Report: Situation for Afghan women may ‘deterioriate’ as war is escalated.

Yesterday, the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a new 96-page report titled “We Have the Promises of the World: Women’s Rights in Afghanistan,” which documents the poor state of women’s rights in Afghanistan. As The Guardian notes, the report concludes that the “plight of women in Afghanistan risks deteriorating further” as the U.S. and its allies prepare to ramp up their forces in the country:

The already dire plight of women in Afghanistan risks deteriorating further as the US and its allies take steps to turn around the war against the Taliban, according to a report by Human Rights Watch today.

Eight years after the Taliban were ousted from power, rapists are often protected from prosecution, women can still be arrested for running away from home, and girls have far less access to schools than boys, the report says. [...]

Rachel Reid, of Human Rights Watch, said the situation “could deteriorate”. She added: “While the world focuses on the Obama administration’s new security strategy, it’s critical to make sure that women’s and girls’ rights don’t just get lip service while being pushed to the bottom of the list by the government and donors.”

According to a nationwide survey performed in 2008 cited by the report, 87.2 percent of Afghan women have experienced “at least one form of physical, sexual, or psychological violence or forced marriage in their lifetimes.” HRW ends its report with a list of recommendations for the Afghan government and international donors that includes the creation of special complaint mechanisms for Afghan women to report sexual violence and to end detentions of women for “running away from home,” which is not a crime under Afghan law.