RAWA News: A 27 years old Afghan woman committed self-immolation and died in Pushtoon Zarghon district of Herat province in Western Afghanistan on Monday, March 16. Local officials confirmed the incident and say apparently she had committed self-immolation due to domestic violence. They say an investigation has been started.      Full news...

BBC Persian (Translated by RAWA): At the threshold of International Women’s Day, Afghan officials give the news of self-immolation in eastern Afghanistan. According to the local officials of Herat province, a 45-year-old woman committed self-immolation due to ‘poverty and mental pressures’.      Full news...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): A man poured acid on the face of his wife and she is in a critical condition in the Kunduz Hospital. This act was committed in the Fourth Region of Kunduz City last night by a teacher called Shakir Mohammad against his 26-year old wife, Alia. According to her information, Alia had not gone to Khan Abad with him and stayed in her father’s home. Her husband had entered and the splashed acid on her face the moment he faced her.      Full news...

Wakht News Agency (Translated by RAWA): Authorities of the Human Rights Organization and Gul Afroz’s family, a girl who was raped, demanded severe punishment for the people accused of being involved in the crime; saying the order of the preliminary court of the Sar-e-Pul province is not enough. 13-year old Gul Afroz was gang-raped by two armed men three months back in the Kohistanat District of Sar-e-Pul Province. The accusers are not contented with the sentence of the court.      Full news...

The Journal: After NATO's invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, most people thought the world had finally remembered and rescued a country drowned in pain and sorrow. But despite the attention paid by the international community, today Afghanistan is one of the poorest, most under-developed countries in the world. RAWA believes that no other nation can liberate Afghan women, and it is their own responsibility to raise and fight for their rights. In this hard fight we need the support and solidarity of peace-loving and democratic-minded people of the world.      Full news...

Tolo T.V. (Translated by RAWA): The relatives of patients admitted in the Jamhooriat Hospital complain about the lack of hygienic equipments, necessary medicines and carelessness of the people in charge in the Ministry of Public Health. They say they even have to buy the important equipments of surgery from the bazaar. The head of the surgery department of the Jamhooriat Hospital confirmed the statements and said they have many problems and no steps have been taken by the Ministry of Public Health to solve the matters. A hospital worker said, “We buy all items, from the thread with which we sew the cuts to the substance with which the cut is washed.”      Full news...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): A 12-year old boy in Faryab province was raped. General Mohammad Sadiq, commander of the Commanding Security of Faryab, told PAN that the boy was named Farhad and had been kidnapped a day back. Two men in a Corolla car had kidnapped him from the city of Maimana to the Shireen Tugab District and raped him there. He added that after that the rapists had intoxicated him and freed him from a Corolla car in the Friday Bazaar in Maimanah (capital city of Faryab) and escaped from there.      Full news...

Tolo TV (Translated by RAWA): Rape victims demand severe punishments for the people involved in the crime. Two girls, thirteen and twelve years old, were gang-raped by powerful men and regional commanders in Sar-e-Pul about four months back. They say that till now no measures have been taken against the people who had raped them. They demanded justice from the government and legal and judicial bodies. Increasing cases of rape, especially those of children, have greatly worried people in the country. Human rights organizations have also expressed concern over the terrible aftermath of the rapes.      Full news...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): Recent statistics show that about 25% of women in the country are subjected to sexual violence. Younis Payan, deputy of the United Nations Population Fund in Afghanistan (UNFPA), who was giving a speech on the first day of a one-day workshop (A Happy Family and Intact Society from Islam’s Viewpoint), said the survey had been conducted recently. According to Younis Payan, the statistics show that about 30.7% women suffer physical violence and another 30% suffer from psychological violence.      Full news...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): The police in Farah province arrested five men-including a policeman -for kidnapping and raping a 15-year old girl and rescued the girl from them. According to him, the soldier of the Provincial Security Commander had kidnapped a 15-year old girl from the Farah city and took her to the home of one of his relatives, and there together with some other men raped her.      Full news...

RAWA News: According to a report of Radio Azadi, on December 8th, a horrifying crime shooked the little village of Khomdan, some distance from Dasht-e-Qala District of Takhar province. Two women and a 2-year old girl were cut into pieces with an axe, by unknown armed men. It’s still not known who is behind this crime.      Full news...

PAN (Translated by RAWA): This year, the rate of violence against women in Kunduz, especially rape of small girls has increased by two times compared to last year. Expressing concern over this situation, Nadira Gyah, head of the Women’s Affairs in Kunduz told PAN that this year 60 cases of violence, including that of rapes, beatings, coerced marriages and running away from homes due to lack of substantial sustenance; were recorded in the administration.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.”      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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.      Full news...

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