Afghanistan women's rights trampled

As the world marks International Women's Day, ambivalence, impunity, weak law enforcement and corruption continue to undermine women's rights in Afghanistan, despite a July 2009 law banning violence against women, rights activists say. A recent case of the public beating of a woman for alleged elopement - also shown on private TV stations in Kabul - highlights the issue. In January domestic violence forced two young women to flee their homes in Oshaan village, Dolaina District, Ghor Province, southwestern Afghanistan. A week later they were arrested in neighboring Herat Province and sent back to Oshaan, according to the governor of Ghor, Mohammad Iqbal Munib. "One woman was beaten in public for the elopement and the second was reportedly confined in a sack with a cat," Munib told IRIN.