Word: kabul
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Shahnaz Abdul is something of a feminist in Afghanistan. Exuding confidence and a no-nonsense attitude, she has practiced law for 22 years and is now assigned to the High Court in Kabul. The day the Taliban banned women from working "we were so sad, so angry," she remembers. But after a few months stuck at home, Shahnaz, 43, began reading to keep herself occupied; law books, mostly, and a history of Afghanistan. When the Taliban forced all women to wear the burka, that long all-encompassing cloak that hides women's bodies, faces and identities, Shahnaz bought the cheapest...
...countryside and in conservative cities like Kandahar. In 1919, the first Afghani king encouraged women to shed the head to toe garb by revealing the face of his wife in public. Many women in the more liberal cities obliged and by the 1980s less than half the women in Kabul, the capital, wore the burka. Under the Taliban, women had little choice: wear the robe in public or face a vicious beating. But Afghan women say this was more inconvenience than hardship. "Under the Taliban women weren't allowed to leave their houses, weren't allowed to work...
...pogrom against Pashtuns. Human Rights Watch has documented 150 separate cases of looting, rape and killing in the area that have sent thousands of Pashtuns fleeing south. There are also persistent accusations that Afghan commanders are calling in U.S. air strikes against rivals, not terrorists. Meanwhile in Kabul, local factions have begun turning their newly acquired firepower on one another. Last month saw two pitched gun battles at the gates of the presidential palace in Kabul?while Karzai was inside working?between different bands of the palace guards: Panshiris loyal to Defense Minister Mohamed Fahim and another group from Badakshan...
...pinning its hopes on that motley crew, but most of the rest of the world believes that an international peacekeeping force is essential. The obvious solution is to expand ISAF's mandate from Kabul to cover the whole country. But Britain will relinquish its six-month leadership of ISAF in mid-April; its most likely successor, Turkey, is refusing to commit troops without an assurance from Washington that the U.S. will pick up the tab. "The problem is not what needs to be done," says the Western adviser, "the real problem is: Who's going to do it? Only...
...clear who was responsible for the attack, which killed three Afghan soldiers and wounded one American, U.S. commander Frank Hagenbeck said al-Qaeda forces might have to be pursued across the Pakistan border. Britain agreed to supply up to 1,700 troops in addition to its peacekeeping force in Kabul...