Fair: Media are celebrating the participation of Afghan girls in a robotics competition in DC after being denied visas twice as somehow a feel-good story about America. No one seems to have pondered the irony of the denial, given that Afghan girls doing science is precisely the sort of PR moment the US pretended the 2001 invasion was all about. It could have opened a talk about what decades of unending war on Afghanistan have actually done towards that ostensible goal, but it did not.      Full news...

TOLOnews.com: An Afghan diplomat who reportedly beat his wife so badly that she required medical care at a hospital won’t face legal consequences for his action as he has diplomatic immunity, police told the New York Post. The report said that Mohammad Yama Aini allegedly assaulted his wife Mezhgan Aini, 30, at their home in New York city at 12:30 a.m Saturday, police sources said.      Full news...

HRW: Many more women are being killed and injured in Afghanistan today than a year ago, according to the United Nation’s latest civilian casualty report. They are casualties of an intensifying armed conflict that is also claiming more children as victims every year. As news outlets focus on increases in US troop numbers and policy shifts in Afghanistan, it’s easy to forget the terrible toll the war has on Afghan civilians.      Full news...

The Killid Group: A recent survey reveals that the maternal and child mortality rate in Afghanistan has once again surged compared to previous years and the hopes that the problem would be addressed has gone forever. Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) had announced last year to alleviate maternal and child mortality rate through a five-year plan of midwifery nursing. The maternal and child mortality rate was 237 women from 100,000 before but the figure is now 1,200 women from 100,000 Afghan women.      Full news...

Roushd News (Translated by RAWA): Authorities of Balkh province say that unknown men shot a female teacher to death in Balkh district of this province. The woman was a teacher in the district and was killed this morning. Sher Jan Durrani, spokesperson of the Balkh police, stated that the woman was 25-years-old.      Full news...

Khaama Press (Translated by RAWA): A woman was killed with an axe in northern Sare Pul province, it has been reported. Authorities of the province say the incident occurred during noon in Chashme Shifa area of the province, the day before. Zabiullah Amani, the governor’s spokesperson, also confirmed the incident, saying the husband had escaped. He said efforts are being made to arrest and prosecute him.      Full news...

Khaama Press: A young girl was gang-raped and brutally killed by unknown gunmen in southern Uruzgan province of Afghanistan, the local officials said Sunday. The incident took place in the vicinity of Gezab district, involving several armed men, repeated raping the 8-year-old victim and hanging her to death.      Full news...

TOLOnews (Translated by RAWA): Qadria, a resident of Farkhar district in Takhar province, spoke to TOLOnews on May 18, and revealed the forms of violence she faced from her husband and his relatives. She said that the night before, her mother-in-law, husband, and two brother-in-laws, first accused her of having relations with a man living next door, then locked her in a room; then they tied up her hands and feet and taped her mouth, and tortured her with hot screwdrivers and pliers.      Full news...

BBC Persian (Translated by RAWA): Doctors in Herat Hospital say that they need a special healthcare center with special equipment to deal with patients who attempt suicide by taking toxic substances. Dr. Aziz ul Rahman Jami, head of the emergency department told BBC that in one year (1395) about 1000 people in Herat province attempted suicide by taking toxic substances. About 30 of these people died while the rest were saved.      Full news...

Salam Watandar: Funcionários da província de Ghor relataram que um homem ligado a Said Ahmad, comandante local da província de Ghor, jogou uma mulher em um vale e depois amarrou seu corpo quase morto a um cavalo, e a arrastou até a morte. O incidente ocorreu na aldeia de SamK, distrito de Dawlatyar.      Full news...

Salam Watandar: Funcionarios de la provincia de Ghor han informado que un hombre atado a Said Ahmad, comandante local en la provincia de Ghor, arrojó a una mujer a un valle y luego ató su cuerpo casi muerto a un caballo, y la arrastró hasta la muerte. El incidente ocurrió en la aldea de Samk, distrito de Dawlatyar.      Full news...

IWPR: The beatings began soon after Zahra, now 22, was married off to a 75-year old man in exchange for a large bride price. “My father was blinded by money and he gave me in marriage to this man,” she told IWPR. “Every time my husband was violent to me, his family members used to tell me, ‘Your husband has these rights over you, you should put up with it.’      Full news...

BBC Persian (Translated by RAWA): Officials in Herat Hospital have reported that 25 people have been admitted in the hospital for suicide attempts in the past three days. Aziz ul Rahman Jami, head of the emergency department said that 90% of these people were women and all the people were below thirty in age. According to him, one woman lost her life and three people are in critical condition.      Full news...

Salam Watandar (Translated by RAWA): Officials in Ghor province have reported that a man tied to Said Ahmad, a local commander in Ghor province, threw a woman into a valley and then tied her half-dead body to a horse and dragged her till she was dead. The incident occurred in Samk village of Dawlatyar district.      Full news...

Khaama Press (Translated by RAWA): Local officials in eastern Afghanistan say that a man has shot his wife dead in Nangarhar province.Acccording to these officials, this incident took place the previous day in Doorbabay district. A man named Rahtmatullah shot his wife multiple times and escaped. Local sources say the cause of the shooting was domestic issues.      Full news...

IWPR: Zahra (not her real name) is in Kabul Badam-Bagh women’s prison, six years into a 15-year prison sentence - the maximum punishment for adultery under Afghan law. The mother-of four said that she had run away with another man after her husband beat and mistreated her. One night in her new home as she slept alongside her partner, police raided the house and took her to the police station wearing only her nightwear.      Full news...

TOLOnews.com: Badakhshan residents have slammed local police for not having arrested the man who allegedly raped a seven-year-old Faizabad girl earlier this week. The incident reportedly took place on Monday when the suspect raped the child in her home. The man allegedly entered the girl’s house while she was home alone and then tied her up and raped her.      Full news...

VOA: The United Nations reports humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan are deteriorating, with children at great risk of dying at an early age from lack of health care and proper nutrition. The United Nations reports 9.3 million people in Afghanistan will need humanitarian assistance this year. The world body has appealed for 550 million USD to support 5.6 million of the most vulnerable people.      Full news...

The Killid Group: There is nothing new here: Maternal mortality levels have shown little improvement. The majority of deliveries are at home in the absence of medical facilities. There are few female doctors and an acute shortage of mid-wives. Among the provinces with the worst records is Uruzgan. Hamid Agha, a resident of its Charchino district, says 10 women have died in child birth over a few months. “Clinics don’t exist in most districts in our province,” he says. “If there are they are just in name; no female doctor is appointed. In an emergency we take the patient, even a woman in labour, to Tirinkoot (provincial capital).”      Full news...

IWPR: Leeda stood waiting at a Kabul bus stop, braced for a daily commute that she said inevitably involved sexual comments and snide remarks from male passers-by. The young woman said she knew about recent legislation that would make such harassment a crime under Afghan law for the first time. However, she did not have high hopes for it. “Making laws is very easy in Afghanistan, but implementing them is impossible,” she explained, smiling. “I face many problems and am disrespected and pestered every day during my journey.”      Full news...

The Guardian: For years, declining death rates among pregnant women have been hailed as one of the great gains of foreign aid in Afghanistan. In reality, however, Afghan women dying in pregnancy or childbirth may be more than twice as high as numbers provided by donors would suggest. Since 2010, published figures have shown maternal mortality rates at 327 for every 100,000 live births, a significant drop from 1,600 in 2002.      Full news...

Newsweek: A 20-year-old Afghan woman was allegedly gang-raped after escaping violence in her home, according to local media. The woman, a newlywed, was lured by a group of men and encouraged to elope with one of them after fleeing domestic violence perpetrated by her new husband, Afghan news outlet Khaama Press reports. The incident took place in northeastern Takhar province amid a surge in violence in the country over the past year.      Full news...

The Killid Group: Human rights activists want the police and security forces to deliver to the law the perpetrators of violence against women. Sima Samar, head of AIHRC (Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission) says, “If police do not help as much there can be no justice. We (human rights organisations) only monitor the situation.” Suraya Sobhrang of AIHRC says 3,000 cases of violence against women have been reported.      Full news...

The New York Times: An armed mob that included relatives of a young woman who had eloped with her lover stormed a police station holding the couple in eastern Afghanistan over the weekend, then dragged the lovers off and killed them, officials and witnesses said. The mob wounded three police officers, one of them seriously, the officials and witnesses said Sunday and Monday in providing accounts of the couple’s violent deaths, often called honor killings.      Full news...

IWPR: The razor scars on 18-year-old Leila’s hands and neck bear witness to her past attempts at suicide. The Herat teenager told IWPR that she had become deeply depressed after her marriage to a 45-year-old man. “I married a much older man because of my parents,” she said. “Later, I realised that this was not what I wanted. I was controlled and banned from going anywhere, and his interference in every little detail of my life became unbearable...      Full news...

BBC Persian (Translated by RAWA): Zarina’s ears were cut off by her husband two days back. She is 23-years-old. She was 13 when she got engaged to her cousin and married him 7 years later. She is currently under treatment in the Abu Ali Sina Hospital in Mazar-e-Sharif. The doctors say that reattaching her ears is difficult in Afghanistan.      Full news...

BBC News (Translated by RAWA): Doctors in Herat hospital of Herat province say that 700 suicide attempts have been recorded in this hospital from the beginning of the solar year, and 33 of these have resulted in death. The methods used included hanging, taking poison and self-immolation.The most recent case was recorded the night before on Friday (27th January) when a 27-year-old hung himself to death.      Full news...

Global Voices: Campaigners are calling for the Afghan government to follow through on promises to change parts of Afghanistan’s penal code that they argue actually serves to legimitise violence against women. Article 398 of the Afghan penal code states that a man who sees “his wife or other family members” in a compromising position and kills or injures one or both of them “in order to defend his dignity and respect” will not be prosecuted for violent assault or murder.      Full news...

IWPR: Yagana spends her days and nights on the streets of Herat city, begging passersby for money to feed her drug addiction. She doesn’t know her exact age, although thinks she might be around 18 years old. She looks well into her thirties. “When I got married, I was very young, maybe 12 years old,” she told IWPR. “I did all the work around the house and got very tired.      Full news...

TOLOnews.com: A young woman from Parwan allegedly hanged herself on Friday because of domestic violence she had been forced to endure, officials said Saturday. Abdul Samad Zalmai, head of Parwan’s police anti-crime unit, confirmed the incident and said the women got a divorce one week ago from her husband and hanged herself in her father’s house. Parwan women’s affairs department said that the victim got divorced due to domestic violence.      Full news...