David Zucchino of the LA Times writes,

Women have virtually no options in Afghan tribal culture. It would be scandalous for a woman to live alone or pursue a job on her own. They are dependent on men for food, clothing, shelter and status — and often must give up their children when seeking divorce. Girls have to be at least 16 to get married, but the law is widely ignored.

Women for Afghan Women, a shelter in Kabul and one of six in the country, provides safe harbor and help with divorce or housing to women and girls fleeing abuse or forced marriage. Seventeen-year-old Shabana sought refuge there after a man kidnapped her, forced her to marry him, and kept her prisoner in his home. She says, "He knew I had no one to protect me, and he took advantage." The shelter's youngest occupant ever was a five-year-old rape victim. Many occupants fear they would be killed if they ever went back to their husbands or families, and shelter employees have received threats and even beatings. But board member Esther Hyneman (pictured, right) says, "We're making progress every day. You can't change hundreds of years of cultural tradition overnight."

Yet another problem for Afghan women is maternal mortality — one in eight Afghan women die in childbirth, the second highest rate in the world. Rita Henley Jensen reports that the Congressional Women's Caucus is holding a briefing on the issue today, hopefully chipping away at long-standing international indifference to the problem. The UN, too, has issued a report on women in Afghanistan, highlighting the violence they face. Jensen says the report "described the nation as one where rape is widespread and victims are more likely than perpetrators to receive punishment."

Shelters like Women for Afghan Women may help individual victims, but Jensen argues that Afghanistan needs policy changes too — including an examination of whether the presence of US peacekeeping troops "enhances or threatens the security of women in war-torn Afghanistan." "How can U.S. women help in all of this?" she writes. "It's not an easy question, but it's the right one to keep asking until the best answer finds its way to a solid, humanitarian, political consensus about the troop buildup and so much more."

Image via LA Times.

Afghan Victims Of Abuse Find Refuge [LA Times]
Safety Of Afghan Women Comes Up For Question [Women's eNews]

Six years later, a lot has changed. While beating, torture, and trafficking of women is still horrifically common and broadly accepted, women's rights groups have made significant headway, today's New York Times reports.

Mary Akrami, director of the Afghan Women Skills Development Center, founded the first women's shelter in Afghanistan in 2003. Now there are four different organizations running shelters in Afghanistan. While they have helped many women escape abuse, and even death, they are not welcomed by everyone:

Women's shelters have been criticized as a foreign intrusion in Afghan society, where familial and community problems have traditionally been resolved through the mediation of tribal leaders and councils. But women's advocates insist that those outcomes almost always favor the men.

Until the advent of the shelters, a woman in an abusive marriage usually had nowhere to turn. If she tried to seek refuge with her own family, her brothers or father might return her to her husband, to protect the family's honor. Women who eloped might be cast out of the family altogether.

In response to the criticism, women's rights advocates insist that they are trying to preserve the structure of the family by mediation and counseling, not break up marriages. However, they have been known to help clients find new husbands, a fact that surely can't win them any points with the opposition.

But the women who arrive at the shelters are typically in serious need. Having nowhere else to turn, the women's shelter gives them a rare safe haven. And the shelters are full of girls like Mariam, 17, who was sold into marriage at age 11 to a man thirty years her senior to pay for her father's drug debts. After suffering years of abuse, Mariam went to the police, who placed her in a women's shelter. When asked what comes next, she said: "I want my divorce, and then I want to study."

Afghan Women Slowly Gaining Protection [New York Times]