AFGHANISTAN: Afghani Women Still Lacking Equal Voice

Afghanistan's women are among the most oppressed in the world. Under Taliban-rule, they were denied education, married off as children, and honour killings were considered a family's right.

Coalition forces have been in Afghanistan now for almost 10 years, denying the Taliban the right to govern. So how has life changed for Afghan women?

There are 2000 students at Bamiyan University and women now make up 20 percent.

Afghani resident Faterah says education is the only way women can have a voice, but in Afghanistan she's among a privileged minority. Most enter arranged marriages when they're very young and then life becomes a game of survival.

One in three children will suffer from malnutrition and one in six will die before the age of five. Afghan women, more than any other race, are more like to die from complications associated with pregnancy and childbirth.

More than 85 percent of Afghanistan's women give birth unassisted at home, and although Bamiyan now has 86 trained midwives, the province has a very high birth rate.

The image which still defines Afghanistan is the blue burqa. For women it means no rights, no choice, and no possibility of justice

“The justice system and the judges themselves, we have to wash their brain, to sensitise them on gender,” says Bamiyan governor Habiba Sorabi.

Sorabi is the country's first female Governor – she's proud of the new domestic violence law. It's enforcing it which is proving the problem.

“We really struggle to recall a case where a rape case has been prosecuted as a rape case. We just haven't been able to find that taken place. Most of the women, almost all of the women who claim that a rape has taken place, end up being convicted of adultery,” says Bamiyan legal advisor Sunil Srivastava.

So the cycle continues to the next generation. Oppressed, no rights, no future.

“The situation will be changed, slow process though. Sure, sure. It all takes time. It's not possibly to do it immediately, very soon or quickly,” says Sorabi.

They say women and children suffer most in times of war . In Afghanistan, they've suffered for decades.