Afghanistan

Events this week that raised questions on women's rights and ethnic tensions have added to long-term concerns about Afghanistan after American-led forces withdraw in 2014 and new elections are held.

International Security Assistance Force commander U.S. Marine Gen. John R. Allen and NATO's senior civilian representative to Afghanistan Simon Gass hosted a roundtable discussion at ISAF Headquarters, June 3, inviting female members of the Afghan Parliament, members of the High Peace Council, and prominent members of civil society.

Anchor Aaron Schachter talks with journalist Gayle Lemmon about a “shadow summit” on Afghanistan's women that took place Sunday in Chicago alongside the NATO summit there.

The summit was organized by Amnesty International.

Meanwhile, protesters have been demonstrating outside the main NATO summit in Chicago.

Amnesty International issued an open letter to President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai at their "Shadow Summit" Saturday urging both leaders to safeguard women's rights.

With the US and NATO planning the departure of their forces from Afghanistan by December 2014, some Afghan women and international rights advocates are growing increasingly concerned that a decade-long focus on expanding Afghan women's rights will go with them.

As the United States convenes the NATO summit in Chicago this weekend, the fate of Afghanistan's women is on my mind. This spring marks the 10th anniversary of the return of Afghanistan's girls to the classroom. During the Taliban era, women were denied education. Women could not work, even when they were the sole providers for their families. Under the Taliban dictatorship, it was decreed that women should be neither seen nor heard.

Every morning in this mountain village in eastern Afghanistan, four dozen girls sneak through a square opening in a mud-baked wall, defying a Taliban edict.

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- At least 140 Afghan schoolgirls and female teachers were admitted to a local hospital Tuesday after drinking poisoned water, said local health officials, who blamed the act on extremists opposed to women's education.

The United States has not had an easy couple of months in Afghanistan. With news of the kill teams in Kandahar, the recent killing of 16 unarmed civilians by a rogue American soldier, and the controversy surrounding Quran burnings, public sentiment on the war by Afghanis and Americans alike is at an all-time low.

Young Afghans braved fears of violence to join a rare march on parliament to demand justice for the women who have been killed, beaten and abused this year – including one they said was beheaded by her own husband.

No politicians came out to meet them, underlining the group's claim that officials are not serious about tackling the suffering of women, despite a law that aims to end the abuse.