Associated Press: While Afghanistan’s Buddhists were carving the giant sandstone statues in Bamiyan in 500 A.D., Buddhists in China were creating martial arts in the Shaolin temple in Henan Province. Fifteen hundred years later, 10 ethnic Hazara women and girls practice the martial arts of Shaolin on a hilltop in the west of Kabul. They are
The Guardian (UK): For years, declining death rates among pregnant women have been hailed as one of the great gains of foreign aid in Afghanistan. In reality, however, Afghan women dying in pregnancy or childbirth may be more than twice as high as numbers provided by donors would suggest. Since 2010, published figures have shown maternal
AFP: Afghanistan has announced fresh initiatives to bring more women into the army, weeks after the country’s first female pilot sparked a national debate on insecurity and women’s rights by seeking asylum in the US. The defence ministry wants to boost the proportion of women in the army to 10 percent, deputy ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh
Tolo News: Afghanistan’s first and only women’s orchestra, Zohra, has been awarded the Freemuse Award 2017. The orchestra is comprised of a group of students from the National Institute of Music (ANIM) in Kabul. The Afghanistan music industry is currently facing tremendous challenges following years of oppression under the Taliban and decades of war, which has
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty January 21, 2017 Afghanistan’s first all-girl orchestra performed a concert in front of world leaders at the closing of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 20. The group of 30 musicians aged 13 to 20, known as Zohra, performed parts of Beethoven’s 9th symphony as well as popular
KABUL, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) — “My prime objective is gender equality between men and women in Afghanistan and that’s why I’m calling on all girls to break down the cultural barriers and join me in promoting Wushu to achieve this goal,” Wushu martial artist, Seema Azimi, 20, told Xinhua recently. Click here to read more
AFP: In the face of death threats and accusations that they are dishonouring their families by daring to perform, the women of Afghanistan’s first all-female orchestra are charting a new destiny for themselves through music. The group is set to be catapulted onto the world stage with a performance at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
IWPR: Campaigners are calling for the Afghan government to follow through on promises to change parts of Afghanistan’s penal code that they argue actually serves to legimitise violence against women. Article 398 of the Afghan penal code states that a man who sees “his wife or other family members” in a compromising position and kills or
RFE/RL’s Tajik Service January 12, 2017 DUSHANBE — The Tajik Foreign Ministry says that it summoned the Afghan ambassador in Dushanbe late in December and lodged a diplomatic protest over remarks made by the Afghan ambassador to Russia. The ministry said on January 12 that a protest note was handed to the Afghan ambassador in
Mirwais Bezhan VOA News January 7, 2017 A group of 150 women in the northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan have taken up arms to fight Taliban and Islamic State militants. Some of the women, who live in the violence-plagued districts of Qoosh Tapa and Darz A’ab, say Taliban and IS militants killed the male members