VOA News Ayaz Gul July 19, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Prominent women rights defenders from Afghanistan and Pakistan have jointly called on their governments to push for the inclusion of women in any peace negotiations aimed at easing bilateral tensions and resolving an increasingly deadly Afghan conflict. The two countries share a nearly 2,600-kilometer border, and landlocked
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty July 19, 2017 Six Afghan girls who were initially denied U.S. visas to attend a robotics competition in Washington, D.C., have won a medal at the international event. The Afghanistan team was awarded a silver medal for “courageous achievement” at the event, which ended on July 18. The award recognized teams that exhibited
VOA News July 15, 2017 Afghanistan’s all-girl robotics team has arrived in the U.S. for a competition after President Donald Trump personally intervened to allow them into the country. The U.S. embassy in Kabul had denied visas for the girls earlier this month for unknown reasons. However, VOA’s White House bureau chief, Steve Herman, reported
Golnaz Esfandiari Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty July 15, 2017 In Afghanistan’s staunchly patriarchal society, women are often publicly identified by the names of their male relatives. Their identity derives from their relationship with men — who are seen as their owners. Afghan women live their lives as someone’s daughter, sister, or wife and often don’t
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty July 13, 2017 U.S. President Donald Trump intervened to allow a group of Afghan girls into the country to participate in a robotics competition, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on July 12. Six female students from Herat in western Afghanistan had applied to participate in an international competition starting
Tolo News: Two Afghan sisters Masouma Alizada and Zahra Alizada have been bought by a French cycling club in Albi, France, following their tremendous performance in a French tour last year. The cyclists joined the French club after a year of negotiations between their family and the Afghanistan Cycling Federation. The two have chosen to live
The New York Times: If Afghanistan is one of the worst places to be a woman, then Ghor, a province so lawless that people often wonder if there is a government there at all, may be the country’s capital of gender-based violence and abuse. Week after week there are reports of women abused or killed in
Tolo News: Faryab ladies this week welcomed the opening of their first ever fitness center in the provincial capital, Maimana. The gym is a privately-owned business and has the capacity to allow 30 women to exercise at any given time. Click here to read more (external link).
Khalil Noorzai VOA News July 5, 2017 A team of Afghan girls who were denied visas to come to the U.S. for a robotics contest aren’t letting that roadblock stop them. Instead, they sent their homemade robot to Washington to compete without them. The six Afghan teenagers are members of the first-ever Afghan robotics team.
Gulf News: Zeerak the bespectacled orange muppet is the latest innovation from Sesame Street in Afghanistan: a children’s TV character who reveres his educated older sister, brought on to screens to show a new generation that a woman’s place is beyond the home. Click here to read more (external link).