Afghan police arrested a man who stabbed his wife to death for working outside the home, the latest reported case in a spate of attacks as violence against women in the country steadily increase.
Abdul Rahim stabbed his wife eight times because she was working for a non-government organization, according to provincial police spokesman Noor Khan Nekzad.
Women are prohibited from working – virtually all of their rights were eliminated, including right to education – under Taliban rule. But the series of horrific attacks on women underlines that the culture of gender violence persists even after the fall of the extremist militia’s regime, Reuters reported.
“There is no doubt violence against women has increased,” Abdul Qader Rahimi, the regional director of the government-backed human rights commission in western Afghanistan told AFP. Still, there are cases of violence believed to be unreported.
A teenage girl’s plight landed on international headlines last year after police rescued her. The girl was beaten and locked up in a toilet for five months after she refused her in-laws’ attempt to force her into prostitution. Just last week, an Afghan woman was beheaded after she refused her mother-in-law’s attempt to sexually exploit her.
