BBC - Radio 4 Woman's Hour -Afghanistan - women's rights under threat?

This week a leading female Afghan official working on women's rights was shot dead in the southern province of Kandahar. Safia Amajan, head of the province's women's department, was leaving her home for work when a gunman on a motorcycle opened fire. She was an eloquent public speaker, fierce in her criticism of the Taleban's repression of women.

Safia Amajan's death is one of the latest examples of the increasing dangers women face in Afghanistan. As the security situation deteriorates, many female workers have been forced to leave their jobs and more and more girls’ schools have been shut down.

So five years after the Taleban were forced from power, how much progress has been made towards women’s equality? And are Afghan women losing many of the freedoms they have gained since the American and British led invasion in 2001?

Martha Kearney is joined by Shukria Barakzai, an independent female MP in the Afghan parliament; Zarghuna Kargar, presenter of Afghan Woman's Hour on the BBC World Service; and Ayesha Khan, an expert on Afghanistan at the research institute Chatham House.

Afghan Woman's Hour
Afghanistan Online
Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan
Chatham House

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