Afghan Girls' Illness May Be Poisoning—or Hysteria

Militants suspected of striking again

(NEWSER) - About 150 Afghan girls were poisoned today after drinking the water at their Takhar province school, in what officials believe was a deliberate attack by Islamist militants opposed to educating girls. "We are 100% sure that the water they drunk … was poisoned," an education department spokesperson tells Reuters , speculating that it could be the work of "irresponsible armed individuals." More»

School thrives despite horrific assault

(NEWSER) - Last November in Kandahar, the southern Afghan city in the grip of the Taliban, 15 students and teachers were sprayed with acid on their way to a girls' school. The attack was the culmination of a Taliban-supported campaign to keep women from education, but the girls and their teachers have returned—to a bustling school of 1,300 students, reports Dexter Filkins in the New York Times. More»

First she's flogged 200 times

(NEWSER) - The Taliban publicly flogged a pregnant Afghan widow some 200 times before shooting her to death for having sex. Her lover escaped. Bibi Sanubar, 35, "was shot in the head in public while she was still pregnant," deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Mohammad Sayeedi told Agence France Presse . Officials found out about the execution because her body was dumped in an area under government control. More»

Star breaks ground on $15M project in children's homeland

(NEWSER) - Construction on a Malawian school for girls founded by Madonna began today. The singer has put up $15 million for the creation of the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, which is expected to be finished in 2 years, the BBC reports. "Growing up in a privileged life, I took education for granted, but coming to Malawi has taught me a lot of things, and to learn to appreciate what life gives," Madonna said at today's ribbon-cutting ceremony. 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»