Afghanistan Women Reporting More Violence

The number of violent attacks against women being reported in Afghanistan has more than doubled in a year, according to a UN report.

Some 4,010 cases of violence against women were reported in the seven months between March and October this year, nearly twice as many as in the previous 12 months, says the report.

The figure includes an increase in the number of so-called honour killings, where women are killed for apparent sexual disobedience.

Beating and cutting are still the most widely used forms of violent attack, the report by the UN's mission in Afghanistan found.

However, the majority of cases still go unreported due to cultural restraints, religious beliefs, and because women fear for their lives.

The report details the death of a 15-year-old girl who set herself on fire this year after repeated beatings by her new husband and his father.

When she reported her case to prosecutors she was told to withdraw the complaint or face being jailed.

Despite the bleak picture, Afghanistan has made some progress in using the law to protect women and the increase in the number of cases being reported was deemed "an encouraging development".

A Christian Aid exhibition promoting women's rights in Afghanistan

Before the US invasion, the Taliban regime barred women from going to school or to work.

Billions of dollars in aid have poured into Afghanistan and there have been advances for women.

They now have the right to an education and women sit in the Afghan parliament.

There are fears though that when the coalition forces withdraw from the country by the end of 2014 women's hard-won rights will be reversed. 

There have also been a number of high-profile cases involving women who have been brutally attacked by the Taliban for perceived wrongs.

The most recent to catch global attention was the case of Malala Yusufzai, the 15-year-old education and human rights activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban in neighbouring Pakistan. She was flown to Britain for treatment.

Teenage activist Malala Yusufzai was shot by the Taliban in Pakistan

A new law was introduced in 2009 which made child and forced marriage illegal, as well as buying or selling women for marriage and giving women away to settle disputes.

It also made 17 other acts of violence against women against the law including rape and beating.

This law has been credited with the increase in the number of women coming forward to report violent attacks.

But despite this, in 16 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, where the UN was able to gather detailed information, just 21 per cent of 470 reports of violence against women resulted in convictions.

The report says that rather than following legal procedures, prosecutors refer many cases to groups of local elders.

This sometimes results in cases where a court may have sentenced a rapist to imprisonment while at the same time the elders decide that the victim should marry the rapist.

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