Afghanistan

While the use of Afghanistan and journalism in one word usually evokes negative images such as abducted reporters and war coverage, three Afghan women have taken a step to improve the media situation in Afghanistan, by setting up a Women's Journalism Center to help build female journalists' careers.

The shooting of a female Afghan politician on Monday demonstrates the fragility of the modest gains made by Afghan women after the fall of the Taleban, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

Nida Khyani, a female Provincial Council member, was left in critical condition after being attacked in a drive-by shooting in Pul-e-Khumri, the provincial capital of Baghlan in northern Afghanistan.

The number of women running for seats in the Afghan parliamentary elections has increased though cultural obstacles remain, a candidate said.

Afghanistan is to have parliamentary elections Sept. 18. The number of women competing for the estimated 64 seats reserved for women on the 249-seat parliament rose from 328 in 2005 to 406 for September elections.

In few countries do women face as many challenges as they do in Afghanistan—a country which not only holds the record for the worst place to be a mother, according to Save the Children's “State of the World's Mothers Report 2010,” but is also home to the fundamentalist Taliban, one of the world's most repressive anti-women's rights regimes.

A record number of women are running in Afghanistan's critical parliamentary elections next month despite many being inundated with threatening phone calls, including death threats from insurgents.

Amid ever-rising violence, which some people fear could foster a repeat of last year's catastrophic presidential election, women are struggling to campaign at all outside a few areas, poll monitors say.

"If you had to choose between saving a girl's life or enabling her to go to school, which would you do first?" This was Afghan President Hamid Karzai's reply when I asked him last month if the rights of Afghan women might be sacrificed for a peace settlement with the Taliban.

The photo of Bibi Aisha, a 19-year-old Afghan woman, on the cover of Time magazine last week is unforgettable. Her eyes are betrayed and defiant. Her mouth is curled in a frown. Her nose isn't there, a scarred gap in its place.

It was hacked off by a Taliban fighter who married her at the age of 12, when she reached puberty, then punished her for fleeing his abuse.

The picture tears into you. Her eyes are haunting and courageous, her face brutally butchered. This is the face of an Afghan girl named Aisha who was attacked by her family that was supported by the local Taliban commander, according to the August 8th TIME magazine.

Former Deputy Health Minister Faizullah Kakar recently completed a study (published in Dari) indicating that rising numbers of women and girls aged 15-40 are attempting suicide in Afghanistan. His findings were presented at a news conference in Kabul on 31 July.

Time magazine's moving portrayal of the plight of Afghanistan's women is a tribute to their heroism and silent suffering. However, the poignant images and story fail to reflect the determined achievements of a women's movement that has battled cultural and Islamist misogyny. They deserve more from the West.