• Afghanistan's female powerhouses: a rapper, a colonel and 'mother' to hundreds

    Soosan Firooz rhymes about Afghanistan and the many crises its people have faced. In a country where public performance by women is frowned upon, this is no easy feat.  NBC News' Tazeen Ahmad reports.

    By Jamieson Lesko, NBC News

    KABUL, Afghanistan -- Odds are, if you are a female in Afghanistan, you have been forced to marry a man who has hurt you, denied access to an education and will die young. It takes extreme measures just to survive, let alone thrive, here.

    There’s no denying the grim litany of evidence. But beyond the bombs and burqas that often define this country is a light shining through the darkness. It turns out some of the bravest women in the world live here. These are the stories of three women in Kabul who dared to defy the odds.

    Soosan Firooz: Afghanistan's first female rapper
    Demure, sweet and soft-spoken are not usually words one would choose to describe a rapper, but Afghanistan's first female rap artist gives a disarming first impression.

    "Rap does not have to be angry," Soosan Firooz said. She uses it to express painful childhood memories of being a civil war refugee and sees rap as a medium through which she can defy the repression of women.

    In her first music video recently released on YouTube, Firooz appeared in Western style clothing and jewelry – headscarf notably absent.

    But pushing the envelope and breaking from Afghanistan's conservative cultural norms does not come without a price. Some members of her family have disowned her and she has faced numerous death threats. Her father quit his job so that he can protect her around the clock. 


    But in the safety of her living room wearing stonewashed jeans and a sweatshirt, she smiled and seemed relaxed as she talked about how she loves Shakira. 

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    "I am worried about it but refuse to just stay inside my house," she said. "I receive threats on phone...but I don't surrender to those risks."

    Firooz explained that her creative expressions are not just for personal gratification because she bears the heavy burden of being the family's primary breadwinner. Firooz also works as a soap opera actress to bring in more income, but she hopes to make it big with her music.

    "I am not only the oldest daughter of the family but also a son of the family and my family needs me. I need to do this job," she said.

    Although she dreams of performing in other countries, Firooz takes pride in being an Afghan.

    "Afghanistan is not a jungle where there are lions everywhere that scare people, there are human beings living in this country," she said.

    "The people of Afghanistan are braver than the rest of the world."

    According to government officials, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mosque in northern Afghanistan, killing 40 people and wounding more than 50. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

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    Col. Latifa Nabizada: Afghanistan's first female Air Force pilot
    Grit, determination and profound love of country led Col. Latifa Nabizada down the unlikely road to becoming the Afghan Air Force's first female helicopter pilot.

    As a little girl growing up in Kabul, she would stare at the sky for hours on end and dream of flying, Nabizada, 40, said. She hung on to the dream for years and at 17, applied for flight school.

    Tech. Sgt. Quinton Russ / U.S. Air Force photo

    Col. Latifa Nabizada stands with her daughter, Malalai, next to a helicopter at Kabul's international airport.

    "As a female, when you want to become anything here, you face so many problems," she said, recalling the scrutiny and rejection she first faced. So she vowed simply to out-work and out-smart her classmates so that no one could question her capabilities.

    "I graduated number one in the class of 72," she said with a grin.

    In the years since, Nabizada earned the respect of her fellow pilots, many of whom she now considers to be her "brothers." The dangerous anti-Taliban missions they have flown together have further strengthened their bonds.

    As she strolled around the Afghan Air Force base in Kabul, flight engineers, technicians and pilots all treated her with a reverence that seemed alien for Afghanistan. "I know many of them would die for me," she said.

    Nabizada pointed to a neighborhood just beyond the vast tarmac of the runway. "My house is right over there. But this is my home," she said, heading toward the MI-17 helicopter she flies.

    Click here for more NBC News stories on Afghanistan

    Despite her extraordinary job, Nabizada is still like so many other women around the world, struggling to juggle the demands of work and family life – except that her particular challenges are less mundane.

    She flew training missions while pregnant with her now-six-year-old daughter Malalai, and when she was born, Nabizada had no choice but to bring the infant to work. "There was nobody to take care of her," she said.

    At two months old, Malalai began accompanying her mother as she piloted training missions, cradled in the arms of Nabizada's engineer since there was no room for a crib on the flight deck. We joked that she should have put a "Baby on Board" sticker on the cockpit window.

    "I want all girls here to know that anything is possible," Nabizada said. 

    Nabizada hopes that someday her own daughter will fly even higher than she has and become Afghanistan's first female astronaut.

    'Mother' Laila: Rehabilitating Afghanistan's lost drug addicts
    Last year, Laila Haidari found herself standing under a Kabul bridge, both heartbroken and horrified by what was before her: dozens of homeless drug addicts strung out on opiates, resigned to a hopeless life and certain death. 

    Jamieson Lesko / NBC News

    Waitress and mother-of-two Masooma, 24, weeps as she recounts the deep depression that led to her opium addiction.

    She was visiting Afghanistan from Iran for a film festival and to see some in-laws, but this fateful sighting changed everything.

    "No one was helping them," she said. "They were going to die there. I couldn't leave." Haidari, now 34, decided to move to Kabul. She didn't even go home to pack up her belongings.

    With the help of a loan from friends, Haidari opened a free shelter for addicts and their families. She also established a café and staffed it with volunteers recovering at the shelter – a step toward reintegrating into the work force. She named it Taj Begum, which means "Women's Crown" in Dari. 

    There was an oasis-like feel to the cafe when NBC News visited, with flowers and day beds sprawled across the outdoor space. Two white rabbits hopped around the grass freely, munching on dried rose petals in between the tables. 

    On a recent evening, middle-class Afghans and ex-pats sipped tea in the café's outdoor patio, their plates heaped with rice and meat. A local rock band played after dark, donating their ticket sales to the shelter.

    NBC's Atia Abawai explains what's behind the worsening attacks on U.S. military personnel by Afghan security and military to NBC's Andrea Mitchell.

    "I love working here," said Hussain, 30, who works in the kitchen. "Laila has saved my life in every way."

    He was addicted to heroin when Haidari found him under the bridge, and said he was still haunted by memories of last year's brutal winter when he watched several friends freeze to death.

    "I had tried many times to get help but no one would take me in," he said. "I thought that I was going to die, too, just like them."

    Although the shelter is mostly full of men, there are four women here. Drug use poses a major problem for women in Afghanistan but it isn't commonly known or spoken about, since so few emerge from the shadows of shame to seek treatment.

    Outrage at Afghan woman's execution on video

    Waitress and mother-of-two Masooma, 24, wept as she recounted the deep depression that led to her opium addiction. In the course of six months, both her husband and brother died, she said. "I was broken. I lost everything. I just wanted to escape."

    As her addiction clouded over her, Masooma began having serious trouble caring for her sons and realized that she needed a way out of the nightmare. "They are innocent. I didn't want to hurt them," she said.

    Masooma said she will never be able to repay Haidari for taking her in. She -- and most of the recovering addicts at the shelter -- don't refer to her by name, but instead by "mother."

    These are the bonds that keep Haidari going, despite the high personal price she has paid for walking this path in life. Her marriage dissolved and she misses the family she left behind in Iran. She said she has been getting death threats, but that she won't give up.

    "These people are my family now," she says. "I will not leave them."

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  • Newlywed Afghan beheaded for her refusal to become prostitute

    Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

    Najibullah, who confessed to murdering his cousin's wife, Mahgul, 25, walks handcuffed with two Afghanistan security personnel in Herat on Oct. 15, 2012. Afghan police have arrested four people who allegedly forced a woman into prostitution in western Afghanistan and beheaded her after she refused, officials said.

    By Tazeen Ahmad, NBC News

    The decapitation of a young woman who resisted being forced into prostitution by her own family has led to the arrests of four Afghans, and shocked a country that has seen its share of violence over decades of war. 

    Mahgul, a 25-year-old newlywed, was murdered in Herat, a region of western Afghanistan where attacks against women have been on the rise, Afghan police told journalists. Her killing this past week was particularly disturbing because her body was found decapitated outside her marital home.

    Police said the arrests on Saturday include her mother-in-law, father-in-law, and her husband.

    The fourth individual is reported to be her husband’s cousin, who was arrested later after witnesses said he was seen with a bloody knife outside the house at the time the murder took place. The 18-year-old, identified only as Najibullah, confessed to the crime in front of reporters and television cameras, saying his aunt, Parigul, forced him to kill Mahgul.

    Thousands of UK troops to quit Afghanistan in '13

    “My uncle’s wife told me I should kill this person,” he told reporters. “I couldn’t kill her. She told me, ‘if you can’t kill her, then help me do it.’ She forced me and I helped her.” 

    He described how his aunt held Mahgul down by the legs as he beheaded her. Najibullah said his aunt told him she wanted the bride dead "'because she doesn’t listen to me.'"

    Joint US-Afghan operations are becoming more common, and so are the risks. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

    Police said their investigation has led them to conclude Mahgul was killed because she refused to become a prostitute and that during her four months of marriage she was repeatedly pressured by her mother-in-law to sleep with other men.

    Mahgul’s immediate family were the ones to discover her body. They joined protests outside a police station in Herat, where dozens of women’s rights activists were protesting about delays in charging suspects in murder cases such as Mahgul's.

    Ryan wades deep into lengthy Afghanistan argument 


    This murder follows the discovery of another case in the region earlier this month, in which the body of a 30-year-old woman was found with her nose, ears and fingers removed.  

    Amnesty International said Mahgul’s murder was one of many violent incidents against women and girls in the region. The Herat region, which borders Iran, was once known for its liberal treatment of women but has become increasingly conservative in the past decade.  

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    At least 700 cases of violence against Herat women have been documented in the past year, according to estimates by the Department of Women’s Affairs in Herat. Cases include domestic violence, torture, murder and physical mutilation.

    Sayed Abdul Qadir Rahimi, regional director for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in Western Afghanistan, told NBC News that violence against women was on the rise and that countless more cases go unreported.

    Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said in a briefing that the United States would continue working with the Afghan government to advance women and girls’ rights.

    "All of our international efforts are designed to create the structures and institutions of the Afghan state to help protect these rights going forward," Nuland said. "But it’s a long road, and we’re going to have to keep working on it. And as we’ve said, even as we wind down the combat mission, our civilian programs are going to continue in Afghanistan."

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  • Women on ballot in Palestinian city's first election in decades

    AP

    Palestinian Maysoun Qawasmi, the 43-year-old party leader of By Participating, We Can, attends a meeting in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sept. 13, 2012.

    By Yara Borgal, NBC News

    HEBRON, West Bank – “By Participating, We Can!” that slogan has made a group of women in Hebron who are challenging male dominance the talk of their famously conservative Palestinian city.

    Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city with 250,000 Palestinian residents, will go to the polls to choose city officials for the first time since 1976 on Oct. 20. And it will be the first time that one of the candidate lists on the ballot is made up entirely of women – teachers, civil-servants, business women and volunteers.   

    The road taken by these women has not, however, been easy.

    They have faced tremendous opposition from the local community, including comments directly to the women such as “you are wasting your time.”  

    But Maysoun Qawasmi, leader of the bloc, and a 43-year-old mother of three sons and two daughters, remains undaunted.

    Challenging the status quo
    Qawasmi explained that the women initially faced legal objections to forming an all-female political bloc.


    “I researched everything I could about election laws until I found out that there was no law against an all-female party competing,” Qawasmi said. 

    She said some members of her own family initially resisted her challenging the status quo given the importance of tribal values woven throughout the fabric of society here.

    For example, she explained that a local belief states, “No matter where a woman reaches, her brain remains small.”

    But Qawasmi, who wears a headscarf and describes herself as secular, has not lived by those words. She is a journalist and human rights activist. Politics are new to her, but she does not believe that her secularism puts her at any kind of political disadvantage.

    “I go down and talk to people. I always tell my kids that social skills are more important than intellectual skills,” she said.

    As a member of a prominent family clan in Hebron, her family name has been advantageous.

    “We have a good CV and this is beneficial. But I am also up against five other candidates from the Qawasmi family. Besides, almost three quarters of my family clan support Hamas, so that’s at least 20,000 votes gone,” she said. (However, the Islamic group Hamas say they are boycotting this election). 

    The idea of forming an all-female bloc stemmed from five years of work empowering women. For her and those around her, she had already crossed customary boundaries by becoming the manager of the Palestinian Wafa News Agency in Hebron.

    The bloc had initially recruited 50 potential qualified candidates – but that number whittled down to 11.

    “Many high-caliber women had to pull out for various reasons,” she said. “We had a highly qualified woman with a Ph.D. who had to pull out when a brother chose to run for elections in the same family; the male is given priority over the woman.”

    Generally, running as a bloc increases the chances of getting more votes leading to a higher number of seats in the municipality. Qawasmi believes that her bloc is likely to gain support from young men and women.

    ‘Women should represent society, but not to this extent’
    Not everyone however, agrees with her vision.

    Wadie, a 35-year-old chef from Hebron, offered his opinion on the matter.

    “Our religion does not give a woman the right to enter the Shura Council (Consultative Council). It dignifies her to be in her house,” said Wadie, only chose to share his first name.

    “I personally don’t believe she will get votes except from the Qawasmi family. If Qawasmi succeeds she will be fought against, she is not liked because she encourages freedom.”

    He added a religious argument to his opposition. “Eighty percent of Hebron is religious…I have to stick to the book of God. Women should represent society, but not to this extent.”

    Wadie’s opinion may represent a high percentage of the men in Hebron, but there are others who are looking at more than gender with their vote. 

    “It’s not a man or woman thing, people judge according to who works harder. If the rest of the bloc was as strong as [Qawasmi] they would have a chance at winning,” said Issa Amr, a 33-year-old male resident of Hebron.

    Hoping other women will follow
    For now, Qawasmi is satisfied that the bloc has been officially registered.

    “I want to do what I can do. I want to do what must be done by decision makers and prioritize real issues that have not been addressed by the municipality,” she said. “I hope this will enhance the role of women in the political sphere at the larger level. I do expect women in other locations to follow.”   

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  • Aiding terrorists? Syrian women risk all to help dissidents

    Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters, file

    Syrian soldiers check cars at a checkpoint near the Syrian capital Damascus in January.

     

    By Reuters

    BEIRUT - When the aspirin and alcohol swabs fell from under her clothes at a Syrian army checkpoint, Rania stood petrified, looking first down at her fallen contraband and then up at the soldier who stared straight back at her.

    Rania knew that smuggling food and medicine to Syrian opposition activists was considered by security forces to be "aiding terrorists" and treated as severely as weapons smuggling.

    "I thought to myself: I am dead," said Rania, 27, recalling the incident on the outskirts of Damascus.

    She was in luck. The soldier was a sympathizer.

    "Quick," she quoted him as saying. "Pick up your medicine and go, before my commanding officer comes back."

    And with that pardon, she fled.

    During the 13-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, Syrian forces have killed more than 9,000 people in shootings and bombardment of rebel areas, the United Nations says. Thousands more have been arrested.

    Obama unveils sanctions on Syria, Iran for assault on activists 

    Syrian authorities, who say foreign-backed militants have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and police, have supplied aid to residents they say are fleeing "armed terrorists" but have repeatedly denied access to international aid organizations.

    Activists say most people wounded in the unrest will not go to state hospitals for fear they will be considered enemies of Assad and arrested rather than treated.

    Amateur video shows poorly stocked makeshift hospitals in opposition strongholds, many without electricity, with doctors pleading for help from the outside world.

    Stories of atrocities carried out by Syrian government forces shortly before the ceasefire began are emerging. ITV's John Irvine reports from Taftanaz, Northern Syria, where 60 people were massacred in one day.

    In the absence of international support, dissidents have found informal ways to smuggle food and medicine to injured and famished people around the country.

    Rania and her friends, a group of young, liberal women, pretend to be conservative Muslims, hiding the medicines, food and money they bring out of Damascus to Homs city under thick layers of clothing and headscarves.

    How many others make similar smuggling trips around Syria, they have no way of knowing. They say this method of smuggling is an open secret, but authorities are unwilling to search women, especially those who appear pious, as it would cause an outcry.

    Forming the team
    Rania, a qualified lawyer, operates in a team of four, including two female friends who worked as supermarket checkout assistants. The fourth team member is a doctor.

    She agreed to be interviewed via Skype, but would not give her last name for fear that it could compromise their operation. Another of the girls, Ola, agreed to answer questions through a friend who sometimes helps the team, who herself asked not to be named.

    All of the group are from Homs, one of the worst hit areas in Syria, where forces have been shelling central districts for months.

    "Me and the girls met the doctor, who is a childhood friend, and asked him how we could help people who were injured or in need of food," Rania said.

    The team rented a large apartment in a poor area of Damascus where prices are low. All quit their jobs, except the doctor who does four shifts a week; authorities suspect doctors who leave work, residents say, assuming they have joined the opposition.

    AP

    A doctor treats a wounded boy at a makeshift hospital in Homs on Saturday. Activists say most people wounded in the unrest will not go to state hospitals for fear they will be considered enemies of the government and arrested rather than treated.

    "We sold everything we could, even our jewelry," said Ola. "We filled the apartment with rice, sugar, spaghetti and vegetable oil.

    The doctor uses his sources to get anti-inflammatories, bandages and trauma kits." To save money, the team eats two meals a day.

    To keep a low profile, they rarely make phone calls and only leave the building when necessary. They work at night.

    When other activists visit, they are asked to bring their own food to keep costs low.

    "Smuggling is expensive," said the friend who asked not to be named. "You need a taxi driver who will agree to go through the checkpoints out of Damascus and take the two-hour drive to Homs. It is dangerous for him, too".

    Gauze and bandages
    Operations start at the apartment. The women change their jeans and tank tops for long-sleeved dresses and the conservative Muslim hijab head scarf.

    "I am thin so we can fit lots of medical gauze under my clothes," said the friend. "One of the girls stuffs cotton bandages in her bra."

    The women, often covered in a hidden layer of antibiotics, travel alone in a private taxi or a bus north out of the capital to Homs city.

    "The government knows everything, but they don't want extra trouble," said the friend. "In (the Damascus suburb of) Douma, security members arrested some women and it caused a huge amount of civil disobedience."

    But not every checkpoint is safe and there are slip-ups that could land Rania and Ola in prison.

    "Sometimes we are detained at checkpoints. We either pay a bribe or wait to see what will happen to us. Some of the checkpoints are manned by Assad loyalist gunmen who don't work for the regular army," says Ola. "We fear them the most."

    Syrian rebels detonate a bomb on main highway

    "But the worst time for me was when I was due to meet another activist to give him some blood bags, money and food," said Ola.

    She waited in the rain but the man did not show.

    "It was late at night, I was forced to leave the food on the side of the road as the risk of returning with it through checkpoints was too great," she said.

    "I walked home, crying. The trip had been for nothing."

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    Violence in Syria is spilling across the border, as Syrian troops target refugees looking for safety.  NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.  

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Moroccan parliament debates controversial marriage law after rape victim's suicide

    Abdelhak Senna / AFP - Getty Images

    Morocco's Solidarity, Women and Family minister Bassima Hakkaoui, the only woman in the new Islamist-led government, speaks during a debate about underage marriage in parliament in Rabat on April 16, 2012, next to Justice minister Mustafa Ramid.

    Abdelhak Senna / AFP - Getty Images

    Hamida, the sister of Amina Al Filali, holds a poster of her sister during a sit-in protest outside the local court in Larache that had approved the marriage on March 15, 2012.

    By David R Arnott, NBC News

    Morocco's parliament has been debating a controversial law that allows rapists to marry their underage victims after the suicide of a teenage girl last month raised doubts about the effectiveness of reforms to women's rights brought in by King Mohammed VI. 

    The North African country's Islamist-led government has been urged by human rights groups to amend article 475 of the penal code, which allows a rapist to marry his victim if she is a minor as a way of avoiding prosecution. 

    Sixteen-year-old Amina El-Filali killed herself by swallowing rat poison on March 10 after being severely beaten during a six-month forced marriage to the man who raped her.

    --Reuters contributed to this report

  • 'Where is justice?' Afghans march to protest violence against women

    Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

    Members of the group Afghan Young Women for Change take part in a protest denouncing violence against women in Kabul, Afghanistan Saturday.

    By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

    Members of Afghan Young Women for Change staged a protest march in Afghanistan's capital Kabul Saturday, denouncing violence against women, according to AFP photographs.

    Some among the group of about 30 women were pictured holding placards that read "Where is justice?"

    They took to the streets following the killing of five Afghan women in less than a month in three provinces of the country, AFP said.

    Concern is mounting among some Western officials, activists and some of the country's lawmakers that women's rights could be compromised under any power-sharing deal between the government and the Taliban, which President Hamid Karzai has been seeking to end the war, Reuters reported.

    Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

    Afghan police keep watch from behind a wire fence during the protest.

    Activists were outraged last month when Karzai appeared to back recommendations from his powerful clerics, the Ulema Council, to segregate the sexes and allow husbands to beat wives under certain circumstances, reminiscent of Taliban rule, Reuters said.

    The Islamist group banned women from most work, education and the right to vote during their 1996-2001 rule, laws which halted Koofi's medical studies following her bachelor degree in law and political science.

    Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images

    Afghan Young Women for Change activists hold placards that read "Where is justice?"

    And there other indications that Karzai and his government, by extending an olive branch to the Taliban, have started to clamp down on political rights.

    Lawmaker Fawzia Koofi has announced she will stand for the Afghan presidency at the next election.

    Koofi -- lucky to be alive after she was condemned to die shortly after birth for being a girl -- has become an outspoken Afghan member of parliament and a champion of women's rights.

    The 36-year-old expects harsh opposition, threats of violence and pressure against her family as her campaign gets underway to replace Karzai, who must step down that year after serving the constitutional limit of two consecutive terms.

    "I am sure my campaign will be the noisiest. I will have lots of troubles against me," the politician from the country's remote northeastern Badakhshan province told Reuters in an interview this week.

    "It's very easy to terrorize a woman in Afghanistan. It's very easy to create accusations against a woman, and then her political life will be finished," she added.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • 400 women held in Afghanistan for 'moral crimes' such as fleeing domestic abuse

    Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

    Female prisoners gather in the courtyard of a women's prison in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, on Oct. 22, 2010.

    By Reuters

    Updated at 6:18 a.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan -- For Afghan women, the act of fleeing domestic abuse or forced prostitution may land them in jail while their abusers walk free, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Wednesday.

    Running away is considered a "moral crime" for women in Afghanistan while some rape victims are also imprisoned, because sex outside marriage -- even when the woman is forced -- is considered adultery, another "moral crime."

    "From the first time I came to this world my destiny was destroyed," 17-year-old Amina, who has spent months in jail after being forced into prostitution, told researchers from Human Rights Watch.

    Despite progress in women's rights and freedom since the fall of the Taliban a decade ago, women throughout the country are at risk of abduction, rape, forced marriage and being traded as commodities.

    PhotoBlog: Afghan graffiti artists depict violence and injustice of women's lives

    It can be hard for women to escape violence at home because of huge social pressure and legal risks to stay in marriages.

    "The treatment of women and girls accused of 'moral crimes' is a black eye on the face of the post-Taliban Afghan government and its international backers, all of whom promised that respect for women's rights would distinguish the new government from the Taliban," the New York-based group said.

    "This situation has been further undermined by President (Hamid) Karzai's frequently changing position on women's rights. Unwilling or unable to take a consistent line against conservative forces within the country, he has often made compromises that have negatively impacted women's rights."

    Teen boxer Sadaf Rahimi, who aims to compete at this summer's London Olympics, hopes her achievements will be an example to others in her war-ravaged country. NBC News' Kiko Itasaka reports.

    The rights organization said that there were about 400 women and girls being held in Afghanistan for "moral crimes", and they rarely found support from authorities in a "dysfunctional criminal justice system".  

    'He will kill me'
    The plight of a woman called Nilofar illustrates the problem. She was stabbed repeatedly with a screwdriver in the head, chest, and arms by her husband who accused her of adultery for inviting a man into the house, the rights group said.

    But afterwards, she was arrested, he was not.

    Afghan woman, imprisoned over rape, is free

    "The way he beat her wasn't bad enough to keep him in jail. She wasn't near death, so he didn't need to be in prison," the prosecutor of the case told Human Rights Watch.

    The dire treatment of women was the main reason Western countries gave for refusing to recognize the Taliban government as legitimate when it was in power.

    As Afghan and Western leaders seek a negotiated end to more than 10 years of war, the future for women is uncertain.

    The United States and NATO -- who are fighting an unpopular war as they prepare to pull out most combat troops by the end of 2014 -- have stressed that any settlement must ensure the constitution, which says the two sexes are equal, is upheld.

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Jangir / AFP - Getty Images

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

    Launch slideshow

    A law, passed in August 2009, supports equality for women, including criminalizing child and forced marriage, selling and buying women for marriage or for settling disputes, as well as forced self-immolation, among other acts.

    PhotoBlog: Life inside a women's prison in Afghanistan

    But women, especially in rural areas, lack shelters to flee abuse while only one percent of police are female, according to the report based on interviews from October to November with 58 women and girls as well as prosecutors, judges, government officials and civil society.

    Social stigma 
    The ordeal for women does not stop with jail though.

    Once leaving prison, women and girls face strong social stigma in the conservative country and may be killed in so-called "honor killings".

    "I just want a divorce. I can't go back to my father because he will kill me. All my family has left me behind," 20-year-old Aisha, who was sentenced to three years for fleeing an abusive husband she was forced to marry, told researchers.

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  • Afghanistan's answer to 'Million Dollar Baby'?

    Teen boxer Sadaf Rahimi, who aims to compete at this summer's London Olympics, hopes her achievements will be an example to others in her war-ravaged country. NBC News' Kiko Itasaka reports.

     

    Olympic hopeful Sadaf Rahimi's family and coach have received death threats because she's a boxer.

    The 18-year-old Afghan, who trains in a stadium where the Taliban used to carry out executions, says: "I want to show Afghan women don't stay behind closed doors." NBC News' Kiko Itasaka reports.

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  • Top German paper Bild takes topless women off front page

    Odd Andersen / AFP - Getty Images

    Men working at Germany's biggest selling newspaper, Bild, have decided to stop publishing front-page pictures of naked women after 28 years, the paper announced today.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    BERLIN -- Germany's best-selling daily, Bild, has removed its trademark pictures of topless women from the front page in a gesture to quell a storm of complaints, the paper said Friday.

    Bild, which sells about 4 million copies a day, will now carry the images on page three instead, a format favored by British tabloids.

    "It is perhaps a small step from a female perspective, but for Bild and all men in Germany, it is a big step," Bild said in an article.

     

    Topless women on the cover have been part of Bild's identity for 28 years. More than 5,000 have bared their breasts there since 1984, according to the BBC.

    "I'm pleased that the pictures have finally disappeared from the front of the paper but the question is how long it will stay away. It was very degrading but we will have to wait and see whether this is permanent," said Monika Lazar, women's spokeswoman for Green party.

    The decision, which was taken on International Women's Day on Thursday, is intended to make the paper more acceptable to women but without losing its character, the paper said. Bild also gave all female employees the day off to mark International Women's Day.

    "Of course Bild wants to remain sexy. But in a more modern way, and better packaged inside the paper. Just as so many women and reader panels have wanted," the paper said.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Report: Saudi woman dies after campus protest

    By msnbc.com staff

    A Saudi Arabian woman died and dozens more were injured after a protest at a university was stormed by stick-wielding police, London's Times newspaper reported on Friday.

    Human Rights Watch's Christoph Wilcke told msnbc.com from Germany that he had read in Arabic-language news reports that hundreds of female students from the Arabic literature and education departments of King Khaled University in the southwest of the country were angry at "harsh" treatment by their supervisors and the fact that trash in their departments was not picked up for three days.

    Some reports put the number of protesters at 5,000, said Wilcke, a senior researcher at the organization's Middle East and North Africa division for Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

    One protester died in the hospital of an epileptic seizure and another miscarried her unborn child after the demonstration was broken up, the newspaper reported. (The Times operates behind a pay wall).

    Malaysia deports Saudi accused of prophet insult

    Videos that Wilcke had seen showed "women shouting, being agitated ... (but) entirely peaceful," he said.

    Wilcke estimated that between 50 and 100 members of the religious police were called to the university along with regular police, based on the reports he had seen. Protesters threw shoes as police arrived, the Times reported.

    The university promised to investigate the incident, the Times reported.

    'Caught up with the world'
    While seen by some as a champion of women's rights in the deeply conservative country, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah "has not made good on any big hopes concretely" since he came to power in 2005," Wilcke said.

    Nevertheless, the demonstration and the fact that it was being reported highlighted the "general evolution of Arab society," Wilcke said. A recent protest at a women's prison went virtually unreported, he said.

    Amnesty calls Saudi beheading for sorcery 'shocking'

    "Here something happened and we heard about it," he said. Wilcke added that it was also significant because of the size and the fact that the women demonstrated openly.

    "They stood in the blazing sun and decided to chant for a while," he said. "It means that the Saudis have caught up with the world, they are more aware of their rights … (but it) doesn't mean that the government has shifted gear."

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  • An Egyptian career woman? Soon it could be rare

    Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

    Women shout slogans against the Egyptian military council before marching with other women to mark International Women's Day in Cairo on Thursday.

    By Charlene Gubash

    CAIRO, Egypt – International Women's Day took on special meaning for the more than 1,000 Egyptian women who braved harassment to march through downtown Cairo Wednesday. 

    The demonstration was sparked by the belief of many women that the recent political victories by socially conservative Islamists, who now control over 70 percent of the parliament, will eventually undermine the few hard-fought rights they have won. 

    “The situation is going backward,” complained flight attendant Nadia Salim. “The Salafists (conservative Islamists who believe in a strict interpretation of Sharia law and that women should have a limited role in society) and Muslim Brotherhood will bring us back 100 years.”

    Trying to preserve existing rights
    The women said they took to the streets not to gain more rights, but to preserve those they already enjoy.  "We have to hold onto what we have because of the Salafists and Islamists," warned university professor Iman Azzad. 

    Their main demand is that women should make up half of the committee that will draft Egypt's new constitution.  Women fear that the Islamist majority will take away their right to divorce and to win custody of their children

    "Women are half of society," said Salim. "Why shouldn’t we form half of the constitutional committee?"

    Activist Dina Abou El Soud said she had heard that the country’s judges had plans for women to make up only a 10 percent of the panel shaping Egypt's next constitution. She believes women's rights will be the first thing to be sacrificed in order to please the Islamist majority. 

    It’s a sea change from the ousted regime of President Hosni Mubarak, when women were guaranteed 64 parliamentary seats.  In the latest post-revolutionary elections, the quota was eliminated and women won only five seats.  "The other seats went to the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists," said El Soud, co-founder of the Revolutionary Women's Coalition, which has 4,000 members on Facebook.

     "We are going backward, backward and backward," she added as she passed out fliers in English and Arabic. "It is time to make a women's revolution”

    Charlene Gubash / NBC News

    Mahy al Aref, left, and her mother, Magda al Akkad, right, at the International Women's Day march in Cairo on Wednesday.

    El Soud also said that Islamists are trying to discredit existing women's rights by suggesting they were imposed by the Mubarak regime, deriding them as "Suzanne Mubarak's Laws,” the name of the former first lady.

    "It’s ridiculous. They are international women's rights that we have gained,” she said.  

    Ready for drastic measures
    Considering what Egypt's roughly 40 million women stand to lose, Wednesday's turnout was miniscule. Mahy al Aref, a well-dressed pharmacy graduate, said the small crowd was probably due “a lack of educational awareness.”

    She said she is worried about putting her German university degree to good use in an increasingly conservative society, a concern shared by her mother, Magda al Akkad, who runs an NGO. "I am worried because of the Islamist direction,” she said. “They have their ideas. I don't know where it will go, but I don't think they will be fair to women in general."

    Al Akkad said she said she can foresee a day when Egypt would become unlivable for her and her daughter.  "If fanatics rule, I will leave this country,” she declared.

  • Afghan artists use graffiti to depict violence and injustice of women's lives

    Mohammad Ismail / Reuters

    A graffiti piece by Shamsia Hassani and Qasem Foushanji on a wall in Kabul, March 5, 2012.

    Reuters reports from Kabul — Encased in a head-to-toe burqa, the image depicts a distraught woman slumped on a cement stairwell, the work of Afghanistan's first street artists who use graffiti to chronicle violence and oppression.

    The female-male duo surreptitiously spray-paint the crumbling and dilapidated walls of buildings in the capital city, abandoned and destroyed during 30 years of war that still rages today.

    Talking of her woman on the steps, Shamsia Hassani, 24, said: "She is wondering if she can get up, or if she will fall down. Women in Afghanistan need to be careful with every step they take."

    Omar Sobhani / Reuters, file

    Shamsia Hassani signs one of her works in Kabul on Dec. 19, 2010. A group of women in burqas rises from the sea to symbolise cleanliness, while further down the factory wall a bus with no wheels and crammed with passengers is a stark comment on war-torn Kabul's appalling public transport.

    The somber depictions of Afghan women on Kabul's rutted streets offer rare public insight into their lives, still marred by violence and injustice despite progress in women's rights since the Taliban was toppled over a decade ago.

    In an abandoned textile factory, Hassani spray-painted a wall with six willowy figures in sky-blue burqas, who rise out of the ground like ghosts.

    "In three decades of war, women have had to carry the greatest burdens on their shoulders," Hassani, who also works in the faculty of fine arts at Kabul University, told Reuters. Read the full story.

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