Afghanistan stares into the abyss

THE plight of many Afghan women has barely improved in the two years since the ousting of the Taliban regime, with forced marriages, rapes and domestic violence still occurring frequently, Amnesty International has said.

In a report released yesterday, the London-based human rights group accused the international community of failing to do enough in this war-torn country, where most women are still cloistered at home and wear body-shrouding burkhas in public.

The ultra-conservative Taliban regime, which was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2001, had banned women from working and girls from getting an education. The Afghan government has since lifted those restrictions, but in rural areas where it has little authority many women still cannot work and girls still cannot attend school.