Post Archive by Month

Breast cancer is the second most common cause of death for Afghan women, but there is little public awareness of the disease. In a dark, narrow hallway at the Herat breast cancer treatment centre, women with anxious faces wait for their diagnose. Nafas Gul (not her real name), a woman in her forties, said that she had been in pain ...

Prisoners say they are harassed by police officers and justice officials alike. Zahra (not her real name) is in Kabul Badam-Bagh women’s prison, six years into a 15-year prison sentence - the maximum punishment for adultery under Afghan law. The mother-of four said that she had run away with another man after her husband beat and mistreated her. One night ...

Leeda stood waiting at a Kabul bus stop, braced for a daily commute that she said inevitably involved sexual comments and snide remarks from male passers-by. The young woman said she knew about recent legislation that would make such harassment a crime under Afghan law for the first time. However, she did not have high hopes for it. Making laws ...