Afghanistan

In many of the conflicts of the last decades – from Afghanistan to Somalia, from the Balkans to the Democratic Republic of the Congo – violence against women has reached horrific proportions and constitutes the most difficult challenge confronting the relief community.

In a dimly lit room at the back of an Afghan house, 21-year-old Zahara is crouched on a plank of wood weaving a large carpet on a loom that she was able to buy using a microfinance loan of USD 1,100.

Three years ago, I visited a hospital in southern Afghanistan renovated by Australian Defence Force engineers. A young, goofy digger showed me proudly around the rebuilt facility, pointing to a muddy yard where quarantined cholera patients once perished in tents.

Remember Aisha, the 18-year-old from Afghanistan? Well, this teenager had her nose and ears cut off by her abusive husband, a Taliban follower, as punishment for running away from home. Thanks to the efforts of the Grossman Burn Foundation, (a non-profit organisation), she underwent reconstructive surgery last year.

Troopers from the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment working alongside their Afghan National Police partners at the Police Training Center in Qalat started the New Year right Monday, Jan. 3, by graduating a class of 134 new recruits. Class 1101 had the distinction of not only being the first class of 2011, but also the first class to include volunteers from the Commerce Stability Program and five female recruits.

Women in Afghanistan are being recruited as front line police officers for the first time, UK broadcaster Sky News reported on Wednesday.

In the past, women were only allowed to carry out menial support tasks in the back office.

But now the Afghan authorities, with the help of British instructors, are training women to help their male colleagues at the Afghan National Police (ANP) tackle the most dangerous of insurgents.

In Afghanistan's parliament, 68 of the 249 seats are reserved for women. During the elections of September 2010, 69 women were elected to parliament – one more than the minimum.

In a dimly lit room at the back of an Afghan house, 21-year-old Zahara is crouched on a plank of wood weaving a large carpet on a loom that she was able to buy using a microfinance loan of $1,100.

Zahara started weaving carpets when she was 10 and did not go to school, but the loan from non-profit development group BRAC allowed her to start her own business about 18 months ago and she has since taken out two more loans of $330 each.

Why should Canada bother helping Afghan women and girls when Canadian combat troops withdraw next year? What right does the West have to force its aggressive, feminist values on the Afghan people?

"I had so many dreams for my life, but when I saw him, they just disappeared." Saraya spoke softly, her hunched-over body and nervously twisting hands testimony to all she says she has had to endure.

"I told my father I didn't want to marry him: 'why are you doing this to me?'" She continued: "My father said 'you are of an age to be married and this is my decision, not yours.'"