Posted on 03/09/2003 7:19:35 AM PST by Indy Pendance
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The first Afghan radio station programmed solely for women has begun broadcasting in the capital, the station's director said Sunday.
"The Voice of Afghan Women" aired its inaugural broadcast on Saturday, which also marked International Women's Day, said director Jamila Mujahed, who is also chief editor of a monthly magazine for women called Malalai.
"The programs will focus on women - the problems they face and how they can find solutions for them," she said. "We have music, interviews for women, social programs for women and entertainment programs for women."
The former Taliban government, which was overthrown in a U.S.-led bombing campaign in 2001, banned girls from school and prevented most women from working. Women were also prohibited from leaving home unaccompanied by a male relative.
A new government under President Hamid Karzai has created a more permissive atmosphere, allowing women to return to school and the workplace, including the government itself.
Despite progress on women's rights over the last year, however, intimidation and violence against women continues "unabated" in the country, according to a recently released U.N. report.
In December, the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch issued a report saying women and girls, particularly in the west of the country, were still suffering severe abuse, harassment and repression - including forced medical examinations to determine whether they have recently had sexual intercourse outside of marriage.
Mujahed said one-hour radio programs were being broadcast every afternoon in the local Pashtu and Dari languages in Kabul on 91.6 FM.
Daily broadcasts will increase to two hours next week and up to four hours in several months, she said.
The new radio station is sponsored by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, and the French aid group AINA.
On Saturday in Kabul, Women's Affairs Minister Habiba Surabi said rebuilding Afghanistan, which is struggling to recover from 23 years of war, would not be possible without the help of women.
"Women constitute half the population of this country and without our help there will be no development, no progress," Surabi said. "Peace without the participation of women is impossible."
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