Daily Mail (UK): Information about and access to contraception in Afghanistan has been hampered by years of conflict, widespread poverty and a lack of education, as well as active discouragement from some hardline religious figures who claim it is “haram” — forbidden by Allah. “We definitely have problems in Afghanistan. The biggest one about contraception is that
The New York Times: Women’s sports programs in Afghanistan, long a favorite of Western donors, have all but collapsed. Some consist of little more than a young woman with a business card and a desk, as one insider described the women’s version of cricket, Afghanistan’s most popular game. Others, like women’s soccer, have managed to field a few teams for practices
Reuters: Now living in an orphanage in the Afghan capital of Kabul, Negin Khpalwak leads the Zohra orchestra, an ensemble of 35 women at the Afghanistan National Institute for Music that plays both Western and Afghan musical instruments. When she went home on a recent visit, her uncles and brothers threatened to beat her for a performing
TALUQAN, Afghanistan, April 19 (Xinhua) — About 62 Afghan girl students were hospitalized Tuesday due to a possible gas poisoning in the country’s northern province of Takhar, police said. “Up to 62 students of the Sar-e-Rustaq Girl High School in Rustaq District were shifted to district hospital after they showed symptoms of vomiting, and several
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty April 13, 2016 A new U.S. State Department report says Afghanistan’s most pressing human rights problems stem from “widespread violence,” including indiscriminate attacks on civilians by armed insurgent groups and “torture and abuse of detainees by government forces.” The 2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released on April 13, also
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Farangis Najibullah and Mustafa Sarwar April 11, 2016 Anew documentary that explores the rights of women in Afghanistan features a clip in which a member of parliament appears to threaten his female interviewer with rape. Now, he is demanding an apology. The apparent threat from leading cleric and lawmaker Nazir Ahmad Hanafi
Khaama Press: A video purportedly showing parts of an interview with the Afghan MP and Cleric Qazi Nazir Ahmad Hanafi has put him under fire as the video has rapidly gone viral on the internet. The video shows a female foreign reporter asking questions from Qazi Hanafi regarding violence against women. Hanafi harshly asks the reporter to stop
Counter Punch: The revelation that the number of opium-addicted Afghan adults and children has reached new highs is a dramatic consequence of the war in that country. It painfully illustrates how the aggression led by the United States can doom generations of children to a miserable life. A U.S. funded study released in April of 2015,
Khaama Press: Atiqullah Safi, a member of Hezb-e-Islami said the party respects women’s position in the society and dismissed the reports regarding the party’s stance to prevent women from education as baseless. Safi further added at least 8,000 children are studying in the schools of Hezb-e-Islami with the girls students forming half of the number. Click here
Smithsonian: Laura Bush may have been a quiet First Lady—her clothes didn’t make headlines, her political positions didn’t make news—but she is no wallflower. She recently toured a new Smithsonian exhibition focusing on the traditional arts of Afghanistan, and at the end of her visit stated her strongly held conviction that whoever becomes the next