Violence against women 30pc up

Monitoring Desk

KHOST CITY: Incidents of violence against women have been on the increase in southeastern provinces, especially in Khost province of Afghanistan, an official said.

Poverty, insecurity and low level of education were cited as main reasons behind the growing incidents of violence against the gender at a gathering marking International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women here.

Zarmina Shams, women’s affairs wing in-charge at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) regional office, said 334 incidents of violence against women happened in the southeastern Zone, with 211 taking place in Khost.

She said they collected the figures from police, Attorney General Office and hospitals.

The incidents included beating, poisoning, killing for honour, injuring, forceful expulsion from homes, underage marriages, suicides, marriage for the sake of money, and denying alimony, said Zarmena.

She added 227 incidents of violence had been registered last year in the Southeastern Zone but his year the number rose to 334, showing 30 percent increase.

Poverty, insecurity and low level of education were main reasons behind the growing incidents of violence against women in Khost.

Many such incidents happen in far-flung areas where most women are not aware of their rights. “We don’t have accesses to remote areas due to insecurity and the figures we obtain are small, there might be more incidents,” Zarmena said.

Zainab Afghan, a women rights activist, said the best source to spread awareness regarding women’s rights were ulema, tribal elders and media.

“Some barriers exist in the way of spreading awareness among women in far-flung areas but if ulema, media and tribal elders play their role in this regard, it will be effective,” she believed.

Earlier, Women’s Affairs Director Dr. Malalai Wali had termed the women’s situation in Khost as satisfactory and added 25 incidents of violence against females had been registered in the province this year.