Afghan Women Choose Death by Fire

'Baad' is illegal, but prevalent in lawless regions

(NEWSER) - When she was 8 years old, Shakila was abducted by men with AK-47s, who beat her, starved her, put her to work, and intended to force her to father children. Why? Because her uncle had run off with the wife of a local strongman, and that strongman had demanded payment. Handing over girls into de facto slavery, a practice known as "baad," is technically illegal in Afghanistan, but it's still widely used as a way to resolve disputes between families, in part because people avoid corrupt official courts, the New York Times reports. More»

A look at the women who choose fire as a way to escape ... but survive

(NEWSER) - In Afghanistan, the most desperate women turn to items that even the poorest have access to as a way of escape: matches and cooking fuel. The New York Times takes a heart-wrenching look at the women who burn themselves in failed suicide attempts driven by forced marriages, abuse, and crippling depression. The patients of the Herat burn hospital, the country's only center focused on such victims, are growing in number—75 were admitted early last month, up 30% from last October. More»

Afghan girls expecting help beaten instead

(NEWSER) - When Khadija, 13, and Basgol, 14, escaped from the much older men they'd been forced to marry, they thought the police would help. Instead, the police officers who found the girls fleeing on a bus sent them back to their home village to be brutally flogged for running away from their husbands. The two girls' fate is nothing unusual in Afghanistan, where marriage of girls under 16 and public flogging—though both illegal—remain widespread. More»

(NEWSER) - Afghan women streamed to the ballot boxes five years ago, and in some districts female turnout was even higher than male. But the flood of women voters that delighted aid groups dried up this year, reports the Washington Post, and many of the segregated female polling stations had few if any voters. More educated women who had voted before stayed home, while in more rural areas families kept mothers and daughters inside in the face of Taliban threats. More»

Low female turnout could mean leaders even less responsive to women

(AP) - For women, Afghanistan's recent elections appear to have been more of a setback than a step forward. Early reports strongly suggest that voter turnout fell more sharply for women than for men in last week's polls. Election observers blame Taliban attacks, a dearth of female election workers, and the closure of at least 650 polling stations for women. More»