCIAL TO AFGHAN DEVELOPMENT-U.N.
March 31, 2004 – (Reuters) Afghanistan has not done enough to improve women's rights and must tackle gender inequality if the country is to develop, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

WOMEN SING SOFTLY ON TV
March 24, 2004 – (IWPR) In spite of a ban by Afghanistan’s supreme court, female singers are continuing to appear on Afghan television.

FEW WOMEN BEHIND THE WHEEL
March 24, 2004 – (IWPR) Female drivers are still a rare sight in Afghanistan, despite special courses designed to teach them.

AFGHAN ISLAMIC LEADERS TO SEND GIRLS TO SCHOOL
March 24, 2004 – (Reuters) Islamic leaders from Afghanistan's conservative heartland pledged Wednesday to send more girls to school in the male-dominated, war-ravaged country.

WOMEN'S GROUPS GRADE BUSH ADMINISTRATION RECORD ON WOMEN'S ISSUES
March 15, 2004 –(Feminist Daily News Wire) Leading women's groups released the third in a series of scorecards rating the Bush Administration on key issues affecting women internationally. The issues covered in this report card include women and the emergency AIDS relief plan and women's rights in Afghanistan and Iraq.

WOMEN’S COMMISSION APPROVES DRAFT RESOLUTION ON PALESTINIAN WOMEN, HOSTAGE-TAKING, AFGHAN WOMEN, INSTRAW
March 11, 2004 – (CSW Press Release) By a recorded vote of 39 in favour to 1 against (United States), with 1 abstention (Canada), the forty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women this afternoon approved a draft resolution on the situation of Palestinian women and four other texts.

WOMEN’S COMMISSION HEARS INTRODUCTION OF FIVE DRAFT RESOLUTIONS ON HOSTAGES, PALESTINIAN WOMEN, AFGHAN WOMEN, HIV/AIDS, COMMUNICATIONS
March 9, 2004 – (CSW Press Release) The Commission on the Status of Women this afternoon heard the introduction of five draft resolutions to be considered for action during the final meeting of its forty-eighth session on Friday.

UN ENVOY CONDEMNS BURNING OF GIRLS' SCHOOLS IN AFGHANISTAN
March 7, 2004 – (UN News) As Afghanistan prepares to commemorate International Women's Day, the senior United Nations envoy to the country today deplored recent violence against girls' schools – institutions that were banned under the fallen Taliban regime.

CONCERN AT AFGHAN WOMEN SUI