Women of Afghanistan

Under the Taliban, the women of Afghanistan were seen as victims of oppression, banished to their homes, unable to work or even to receive an education.

The US-led invasion of 2001 was supposed to have changed all that. Women now have seats in parliament and a new constitution enshrines equal rights for all.

Have women been "liberated" - or are they still prisoners of a backwards society?

Sadly, our investigation reveals precious little progress in the new democracy. In a country where 57% of women are married under the age of 16 and only 10% of women can read and write, education is often seen as the key to empowering the next generation.

Whilst the nation's schools have emerged as part of that solution, they have also become the battlefield in the fight for women's rights. Education has become a perilous business for both teachers and pupils.

Afghanistan's population is divided disproportionately divided into urban and rural. The young urbanites in Kabul are busy embracing every opportunity that comes their way. Education, public life.... and shopping.

Meanwhile the situation for women in urban areas bears little relation to the rest of Afghanistan's remote rural areas where 80% of the country's population live.

Here women face the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world. Every 30 minutes an Afghan woman dies in childbirth. Few health clinics are able to provide the care needed to prevent hundreds dying every year from problems during labour.

And amidst all this, there is also a hidden enemy called Opium. Drug addiction is on the increase among women and in the absence of modern medicine, it's widely used as a painkiller. Mothers give it to children to stop them crying and help them sleep.

Continue Reading