海角大神

Gunman in Afghanistan puts spotlight on the dangers facing Afghan policewomen

Gunman in Afghanistan: Five men were arrested today in connection with the second killing of a top policewoman in less than two months.

A roundup of global reports聽

Five men were arrested today in Afghanistan for their role in the killing of the most senior female police officer in Afghanistan鈥檚 Helmand Province, who was seen as a symbol of improved women鈥檚 rights as Western troops pull out and hand over security responsibilities to Afghans.听

Lieutenant Negara, known only by one name like many Afghans, was shot dead yesterday, marking the second time in a little over two months that a woman holding this position was killed. Ms. Negara was a sub-inspector in Helmand鈥檚 police criminal investigation department. She聽became the highest-ranking female police officer in Helmand Province after her predecessor (also a woman) was murdered in July.

The killings have put a spotlight on the dangers facing Afghan women who take on high-profile public roles.听

鈥淲e have received warnings from the Taliban that they will kill each of us within three months," said one聽female police officer who did not want to be named, . "They said that they will kill every single policewoman in Helmand within three months."

While attitudes toward women in Afghan society has improved in some ways since the Taliban rule, literacy rates among Afghan women hover around 12 percent; more than 90 percent of women here believe that their husbands are justified in beating them if they misbehave, and there are high cultural hurdles ahead for them.

Afghan women have not traditionally entered the workplace, told the World. When they do it upsets political, cultural, and economic norms.

When Lt. Islam Bibi, Ms. Negara's predecessor, was murdered in July, many human rights campaigners said it showed that the small gains that women have made in Afghanistan in the past decade are already being reversed as Western forces withdraw, .听

Both women were considered聽role models for other women in a province that is still a hotbed of Taliban insurgency and where few women are ever seen on the streets. And women police officers face a daily battle not only against militants, but against perceptions about what Afghan women can and can't do.听

" in Afghanistan is pervasive and increasing," the United Nations' executive director for women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in response to Negara's killing.

Indeed, Reuters reports that more than 4,000 cases of violence against women and girls were reported to Afghanistan's Ministry of Women's Affairs

Women in Parliament聽have faced numerous threats, 海角大神聽reports. Last month insurgents ambushed the convoy of a female Afghan senator, seriously wounding her and killing her 8-year-old daughter and a bodyguard, .

But聽police women聽seem to be a favorite target, and several have been threatened or killed recently, including Lt. Col. Malalai Kakar, one of the best-known policewomen in the country, who was shot dead by the Taliban in 2008.

It may come as no surprise that efforts to recruit women into Afghanistan's police force have had only聽limited success. According to a July ,聽the national police force employed just 1,551 policewomen out of 157,000 as of聽July. Women make up only about 1 percent of the police force in Afghanistan, according to The Guardian.听