Alongside a military war, the quiet battle for women

ON the dusty cracked streets of Kabul, small cars jostle for space with weapon-laden military convoys.

Men in turbans, burqa-clad women and their children set about their day, seemingly oblivious to the chaos. Some never return home.

On a recent trip to the Afghan capital I heard a blast rip through the heart of the city. It later emerged that 18 people, including a number of schoolchildren, had died. But alongside these bloody battles another is being fought against the repression of women.

In the northern and western provinces that border Uzbekistan and Iran, aid workers are empowering wives and mothers through education — only 10% of Afghan women are literate — and work, with some making independent incomes for the first time.

In my journey with Christian Aid Ireland, I met young women who had been jailed for having sex outside marriage and also for introducing couples to each other.

Behind the full-length body veils are broken lives. Some women gave birth behind bars. Some were sent there by quarrelling families.

Inside the sweltering cells of Maimana Prison, young Saamiya looks over her child Basera, 2, who has been with her behind bars since she was jailed for introducing her male teenage cousin to a girl.

Only recently has Saamiya, 20, learned to read and write in an effort to fight her 12-year-sentence in court. Her story is part of a quieter battle against radical domestic laws that are unfolding alongside this military war.