KABUL - Shortly after Friba joined the Afghan National Police, she gave herself the nickname "dragon" and vowed to bring law and order to her tormented homeland.

Five years later, she is tired of rebuffing the sexual advances of male colleagues, worries the budget for the female force will shrink and fears the government will abandon them.

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Women in the police force were held up as a showcase for Afghan-Western efforts to promote rights in the new Afghanistan, born from the optimism that swept the country after the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

Images of gun-wielding Afghan policewomen have been broadcast across the globe, even inspiring a television program popular with young Afghan women.

But going from the burqa to the olive green uniform has not been easy.

In Reuters interviews with 12 policewomen in districts across the Afghan capital, complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination and bitter frustration were prevalent.

President Hamid Karzai's goal is for 5,000 women to join the Afghan National Police (ANP) by the end of 2014, when most foreign troops will leave the country.

UN calls for Afghanistan to protect women from rape, forced marriage

But government neglect, poor recruitment and a lack of interest on the part of authorities and the male-dominated society mean there are only 1,850 female police officers on the beat, or about 1.25 percent of the entire force.

And it looks to get worse.

Friba, who asked that her second name not be used, says it all when she runs a manicured finger across her throat: "Once foreigners leave we won't even be able to go to the market. We'll be back in burqas. The Taliban are coming back and we all know it."

Conditions for women in Afghanistan have improved significantly since the Taliban were ousted. Women have won back basic rights in voting, education and work since Taliban rule, when they were not allowed out of their homes without a male escort and could be publicly stoned to death for adultery.

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But problems persist in the deeply conservative Muslim society scarred by decades of conflict. The United Nations said this month that despite progress, there was a dramatic under-reporting of cases of violence against women.

Some female lawmakers and rights groups blame Karzai's government for a waning interest in women's rights as it seeks peace talks with the Taliban, accusations his administration deny.

Almost a third of the members of the female force work in Kabul, performing duties such as conducting security checks on women at the airport and checking biometric data.

Friba sat in a city police station room decorated with posters of policemen clutching weapons to talk to Reuters.

"I am the dragon and I can defend myself, but most of the girls are constantly harassed," she said. "Just yesterday my colleague put his hands on one of the girl's breasts. She was embarrassed and giggled while he squeezed them. Then she turned to us and burst into tears."

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On the other side of Kabul, detective Lailoma, who also asked that her family name not be used, said several policewomen under her command had been raped by their male colleagues.

She complained about male colleagues: "They want it to be like the time of the Taliban. They tell us every day we are bad women and should not be allowed to work here."

Male colleagues also taunt the women, she added, often preventing them from entering the kitchen, meaning they miss out on lunch.

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On several occasions, male colleagues interrupted Reuters interviews in what the policewomen said were attempts to intimidate them into silence.

One male officer entered the room without knocking three times to retrieve pencils; another spent 20 minutes dusting off his hat, only to put it back on a shelf. The women switched subjects when the men came in.

Rana, a 31-year-old, heavy-set policewoman with curly hair, said policewomen were expected to perform sexual favors: "We're expected to do them to just stay in the force."

The raping of policewomen by their male counterparts "definitely takes place," said Colonel Sayed Omar Saboor, deputy director for gender and human rights at the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police. "These men are largely illiterate and see the women as immoral." 

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BEIJING -- Chairman Mao famously said “women hold up half the sky,” but in today’s China they are standing twice as long in restroom lines.

It’s a universal problem: women waiting anxiously inside and outside public bathrooms while men can “finish the business” much more quickly. Women spend much more time in bathrooms than men, but they don’t necessarily enjoy the proportional number of facilities. The problem is particularly severe in China with a population of 1.3 billion, especially in big cities whose growth outstrips the amount of toilets.

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But some young women in the southern city of Guangzhou just couldn’t bear it anymore. They decided to cry out loud last Sunday in a campaign to “occupy male bathrooms” near a popular public park.

Li Maizi, the 23-year-old campaign organizer who insisted on using a pseudonym, told a local newspaper that the purpose was to raise the awareness of the public and the government.

“It seems like women and men are equal with the same amount of public bathrooms built for them. But the physical differences make them spend a different amount of time in the toilet – so it’s just not fair,” said Li.

Li, along with a few other young women, asked male passers-by who wanted to use the guy’s bathroom “do you mind waiting for a few minutes because the line in front of female toilet is too long?” They held signs reading “love women, starting with convenience” and “the more convenience, the more sexual equality.” Convenience in Chinese also means “to use a toilet.”

The women also handed out pink public letters to their male peers, calling for legislative steps to increase the number of public bathrooms for women to at least twice that of the opposite sex. They also demanded more unisex bathrooms in areas like railway stations and shopping malls.

The campaign was soon echoed by the public, and Sina Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like service, invited Li for a live chat on Thursday afternoon. Over 300 questions and comments were made, many from men who showed support. “I’m a man but I support you. All men have moms, wives, daughters and sisters. To occupy boys’ bathrooms is not the only goal. It should trigger the response from the government and the society,” said a Weibo user by the name of “Walking Camel.”

When asked where the idea of “occupying” originated, Li said she borrowed it from “Occupy Wall Street.” 

“It echoes the campaign over there, although we are not connected at all," she said.

Following the live chat, Weibo launched an online survey, “Are you happy to use a unisex public bathroom?” But out of 13,000 respondents within one day, only 35 percent of the males and 14 percent of the females said “yes.”

In a phone interview with NBC News, Li said the government has responded to her efforts. The Guangzhou City Administration Committee said it plans to bring the issue up in the legislative process to build 1.5 times more female bathrooms than male.

Li wasn’t too happy with this result. “It’s just not enough. They should build at least twice the female restrooms than male ones,” she told NBC News, “and we have support from many, many people.”

Li plans to continue her campaign in other big cities like Beijing and Shenzhen.