Afghanistan: Violence Against Women Hits Record Levels

Violent crimes against women in Afghanistan have hit record levels, according to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

"The brutality of the cases is really bad. Cutting the nose, lips and ears. Committing public rape," head of AIHRC Sima Samar told Reuters.

"Mass rape...it's against dignity, against humanity."

Samar attributed the intensification in crimes to a long history of impunity and the imminent departure of international troops and aid workers.

"The presence of the international community and provincial reconstruction teams in most of the provinces was giving people confidence. There were people there trying to protect women. And that is not there anymore, unfortunately," said Samar.

A recent United Nations report shows a 28% increase in cases of violence against women in 2013.

According to the report, Afghanistan's Elimination of Violence Against Women Act, implemented in 2009 to ban 22 harmful practices against women, was only applied in 17% of reported cases.

The report also added that out of around 1,670 registered incidents of violence against women in 16 provinces, only 7% (109 cases) have gone through a judicial process.

Another sign that rights for women have been drastically reduced in recent years is the rise in cases of self-immolation.

The burns unit at Herat hospital in Afghanistan admitted a record number of women who had attempted to set themselves on fire in 2012.

"If they come with a high percentage of body surface burns...we cannot save them," Dr Ghafar Bawar told Reuters.

"After disfigurement, they have a very hard life."

International NGO Human Rights Watch reported that the current Karzai administration, which has recently introduced stoning as a capital punishment for adultery, further ignites violence against women.

According to the report, "President Hamid Karzai's endorsement in March of a statement by a national religious council calling women 'secondary', prohibiting violence against women only for 'un-Islamic' reasons, and calling for segregating women and girls in education, employment, and in public, raises questions about the government's commitment to protecting women".

The report added that "the minister of justice's description of battered women shelters as sites of 'immorality and prostitution' deepens that scepticism".