Women persecuted in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan women are in constant risk of abduction, rape and forced marriage and the government is doing little to address their plight, the human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released today, 3 1/2 years after the ouster of the hardline Taliban regime.

A spokeswoman for the Afghan Women’s Affairs Ministry, Nooria Haqnagar, acknowledged that abuse was still rife and said, “In some remote areas, men deal with women like animals.”

In its report, Amnesty called on the government and the international community to do more to improve the lives of women.

“Throughout the country, few women are exempt from violence or safe from the threat of it,” the London-based organization said in its report.

It said women are traded like commodities to settle debts and disputes and some women commit suicide to escape forced marriages.

“Afghanistan is in the process of reconstruction after many years of conflict, but hundreds of women and girls continue to suffer abuse at the hands of their husbands, fathers, brothers, armed individuals,” the report said.

“Societal codes, invoked in the name of tradition and religion, are used as justification for denying women the ability to enjoy their fundamental rights. Perceived transgressions of such codes have led to the imprisonment and even killing of some women,” it added. “Some authorities treat women who run away to escape these situations as criminals and imprison them.”

The rights group urged President Hamid Karzai’s government to condemn violence against women and reform the justice system so it is better equipped to protect women’s rights.

Haqnagar, the spokeswoman, said the government was working to improve the lives of women but that the number of abuse cases reported to authorities had increased in recent months.