Indonesia, Kenya and Ghana to be removed from Dutch aid list

DutchNews, September 20, 2016

Photo: Dutch foreign ministry 

Indonesia, Kenya and Ghana are to be removed from the list of 15 countries where the Netherlands concentrates its aid efforts in 2020, aid minister Lilianne Ploumen has told parliament. 

Three countries will be added to the list to replace them. They are likely to come from the Sahel region in Africa, which lies between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanese savanna, the minister said in her briefing. 

The government’s policy is to focus on countries closer to Europe’s borders. 

Over the past six years, the number of countries which benefit from Dutch aid efforts has been cut from 33 to 15. 

In seven – Afghanistan, Burundi, Jemen, Mali, Palestine, Rwanda and South Sudan – the focus is on tacking poverty and boosting stability. In the other eight – Bangladesh, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Indonesia, Mozambique and Uganda – reducing poverty, and boosting jobs and private sector involvement are central. 

Rwanda is to be moved from the category of poorest countries and will get more help with trade and investment, Ploumen said.

MSF: Rocket strike on clinic in Yemen kills four

A clinic operated by international medical group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in northern Yemen has been hit by a rocket, with four people killed, the group says. It says it does not know who fired the missile.

Deutsche Welle, 10 January 2016

The missile hit the clinic in the Razeh district of Saada province in northern Yemen, communications officer Malak Shaher said on Sunday.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) also announced the attack on its Twitter account.

#Yemen: An MSF supported hospital has been hit by a projectile in Northern Yemen causing at least 4 dead and 10 injured #Razeh

— MSF International (@MSF) January 10, 2016

Shaher said it was not possible to say whether the clinic was hit in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition that is carrying out attacks on Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, or by a rocket fired from the ground.

Last month, MSF accused the coalition of bombing another of its health facilities in Taez in October. The building was wrecked and two MSF staff members lightly wounded in that attack.

The coalition said at the time that it would investigate the claim.

After Sunday's attack, MSF called on all warring parties in Yemen to respect medical facilities.

#Yemen: We strongly condemn this and we reiterate to all parties to the conflict that patients & medical facilities must be respected. #IHL

— MSF International (@MSF) January 10, 2016

Bloody conflict

More than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen since March, about half of them civilians, according to United Nations figures.

Saada province is a frequent
target of Saudi-led airstrikes

The conflict in the country pits forces loyal to internationally recognized President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi against the Houthi rebels and fighters loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The fighting has its roots in a Houthi insurgency that has been waged with varying intensity since 2004.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia formed a coalition of nine Arab states to help the internationally recognized Yemeni government by launching airstrikes on its enemies including the Houthi rebels, whom Riyadh sees as proxies for its regional rival, Iran. The campaign has been widely criticized for worsening the humanitarian situation in Yemen.

tj/gsw (Reuters, AFP)

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Taliban and Afghan officials hold 'reconciliation' talks in Qatar

Both sides in ongoing conflict seek to downplay any expectations of official negotiations or peace coming from Doha talks

The Guardian, Associated Press in Doha, Saturday 2 May 2015

An Afghan soldier guards a roadside in Kabul. The army has increased security
 after at least 33 deaths recently from Taliban attacks on military posts in the
north-east. Photograph: Hedayatullah Amid/EPA

Afghan and Taliban officials will hold two days of “reconciliation” talks in Qatar, the Gulf country’s state news agency has reported, although both sides have sought to downplay expectations from the meeting.

QNA did not identify the officials taking part in the talks, which it said began on Saturday, citing the foreign ministry official Yousif al-Sada.

“The dialogue will be through open discussions about the Afghan reconciliation between all parties in Afghanistan,” the agency said.

In a statement, the Taliban earlier identified eight people who would take part in the talks. However, they said the discussions “should not be misconstrued as peace or negotiation talks”.

“It is worth mentioning that all participants of this conference attend in an individual capacity, no one participates as representatives for any government or party,” the statement said. “Since this is a research conference, therefore, every participant gives their opinion on a range of issues.”

The Afghan presidential spokesman, Ajmal Abidy, said members of the country’s High Peace Council would attend the talks in Doha in their “personal capacity only”.

“They will meet face to face,” Abidy told the Associated Press. “Nothing is going on. We have no expectations.”

Previous efforts to launch peace talks have failed. In 2013, the Taliban opened an office in Qatar for the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, hoisting the same white flag flown during the Taliban’s five-year rule of Afghanistan that ended with the 2001 US-led invasion. The raising of the flag sparked immediate outrage from the then president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, and the US, derailing talks and eventually leading the Taliban to shutter the office.

While the office never officially opened, Qatar has become a place to open back-channel communication with the Taliban. Qatari intermediaries helped US officials negotiate the release of the captive US army’s Sgt Bowe Bergdahl last year, American officials have said.

The current Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, who was elected last year, has pushed for peace talks with the Taliban.

Afghan council endorses US security deal, seeks immediate signing

Google – AFP, 24 November 2013

Afghan delegates walk through the grounds of the loya jirga premises during

 discussions on the Bilateral Security Agreement in Kabul on November 22, 2013

(AFP/File, Massoud Hossaini)

Kabul — An Afghan grand assembly of tribal chieftains and elders Sunday endorsed a major security pact with the United States and called on President Hamid Karzai to sign the deal immediately.

Karzai had said the signing of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) governing the US military role in Afghanistan beyond 2014 would have to wait until after next year's presidential election.

"Given the current situation in, and Afghanistan's need... the contents of this agreement as a whole is endorsed by the members of this Loya Jirga," Fazul Karim Imaq, a deputy of the loya jirga said, reading a declaration reached at the end of the four-day grand meeting.

"The loya jirga requests the president to sign the agreement before the end of 2013," Imaq said.

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Sudan woman risks flogging over uncovered hair

Google – AFP, Ian Timberlake (AFP), 10 Sep 2013

Under Sudanese law, women's hair is supposed to be covered with

a "hijab" (AFP/File, Ashraf Shazly)

KHARTOUM — A Sudanese woman says she is prepared to be flogged to defend the right to leave her hair uncovered in defiance of a "Taliban"-like law.

Amira Osman Hamed faces a possible whipping if convicted at a trial which could come on September 19.

Under Sudanese law her hair -- and that of all women -- is supposed to be covered with a "hijab". But Hamed, 35, refuses to wear one.

Her case has drawn support from civil rights activists and is the latest to highlight Sudan's series of laws governing morality which took effect after the 1989 Islamist-backed coup by President Omar al-Bashir.

"They want us to be like Taliban women," Hamed said in an interview with AFP, referring to the fundamentalist militant movement in Afghanistan.

She is charged under Article 152 which prohibits "indecent" clothing.

In 2009, the case of journalist Lubna

 Ahmed al-Hussein (pictured) led to

 a global outcry (AFP/File, Ashraf

Shazly)

Activists say the vaguely worded law leaves women subject to police harassment and disproportionately targets the poor in an effort to maintain "public order".

"This public order law changed Sudanese women from victims to criminals," says Hamed, a divorced computer engineer who runs her own company.

"This law is targeting the dignity of Sudanese people."

Hamed said she was visiting a government office in Jebel Aulia, just outside Khartoum, on August 27 when a policeman aggressively told her to cover her head.

"He said, 'You are not Sudanese. What is your religion?'"

"I'm Sudanese. I'm Muslim, and I'm not going to cover my head," Hamed replied.

Her dark hair, tinged golden, is braided tight against her scalp with a flare of curls at the back.

Hamed said she was detained for a few hours, charged, and then bailed.

At her first court appearance on September 1, when the case was delayed until later this month, about 100 women and some men gathered to support her.

Many of the protesting women had their heads uncovered, as did Hamed who says she has "never, ever" worn a hijab.

"There are many (who) wear it because they are afraid, not because they want to wear it," she said, speaking at her family's home and dressed in blue jeans which could get her into trouble if she went outside.

Hamed was charged in 2002 for wearing trousers but a lawyer helped her get off with only a fine, rather than a flogging.

Most women do not have the benefit of legal assistance and are too ashamed to tell their families about their arrest under the morality law, leaving them at the mercy of the court and vulnerable to sexual harassment by police, she says.

"Daily, Sudanese women are flogged in the court under this law."

In 2009, the case of journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein led to a global outcry and spotlighted women's rights in Sudan.

Hussein was fined for wearing slacks in public but she refused to pay. She spent one day behind bars until the Sudanese Journalists' Union paid the fine on her behalf.

Others rounded up with her in a restaurant were flogged.

"You are a slut. You want guys to sleep with you. That's why you are wearing like this," another woman, who has been detained twice in Khartoum, remembers police telling her.

"This was very humiliating," said the woman, a professional worker who asked to be identified only as Rania.

She told AFP she was detained but not charged, once for leaving her hair uncovered and a second time for wearing trousers.

"Why women in Sudan cannot have the right to decide what to wear, if they want to cover or not?" Rania asked.

She and Hamed say application of the law is uneven, because at high-end restaurants women can leave their hair exposed without risk of arrest.

Sudan's national police spokesman could not be reached on Sunday for comment.

Asked about the activists' concerns, Rabbie Abdelatti Ebaid, a senior official from the governing National Congress Party, said President Bashir is seeking views from a wide spectrum of society on a new draft constitution for Sudan.

The constitution, from which laws derive, will be designed to take into consideration the will, culture and customs of the people while "respecting the human being", he said.

Hamed hopes the laws will change.

In the meantime she expects to be convicted at trial and says she is ready for any sentence -- including a flogging.

"I take a risk to tell what is happening in our country and I hope that will be the last time a Sudanese woman is arrested by this law."

US and Taliban to open direct peace talks in Qatar

BBC News, 18 June 2013

Taliban spokesman Mohammed Naeem, second right, opened the Doha office

Taliban Conflict

• Afghans count cost
• Insider attacks: Causes
• Who are the Taliban?
• Q&A: Foreign forces

The US is to open direct peace talks with the Taliban, senior White House officials have announced.

The first meeting is due to take place in the coming days in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban have just opened their first official overseas office.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his government was also sending delegates to Qatar to talk to the Taliban.

The announcement came on the day Nato handed over security for the whole of Afghanistan to government forces.

US officials said prisoner exchanges would be one topic for discussion with the Taliban, but the first weeks will mainly be used to explore each other's agendas.

However, the talks are on condition that the Taliban renounce violence, break ties with al-Qaeda and respect the Afghan constitution - including the rights of women and minorities.

US officials told reporters the first formal meeting between US and Taliban representatives was expected to take place in Doha next week, with talks between President Karzai's High Peace Council and the Taliban due a few days after that.

The level of trust between the Afghan government and the Taliban is described as "low".

In the past, the Taliban have always refused to meet President Karzai or his government, dismissing them as puppets of Washington.

Masoom Stanekzai, secretary of the High Peace Council, would not give a specific date for their talks but said they would take place "within days".

He told the BBC it was important that all sides should feel "confident and comfortable" at the beginning of the process.

"Eventually the talks should take place on Afghan soil. This is an Afghan issue. No-one other than Afghans can decide," he said.

US officials stressed that this was the first step on a very long road, adding that there was no guarantee of success.

There is tight security around the Taliban's new offices in Qatar

After opening the "political bureau" in Doha alongside Qatari officials, Taliban representative Mohammed Naeem told reporters the group wanted good relations with Afghanistan's neighbours.

A Taliban statement said: "The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan doesn't want any threats from Afghanistan soil to other countries, and neither permits anyone to threaten other countries using Afghanistan soil.

"We support a political and peaceful solution that ends Afghanistan's occupation, and guarantees the Islamic system and nationwide security."

The BBC's Paul Adams in Washington says these were key statements that US officials were expecting to hear.

A US official said the militant Haqqani network would also be represented by the Taliban in Doha.

However, the senior US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen Joseph Dunford, cast doubt on whether the group would make peace.

Speaking by phone from Kabul he told reporters at the Pentagon: "All I've seen of the Haqqani would make it hard for me to believe they were reconcilable."

In Afghanistan itself on Tuesday, Nato handed over security for the whole of the country to the government for the first time since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

At a ceremony in Kabul, President Hamid Karzai said that from Wednesday "our own security and military forces will lead all the security activities".

The ceremony saw the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) hand over control of the last 95 districts in a transition process that began in 2011.

International troops are to remain in Afghanistan until the end of 2014, providing military back-up when needed.

President Karzai has expressed anger at previous US and Qatari efforts to kick-start the peace process without properly consulting his government, reports the BBC's Bilal Sarwary from Kabul.

There is also concern within the presidential palace that the Taliban will use the office in Qatar to raise funds, adds our correspondent.

The US has previously tried to negotiate with the Taliban, but never held direct talks.

In March 2012 the Taliban said it had suspended preliminary negotiations with Washington, citing US efforts to involve the Afghan government as a key stumbling block.

The Taliban set up a diplomatic presence in Qatar in January 2012 and US officials held preliminary discussions there.

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"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version) 

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore. "Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”

North Korea proposes high-level talks with US - New
North, South Korea agree to official talks
North Korea 'to allow Kaesong managers back'
China calls for denuclearization of Korean Peninsula
Pyongyang delegation's trip to China a 'big gesture'

A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“….. Here is the prediction: China will turn North Korea loose soon. The alliance will dissolve, or become stale. There will be political upheaval in China. Not a coup and not a revolution. Within the inner circles of that which you call Chinese politics, there will be a re-evaluation of goals and monetary policy. Eventually, you will see a break with North Korea, allowing still another dictator to fall and unification to occur with the south. ….”

Obama, Xi urge new relations amid hacking row

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After intense talks, US and Afghanistan reach deal on prison handover

Deutsche Welle, 23 March 2013

The US is set to handover the Bagram Prison to Afghan authorities on Monday, according to a deal the two governments made after two weeks of talks. Technicalities stalled the handover a fortnight ago.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Afghan President Hamid Karzai resolved disagreements on Saturday regarding the transfer of Bagram Prison - also known as the Detention Facility in Parwan - to Afghan officials.

"[Hagel] welcomed President Karzai's commitment that the transfer will be carried out in a way that ensures the safety of the Afghan people and coalition forces by keeping dangerous individuals detained in a secure and humane manner in accordance with Afghan law," Pentagon press secretary George Little said in a statement.

Two weeks ago, talks came to a halt when Hagel refused to finalize the agreement without a guarantee from the Afghan government that it would not release prisoners considered dangerous upon receiving full authority over the facility.

Karzai had said Bagram's detainees were innocent, leading US officials to worry that he would release prisoners who would return to insurgency.

The spat caused embarrassment to the US secretary defense who had only recently assumed the post.

Under the agreement reached on Saturday, Afghan officials are scheduled to assume full authority over the prison at the beginning of next week.

Bagram Prison, which has earned a reputation rivalled only by Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, houses suspected insurgents.

In September, Afghanistan assumed control over some 3,000 prisoners there, while the US maintained authority of several hundred Afghan prisoners and final veto power over the release of prisoners.

It was unclear from initial reporters whether the US would retain veto power under the terms of the new agreement.

The transfer of the notorious prison comes ahead of the 2014 withdrawal of the majority of NATO's 96,000 troops currently serving in Afghanistan.

kms/jlw (AP, AFP, Reuters)

Pakistan, Afghanistan to hold talks on peace

The Daily Star, November 11, 2012

Relations between the neighbours are often tense and Kabul has accused
Pakistan of supporting Taliban Islamists in their 11-year insurgency against the
Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.(AP Photo/Ahmad Nazar)

                              

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad and Kabul will hold three days of talks on achieving peace in Afghanistan this week, Pakistan's foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Relations between the neighbours are often tense and Kabul has accused Pakistan of supporting Taliban Islamists in their 11-year insurgency against the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Pakistan has always rejected the accusations, saying it is committed to fighting the Taliban and is actively targeting militants.

A delegation of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, led by chairman Salahuddin Rabbani, will arrive in Islamabad on Monday, to meet President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, and to hold talks with the foreign minister and Pakistan's military.

"Mr. Rabbani was invited by foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar to visit Pakistan to hold talks with the relevant authorities with regard to peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan," a foreign ministry statement said.

Similar talks were derailed last year in September with the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former head of the High Peace Council, by a suicide bomber who purported to be a Taliban peace envoy.

Afghan officials lashed out at Islamabad over the killing, saying it was planned in Pakistan and carried out by a Pakistani with a bomb in his turban.

Pakistan denied the charges and blamed Afghan refugees living in Pakistan for the murder.

The Afghan government later named Rabbani's son, Salahuddin, as the new chief peace envoy.

Efforts to end the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan have gained a new urgency with US-led NATO forces due to draw combat troops out of the country by the end of 2014.

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Taliban could run for Afghan president: poll chief

Google – AFP, Usman Sharifi, 31 October 2012

Former Taliban fighters display their weapons (AFP/File, Aref Karimi)

KABUL — The Taliban could stand in Afghanistan's next presidential election in 2014, the country's top poll official said Wednesday, as a series of suspected insurgent bombings killed 17 civilians.

President Hamid Karzai, who is serving his second term as leader of the war-torn nation, is constitutionally barred from running in the election and no clear candidate to succeed him has yet emerged.

The vote, scheduled for April 5, 2014, is seen as crucial to stability after the withdrawal of NATO troops and Fazil Ahmad Manawi, the head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), insisted his body would act impartially.

"We are even prepared to pave the ground for the armed opposition, be it the Taliban or Hezb-i-Islami, to participate in the election, either as voters or candidates," Manawi told a news conference.

"There will be no discrimination," the IEC chief added, defending the body in response to a question about its impartiality.

Hezb-i-Islami is the faction of former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar which wages an insurgency along with the Taliban against Karzai's Western-backed government.

The Taliban, whose hardline Islamist regime was overthrown in 2001 by a US-led invasion for harbouring Osama bin Laden, did not take part in the 2009 election. Instead it launched polling day attacks that killed more than 20 people.

At least 17 civilians, most women and children, were killed in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday in roadside bombings which officials blamed on "the enemies of Afghanistan" -- the term they use for the Taliban.

In the deadliest incident, seven women and three children died when a blast tore through the vehicle in which they were travelling in Musa Qala district of Helmand province.

Also on Wednesday, a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in eastern Kunar province left four police dead, while another five officers were killed in an insurgent raid on a post in Zabul province, in the south.

The 2009 poll, in which Karzai was re-elected over former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, was marred by widespread allegations of fraud. The credibility of the 2014 vote is seen as key to avoiding an escalation in violence after the NATO withdrawal.

Donor nations at a conference in Tokyo in July pledged $16 billion for Afghanistan to prevent the country from sliding back into turmoil when foreign combat troops depart, with several pre-conditions including presidential elections in 2014.

The International Crisis Group think-tank warned in October that the Kabul government could fall apart after NATO troops withdraw, particularly if the presidential elections are affected by fraud.

Security officials said they were confident they would learn lessons from 2009 as they seek to prevent violence in the run-up to the next election, only the third since the fall of the Taliban.

"Afghan security institutions will start working to design a comprehensive plan for security during the election," said defence ministry chief of staff Shir Mohammad Karimi.

Under the Afghan system, voters elect the president as an individual rather than as a representative of a party, and candidates must submit their nominations by October 6, 2013.

The IEC will then rule on their admissibility and publish a final list of candidates on November 16.

Initial results of the ballot will be announced on April 24, 2014, and final results on May 14, with May 28 set aside for any potential run-off vote. Provincial council elections will be held at the same time as the main poll.

Human trafficking, prostitution thrive in Afghanistan

Deutsche Welle, 24 October 2012

Thousands of Afghan girls and boys are trafficked into neighboring countries and sold into slavery each year. Though it is taboo, prostitution is alive and thriving - at the cost of those forced to work in it.

It is the oldest trade in the world and exists in probably every country in the world. Yet prostitution is not a dream job. Most female sex workers are forced to make a living through prostitution.

In conservative Afghanistan, prostitution is illegal. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Human trafficking is booming - young women are being sold and sent over to neighboring countries, mostly to Pakistan.

Heather Barr says the government has
 a number of other issues to tackle as well

Many people are unaware of just how many women are forced to work as prostitutes, according to Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division.

"HRW did a report that was released in March this year about women in prison for moral crimes. And one of the things that I found really surprising by doing those interviews, was how many women I met, had been forced in prostitution often by their husbands and in-laws."

Women sold as commodities

The reason, she explained, that women were forced into the sex trade by their families was due to poverty and drug addiction - usually of a husband or brother or both. The families often saw women as a source of money and take advantage of it.

Women from Pakistan are also been bought and sold to Afghanistan. Poor or practically non-existing security at the border means criminals smuggling and trafficking goods and people can easily get away with it. When the trafficked people arrive on the other side of the border, they are fully at the mercy of their pimps.

One woman from Pakistan who wished not to be named is now in Jalalabad - far away from her home in Karachi.

"We are poor and helpless. What are we supposed to do? We don't have anything to eat. That's why the "big man" brought us here from Karachi. No one likes doing this work, but I don't have any other choice," she told DW.

The young woman speaks neither of Afghanistan's official languages - Dari and Pashtu. She said she didn't know who to turn to and was afraid of the consequences she would face should she run away and the authority of her pimp, the "big man," as she called him. But he himself also cited poverty as a reason to force women into prostitution.

Sahar Gul, 15 years old, was tortured
for months by her in-laws for refusing to
prostitute herself

"I do this because I am poor and I want to be able to feed my children. I am aware that there are dangerous consequences, harsh punishments for this kind of work - for instance death or being ostracized and other things."

But he insisted he did not force anyone to work - that the women who work for him prostituted themselves because they wanted to.

Prostitution, whether out of one's own will or not, is illegal according to Islamic law. The cleric Nek Mohammad works for the court in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar and offers consultations on Islamic law. All forms of position are illegal, he told DW.

"At least four people have to bear witness to the crime. And should the prostitute or the person who buys her be married, his or her spouse will have to be stoned. If there are no married people involved, then they receive lashings."

Disease

But punishment is not the only thing to worry about. Most of the prostitutes are unaware of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as HIV and do not use condoms. The number of cases of STDs had sharply risen in the past few months, according to Dr. Baz Mohammad Sherzad, head of Nangarhar province's health ministry.

Prostitutes pose as beggars on the
streets of Afghanistan

"Our doctors confirm that many young men who have come to us recently have had urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases. If prostitution is allowed then it is no wonder there is an increase in such problems in Nangarhar."

Nonetheless, doctors should promote educational campaigns, said Sherzad. The government should tackle the problem. Yet the government had a whole set of other problems: "Think about child marriage, forced marriage, domestic violence, the sale of women for marriage and other purposes, forced prostitution, self immolation - honestly the government hasn't been dealing very effectively with any of those issues," said Heather Barr.

She said it was unfortunate that there was a lack of political will to solve these issues. Progress was only made very slow.

As of recently, it is now illegal to lock up women for running away from home, which is just a further symptom of the violence and forced prostitution women continue to face in Afghanistan.

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"... No soul enters life to serve another, except by choice, but to serve its own purpose and that of the Divine from which it came. ..."

"... No person shall be forced into marriage against his or her will. No woman shall be forced to bear or not bear children, against her will. No person shall be forced to hold or not hold views or worship in a manner contrary to his or her choice. Nothing vital to existence shall be withheld from another if it is within the community’s power to give. ...."