This deliberate fostering of culture of impunity was based on political compromises as the President did not want to offend warlords and criminals by punishing the members of their syndicates. This approach of the government offered the most conducive medium for corrupt officials and culprits to get protected in the criminal networks and safe havens. Criminal warlords, human rights violators, kidnappers, and notorious commanders who are currently in the state institutions or have their members of their networks actively working in key government positions further deepened this problem.      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): Doctors of the central hospital of Uruzgan say that ISAF forces, without permission, shot photos of the female patients in the hospital and distributed expired medicines and biscuits. In reaction to these actions on November 26, the doctors of the central hospital went on a strike from treating the patients. Amir Ahmad, the head physician, told PAN that ISAF forces came to the hospital without permission went to the female section and took their photos. He added that taking women’s photos are again the Afghani customs and culture.      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): In the common border of Torkham between Pakistan and Afghanistan about 4000 children engage in harsh work everyday. Besides being beaten by the border patrols of Pakistan they are also imprisoned. Rana, a 12-year old girl belonging to the Sarkhrud District of Ningarhar province, told PAN on 20 November that her father has Hepatitis and she is forced to work in Torkham. She added that everyday she has to bring a small bag of flour from the other side of the border to earn 10 rupees.      more...

ATN (Translated by RAWA): A 7-year old girl was raped by a young man in Ghazni province of Afghanistan. The girl is currently under treatment in the provincial hospital of Ghazni. Doctors in the hospital say that her condition is better now.      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): The beggars of Hazrat Ali (ra)’s shrine in Balkh who earn a little money with a lot of difficulties, have to pay 30 to 40 Afghanis daily to the police of the shrine. The police officers who are not satisfied from the monthly wages they get from the government, say that 5000 Afghanis in a month is too less to fulfill their needs and so they are forced to take bribe from beggars. On average, everyday almost 250 beggars enter the Mazar-e-Sharif Shrine and each earns a little more or less than a 100 Afghanis everyday. The police officers take 30 Afghanis on average from each beggar and this makes 220,000 Afghanis ($4500) per month.      more...

RAWA News: To condemn the presence of Afghan criminals in the Mini-Peace Jirga in Islamabad, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) held a sit-in protest on October 28, 2008. RAWA denounced the participation of corrupt people and criminals like Abdullah (head of the delegation), Kabir Ranjbar, Arif Noorzai and Farooq Wardak. RAWA emphasized that such murderers and traitors can’t solve the problem of terrorism in both the countries and in no way can represent the Afghan people. The hands of above-mentioned people are stained with the blood of our innocent people.      more...

BBC Persian (Translated by RAWA): Official statistics show that Afghanistan has the highest level of poverty among the South-Asian countries. On the basis of the official statistics, the level of poverty in Afghanistan is thirty to forty percent and around 20 million people are living under the line of poverty in this country. The government of Afghanistan, despite the support of the International Community, has not been able to do something considerable for decreasing poverty.      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): The Police Chief accused the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) of supporting criminals. Atmar said, “One of the main problems of the police is that the police arrests the dangerous criminals but then the Human Rights supports them; when a police is killed no one asks about him or the reason of his killing.”      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): Tens of residents of Sar-e-Pul accused Payinda Mohammad in the “Complaints Hearing Commission” of the Parliament, the representative of Sar-e-Pul in the parliament, for rape, murder, seizure of land and other crimes and claimed that Younis Qanooni, Speaker of the Parliament, supports this MP; but the other side called the allegations “false”. About nine months back, Payinda Mohammad’s son had also raped a 12-year old girl in Sar-e-Pul.      more...

RAWA News: US/NATO bombs kill about ten times more Afghan civilians with a ton of our “precision” bombs than we killed Serbs in 1999. More than 80% of Afghan civilian deaths today caused by the US/NATO are due to close air support attacks. They (Afghans) are only worth one-tenth of an Alaskan sea otter rather than forty camels. We spend ten dollars on the military in Afghanistan to pursue our geo-strategic aims and less than $1 on reconstructing the everyday lives of Afghans devastated by thirty years of war.      more...

BBC Persian (Translated by RAWA): The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) says that human rights violation cases in the country have increased by two times as compared to last year. Continuation of the mafia culture in Afghanistan and “lack of concern” in the prosecution of the criminals are the main causes of increase in cases of human rights violation. Lack of security in Afghanistan was another cause of the continuation of human rights violation in the country.      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): Head of the attorney of Kunduz claims that drug-trafficking is taking place in Sher Khan Bandar (Port) but it's not being stopped, but the authorities of Sher Khan Bandar deny the claims. Hafizullah Khaliqyar, the head of the attorney of Kunduz told PAN in an interview that alcoholic drinks are imported into Afghanistan from Tajikistan and drugs (heroin and opium) are smuggled by Afghanistan into Tajikistan.      more...

BBC Persian (Translated by RAWA): The police of Kabul say that they have arrested seven people for having raped a 12-year old girl in the city. The command police of Kabul said that the matter of the rape of the girl had been reported to them two days earlier and the girl had claimed that she had been raped by twelve men.      more...

BBC Persian (Translated by RAWA): A family in Qunduz province in North Afghanistan has claimed that four people had raped their 12-year old daughter. This girl who herself was present in the binoculars of the press told reporters that first she had been kidnapped on the way from her home to the city and kept in an unknown place for a night. This 12-year old also said that four men had raped her.      more...

The National: RAWA was founded in 1977 by a group of female Afghan intellectuals with the aim of building a government along democratic and secular lines. In the ensuing decades it has protested against foreign occupation and religious extremism, while carrying out such social work as running schools and medical services for refugees who fled to Pakistan. RAWA has never been able to operate openly in this deeply conservative society. Its leader was assassinated in the late 1980s and members now believe US-backed warlords and officials are among those who      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): Five people including a police commander of the security of Hazar Samch had gang-raped this girl who lived in her home with some children. This incident had occurred three nights backs to an 18-year old girl in the Hazar Samch district. The girl told one of the rapists that she had recognized him and he had intended to kill her with a bullet of his gun but she got away with an injury.      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): In 2007, out of 42 million Afghanis earned from the tax of billboards, 17 million has been wasted by the Kabul Municipality. The Municipality has two statistics of the money earned from billboards in 2007. Mahtabuddin Ahmadi, head of the cultural facilitation sector said the income was 33 million whereas Wahabuddin Sadaat, deputy of facilitation of the city sector of the municipality, announced the amount to be 24 million.      more...

RAWA News: The U.S. bombs struck a large gathering of people who had congregated in Azizabad to honor a local leader who had died months earlier. A resident, Fatima, 25, explained from her hospital bed in Herat, where she wept and cursed those who carried out the air strike. “We were holding a memorial service in our home,” she said, tears running down her face. “Suddenly the infidels attacked and I lost consciousness. When I came to, I was in hospital, and they told me that all of my family were dead and already buried. Was my two-year-old child a terrorist? Then am I not also a terrorist? Why did they let me live?”      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): In the present year, 47 cases of self-immolation have been reported in special burn hospital in Herat. Out of these, 42 of the cases had been death as a result of the burns. This shows the rise in the graph of self-immolation, compared to last year. Seema Shir Mohammadi said the reasons for self-immolation are domestic violence, lack of awareness of families about each others’ rights, poverty and unemployment.      more...

RAWA News: On July 26, 2008, an Afghan woman was killed by her husband in Badakhshan province, in north of Afghanistan.      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): In Talaqan (capital city of Takhar province) nine men raped a 13-year old girl. Six people, including three policemen, have been accused of being involved in the crime and detained.      more...

CNN: The young Afghan girl sits in the center of the room, weeping. Using her hand and her blue scarf to hide her face, she recounts how she was brutally raped by five gunmen. The girl's tragic case is one of many in war-torn Afghanistan, activists say. "This is just an example among thousands of other cases," Shaima, a member of RAWA, tells CNN. "The rest go unnoticed by the media."      more...

After my detention and release from the intelligence agency, I am feeling very scared. Only last night when I was reading Dari bulletin on our ATN channel, one of my colleagues in the station received a call from my brother at home informing that he has been witnessing some suspicious movements around my house. Over telephone he said that several armed persons with big turbans and suspected attire were moving around my residence. He told me not to go home because it could be threat to my life. And right from that time I have not visited my house; I am at a safer place provided by my employer ATN.      more...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): In 35 schools of Sheikh Ali district of Parwan province almost half of 8000 students are forced in hard labor such as planting and harvesting wheat and potatoes, collecting harvested beans and irrigating the land.      more...

"Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of Mohammed Naseer Fayyaz, the host of the programme Haqeeqat (The Truth) on privately-owned Ariana TV, who was arrested yesterday by members of the Directorate for National Security (DNS) at the government's behest." "The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by reports that Afghan television reporter Mohammad Naseer Fayyaz was detained one day after his television station aired a documentary that was critical of some cabinet members and their ministries."      more...

A 3-year-old girl named Samira was raped by unknown men in the Shibirghan, the centre of Jozjan province. According to Mahboobullah, the spokesperson of Jozjan’s governor, the small girl was kidnapped two days ago and later freed in Shibirghan.      more...

RAWA News: Muhammad Naseer Fayyaz, an Afghan journalist, news anchor and the host and writer of the political show “Haqeeqat” (The Truth) in ATN TV channel was arrested on July 28 by Directorate for National Security (DNS, Afghan intelligence service) for assessing and criticizing the actions of the Afghan government under Hamid Karzai.      more...

PAN: A female teacher along with her two children was kidnapped and missing since two weeks with no information of their whereabouts in the province of Farah.      more...

A 12-year old schoolgirl was gang-raped by five gunmen in Sarpul province in Northern Afghanistan. The girl and her family asked Hamid Karzai to prosecute the rapists and take their case seriously. They threatened that if they are not provided justice, the whole family will commit mass suicide to get rid of such life. They say, the local authorities keep silence on such cases and did not act to arrest those responsible.      more...

RAWA News: A man named Farid, resident of Kabul was prosecuted publicly for stealing a sack of flour. Farid said that he had to earn for a family of thirteen and has done this act out of poverty. He said, “I had no work for 15 to 30 days. After about another 15 days I stole this to feed my children. I was desperate and forced to do so because of my family.”      more...

Daily Payman: A father raped his 13-year old daughter in Herat. Gulabshah raped his daughter, 13-year old Freshta, after severely beating his wife and forcing her out of the house. Freshta says, “My father tied my feet and mouth and raped me after throwing my mother out of the house.”      more...

PAN: A young girl was raped in Raghistan district of Badakhshan province. 17-year old Razia claimed that 40-year old Altaf Al-Rahman had raped her several times three days back. She told PAN that she wanted justice and the punishment of the rapist but didn’t give any further details.      more...

BBC Persian: Some Afghan villagers say that despite the contribution of billions of dollars to this country in the past six years, their lives have not even changed slightly. They said that corruption had caused a lot of money that was supposed to be used in economical projects to come into the hands of a few people.      more...

PAN: Thousands of families in the south and north of Zaranj (capital city of Nimroz) are faced with shortage of drinking water and most of them have to buy water. More than 20 thousand people in the south of the city of Zaranj have been facing shortage of water for the past ten days. They demanded the solution for this problem urgently.      more...

Hundreds of families of the war victims in a show off protest in front of the UN office called upon president Hamid Karzai and the UN to bring to justice those responsible for three decades long war in the country killing millions of innocent people. Referring to the Paris conference they said hundreds of millions of aid is poured into Afghanistan, but no considerable progress can be seen in the reconstruction of the country.      more...

PAN: More than six million children in the country face problems such as smuggling, abduction, performing harsh jobs and get no education. He said that all governmental organizations should pay serious attention to administer justice for children, make education available, make health services accessible, make better their financial conditions and prevent the smuggling of children.      more...

PAN: A husband in Baghlan province, who had been married only for three nights, slaughtered his wife. Officer Abdul Hameed, the commander of the Security Police of the First District of Pulkhumri said that last midnight, Khwaja Farooq had cut his wife’s throat with a pair of scissors and when the police had arrived few hours later and surrounded his home, he had escaped.      more...

BBC Persian: UN has accused some governmental authorities for having connections with armed, irresponsible groups. According to Afghan authorities and UN, till now more than 300 irresponsible armed bands of have been dissolved but there are about 2000 others in the country. UN and the Defense Ministry of Afghanistan said that most of these groups are involved in terrorist activities, smuggling of drugs and planned crimes.      more...

BBC Persian: Thousands of villagers of the Balkh province in North Afghanistan have settled in a desert near the Sholgira River after losing their cattle and cultivating lands. These villagers have come to this river (which is in the south of Mazar-e-Sharif) in groups from the villages of Alabraz so that “at least they have access to water”. They have either come on foot or on their animals like donkeys.      more...

Marc W. Herold: The facts regarding Afghanistan’s revealed irrelevance to the United States (and a reluctant NATO) are visible to all who wish to look: on average for every $100 spent on military efforts in Afghanistan, a trifling $4.50 is budgeted (and an even smaller amount is disbursed) for so-called reconstruction efforts.      more...