Afghan Women Forced From Banking Jobs As Taliban Take Control
In early July, as Taliban insurgents were seizing territory from government forces across Afghanistan, fighters from the group walked into the offices of Azizi Bank in the southern city of Kandahar and ordered nine women working there to leave. The gunmen escorted them to their homes and told them not to return to their jobs. […]
Afghan Women Illegally Forced Into ‘Virginity Tests’
Women in Afghanistan are being forced to undergo so-called virginity tests, more than two years after a law requiring consent was introduced, researchers said on Thursday. The test involves a doctor performing an examination to identify whether the hymen – the thin tissue that may partially cover the vagina – is intact, and has been […]
Afghan Women Spin New Careers By Reviving Ancient Silk Road Crafts
O nce an important Silk Road trading hub, the Afghan city of Herat has long been a cultural centre, but decades of war have ravaged its ancient traditional crafts. Now thousands of women are returning to the ancient practices, seeking to revive the traditions of a city where traders once came to haggle for silk […]
With Bike Chains And Car Parts, Afghan Girls Build Ventilators
With pliers in hand, a group of Afghan girls fashion make-do ventilators from car parts, bike chains and machine sensors, an imperfect solution to the country’s looming coronavirus crisis. The five teens, who live in Herat near the border with Iran, are part of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team: an initiative that teaches schoolgirls programming […]
More Afghan Women Find Solace In Drugs As Coronavirus, Migration Upends Life
The dead body had started to smell but Farzanah barely noticed at first, smoking her heroin pipe undeterred. The 26-year-old, who was raised as a refugee in Iran, had been an addict for 14 years since returning to her hometown of Zaranj, capital of Afghanistan’s southwestern Nimruz province that borders Iran, and had seen the […]
Afghan Working Women Still Face Perils At Home And Office
Minutes before Mena Mangal, a prominent Afghan journalist and parliamentary adviser, was shot dead by two men in Kabul, she had slammed the door of her parent’s home after reminding them to pay the neighbourhood shopkeeper 15 Afghanis (20 cents). “Mena never forgot her duty towards our home and work. After years of struggle she […]
Women are regularly being sexually abused under the pretence of ‘virginity tests’ carried out on girls accused of pre-marital sex in Afghanistan, say Human Rights Watch
Women are regularly being sexually abused under the pretence of ‘virginity tests’ carried out on girls accused of pre-marital sex in Afghanistan, Human Rights Watch has claimed. Many are facing growing levels of violence and harassment in Afghanistan more than 14 years after the Islamist Taliban regime was toppled from power by a 2001 US-led […]
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