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Afghan girls throw punches, aim for Olympic gold
Reuters By Agnieszka Flak and Hassib Sadat Mon Jan 2, 2012
KABUL - Teenage Afghan sisters Shabnam and Sadaf Rahimi are taking the fight for women's rights more literally than most of their peers, throwing punches in a ring as members of their country's first team of female boxers.
They practice inside a spartan gym with broken mirrors, flaking paint, four punching bags, and a concrete floor padded with faded pink and green mats. Some girls wear face masks to keep away the dust coming up from the floor.
"It was my dream to become a boxer. At first my father did not agree with me. He said girls should not be boxing," 18 year-old Sadaf told Reuters, out of breath from punching the bag. "After I got my first medal, he changed his mind."
Female boxing is still relatively unusual in most countries, but especially in Afghanistan, where many girls and women still face a struggle to secure an education or work, and activists say violence and abuse at home is common.
Three times a week, the girls come to practice at the Ghazi stadium, once used for public punishment by the Taliban, the hardline Islamists who ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.
Women were stoned for adultery there and despite an expensive revamp, its gory past sometimes spooks the athletes.
"My family fled to Iran during the Taliban...but I heard that women used to be killed here and sometimes when I exercise alone inside the stadium I panic," Sadaf said.
Under the Taliban, all sports for women were banned. They still have far fewer opportunities for exercise than men.
Boys peered through the dirty training hall windows during one practice, curiosity piqued by the sight of girls doing push ups and throwing punches.
Not all onlookers are simply curious.
Many in this conservative society still consider fighting taboo for women, and the girls deal with serious threats.
"Two years ago someone called my father...and threatened that he would either kidnap or kill us if he let us train," 19- year-old Shabnam said.
They did not return to training for a month, until their trainer offered to organize transport for the girls, and still limit workouts to the gym, where the government provides security.
OLYMPIC MEDALS
The team was created in 2007 by Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee to challenge stereotypes and encourage girls to stand up for what they believe in.
"We want to show the world that Afghan women can be leaders, too, that they can do anything, even boxing," their coach, Mohammad Saber Sharifi, said.
The team received some financial support from the Olympic committee and a local non-governmental group, Cooperation for Peace and Unity, but supplies are still scarce.
Sharifi, himself a former professional boxing champion, hopes to source more support to build a boxing ring, improve their equipment and send the girls to international meets to hone their skills.
The biggest hope is to reach the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where women's boxing will debut as a medal sport, but a tough qualification round in China in May stands in the way.
No Afghan woman has ever won a medal at the Olympic games, but taekwondo fighter Rohullah Nikpai may have paved the way by taking a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games, becoming a national hero in the process.
The Rahimi sisters are aiming at the same podium. Shabnam won her first gold medal at an international competition in Tajikistan this year, where her younger sister also took silver.
"I want to become a good boxer so that I can bring more pride to my country. My dream is to raise the Afghan flag for my country," Shabnam said.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
Tortured Afghan Teen to Go to India For Treatment
VOA News January 2, 2012
Afghan officials say a 15-year-old girl brutally tortured for months by her in-laws will be sent to India for medical treatment.
The Interior Ministry said Monday that Sahar Gul's mother-in-law and sister-in-law have been arrested and police are seeking her husband and father-in-law.
President Hamid Karzai ordered the ministry to investigate the case, saying whoever used violence against Gul will be punished.
Gul was beaten, starved, burned and had her fingernails pulled out in an attempt to force her into prostitution. She has been married seven months.
She was freed from a basement at her husband's home in northeastern Baghlan province last week after her uncle called the local police.
Despite progress since the fall of the Taliban 10 years ago, women's rights in Afghanistan remain problematic in a country with a strict patriarchal culture.
Under Taliban rule, girls' schools were banned and women could only leave the house accompanied by a male family member.
Security to remain daunting challenge for Afghan gov't in 2012
By Abdul Haleem, Chen Xin
KABUL, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- While the war-weary Afghans have been praying for the restoration of viable peace in their war-wrecked country and wish 2012 a year of peace and reconciliation, the horizon of the year likewise the yesteryear seems bleak as it was heralded with security incidents.
On Sunday, the first day of the year 2012, when people across the globe including the Afghans wished for peace, an explosive- laden car designed for subversive activities was discovered and defused in Helmand province 555 km south of Afghan capital Kabul.
Notorious for growing poppy and known as the hotbed of the Taliban, Helmand has been the scene of increasing militancy over the past couple of years.
The discovery of the explosive-laden car coincided with the handover of security to Afghan forces from NATO-led troops in Nawa district of Helmand Province.
According to officials, anti-government militants were attempting to disrupt the security handover process in Nawa district but security forces foiled the conspiracy and arrested four insurgents.
The process of security handover from some 130,000-strong NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) with over 90, 000 of them Americans, to the Afghan government begun in July 2011 and is scheduled to complete by 2014.
Also on Sunday, an explosion, believed to be a controlled one, rocked Zharai district of Taliban former stronghold Kandahar province.
Security incidents have also been registered in Afghanistan on Monday.
Three civilians lost their lives as a car struck a roadside bomb planted by suspected insurgents in Logar province 60 km south of Kabul on Monday.
Several insurgents, according to an ISAF statement, have been arrested in Kandahar, Nangarhar and Logar provinces on Monday.
In addition to keeping on pressure on militants by Afghan and NATO-led forces, taming the Taliban and bringing them to the negotiation table would remain a big challenge for the Afghan government and its international allies in 2012.
Taliban militants fighting the Afghan government and the NATO- led troops have often conditioned any talks with the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, a condition unacceptable for both Kabul and Washington.
Media reports suggest that the Taliban would open an liaison office in Gulf state of Qatar. But the adamant Taliban outfit has yet to confirm the opening of the office in Qatar or any other state.
"Taliban outfit does not have the ability to confront the security forces. Nevertheless, the militants would continue to carry out suicide attacks and roadside bombings in 2012," an Afghan analyst and the former diplomat Ahmad Saydi observed.
He also was of the view that bringing Taliban to the negotiation table and convincing them to give up fighting is a difficult task.
The Afghan Defense Ministry also believes that the Taliban- linked militancy would continue this year but in isolated cases.
"Although 2012 would be better compared with the last year in terms of security, the terrorist activities would continue," Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi told newsmen Monday.
The Afghan government wants the Taliban to accept the national constitution which guarantees education to both men and women, freedom of press and general elections; while the Taliban denies gender equality and polling.
With this perspective, it seems difficult for the Afghans to overcome insurgency and embrace lasting peace in their country this year.
24 insurgents killed, 120 detained in month: Afghan official
KABUL, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan National Army (ANA) have eliminated at least 24 suspected insurgents and detained 120 others during joint and independent operations over the past month, a spokesman for the country's Defense Ministry said on Monday.
"The ANA have killed a total of 24 insurgents and detained 120 other suspected insurgents during independent and joint operations with NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces over the last month," General Zahir Azimi told reporters in a joint press briefing with ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson here in Kabul.
However, he asserted that seven ANA soldiers and officers have been killed and 23 others injured in insurgent attacks, military operations and Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts around the country over the same period of time.
Meantime, Azimi said the security situation in Afghanistan will improve in 2012, adding that "Our finding is that security will improve around the country this year since insurgents have lost the control of several key areas in the southern part of Afghanistan and many insurgents leaders have been killed or detained during military and cleanup operations in 2011."
"For example, year-on-year enemy-initiated attacks decreased for the first time in 2011 in this campaign, a trend that started in May and continued from then on," the spokesman of around 130, 000 ISAF forces added.
Afghan and ISAF officials often use the word "insurgents" referring to the Taliban. However, the insurgent group, who launched in May this year a rebel offensive against Afghan and NATO forces, has yet to make comments.
Roadside bomb kills 3 Afghan civilians
PUL-E-ALAM, Afghanistan, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Three civilians were killed as a roadside bomb struck their car on Monday in Logar province, 60 km south of capital city Kabul, an official said.
"The tragic incident took place outside provincial capital Pul- e-Alam at around 10:00 a.m. local time leaving three civilians including a child dead," spokesman for provincial administration Deen Mohammad Darvish told Xinhua.
He also blamed Taliban militants for planting the mine on the road and killing non-combatants, but the outfit has yet to make comment.
In Afghanistan, Poppy Growing Proves Resilient
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN January 1, 2012
NAKILABAD KALAY, Afghanistan - This stretch of the Helmand River Valley, the heart of the nation’s poppy-growing area, stands as a showcase for one of NATO’s most ambitious offensives against the Taliban and the drug trade. But now, the area is also becoming an object lesson in the resilience of militants and opium producers alike.
Beginning four years ago, a huge military offensive, first by British troops and then by United States Marines, broke the Taliban’s hold on much of the valley. At the same time, there was an all-out effort to educate farmers and encourage them to grow other crops, with the aim of cutting poppy production. The provincial governor reinforced this initiative with a tough eradication program in the land along the river.
Today, most farmers in this district, Nad Ali, as well as in nearby Marja and other settlements along the river, grow wheat and cotton. The district governor just opened a school in this remote village, and there is a small bazaar with a handful of mud-walled shops doing a steady business in gum, candy and toiletries. Patrols by NATO troops, the Afghan Army and the police are frequent.
Beyond the fertile river lands, however, a more troubling pattern is emerging. According to interviews with farmers, elders and Afghan and Western officials, the poor sharecroppers who used to farm poppy here have moved to the outer reaches of the district, turning the desert into remarkably productive opium fields. The Taliban have moved as well, evading the NATO offensive and offering the poppy farmers protection.
Over just a couple of seasons, these relocated farmers, unhampered by any military presence, have undercut the offensive’s initial gains against poppy production for this district. This, in turn, has raised hard questions about what will happen in villages like this one once the International Security Assistance Forces begin withdrawing.
“Four years ago, no one could stay here like these shopkeepers,” said an elderly man who refused to give his name, as he looked up from repairing a bicycle in the shadow of the thatch awning stretched just outside his little shop. “And when ISAF leaves, no one will be able to stay here.”
The pull of poppies is hard to resist. Despite NATO’s successes in balancing military saturation with agricultural incentives in Helmand, the province provides raw material for more than 40 percent of the world’s opium, and overall poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2011 was up 7 percent from the previous year. It is expected to rise further in the years ahead, both because opium prices are high and because the profitability of alternative crops is limited, in part by difficulties in marketing them, according to farmers and academics who study the poppy economy.
Poppy cultivation thrives on a combination of antigovernment feeling, armed insurgency and government corruption. Counternarcotics experts describe a situation in which farmers looking to make money turn to the Taliban for protection. At the same time, the farmers resent the government for what they see as its hypocrisy in simultaneously pursuing eradication, which takes away the farmers’ livelihood, and being open to corruption, which allows those farmers who pay off government officials to continue growing poppies.
In Afghanistan, the developing politics and economics of opium production make it seem as if “you are in Colombia in the early stages, in Mexico in the early years,” said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, who heads the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan.
He said that the Colombian FARC rebels started out as an ideological, antigovernment movement, which was later taken over by financial interests. He described “collusion” among Helmand’s power brokers and the Taliban, who, for a price, protect the farmers from poppy eradication by government security officials. That has added to the sense that the government has little to offer — a feeling compounded by the lack of government services like schools or clinics in poppy-growing areas.
Nad Ali elders agree that the eradication effort is fostering a bond between poppy farmers and the insurgency.
“People who are living in areas where the government has control and where they don’t allow them to grow poppies, they don’t like the ban and they are going to areas where the Taliban have control,” said an elder from Nad Ali, who asked not to be named because he feared government reprisals. “There is nothing more important for people than poppies, and there is nothing more productive for people than poppies.”
The United Nations drug and crime office, as well as academic researchers who study poppy cultivation, say that in the desert areas where poppies are now grown, the Taliban made a strategic decision to refrain from charging the usual tax based on production amounts and are asking for smaller fees on farmers’ harvests.
The big profits do not go to the farmers or to the Taliban. The United Nations estimates that, of the total opium profits that remain in the country, about 10 percent goes to the insurgents, 20 percent to the farmers and the rest to the traffickers, the police, power brokers and those government officials who facilitate the transport out of the country.
“From the farmers on, there’s collusion,” said Mr. Lemahieu, referring to the payments the farmers and the traffickers make to protect the poppy crops.
Though poppy cultivation continues to flourish elsewhere, NATO has shown real progress in the Helmand River Valley in the area now called the food zone. Here, the poppy crop has been eliminated almost entirely, and the Taliban have had to relinquish their hold.
In the irrigated areas of Nad Ali, the British, who had military responsibility for Helmand until last year, distributed high-quality wheat seed to spur farmers to stop planting poppies. The effort worked best among farmers who had well-irrigated land and were able to grow enough wheat that they could invest in secondary businesses in towns to augment their income, according to David Mansfield, a researcher at Tufts University who has tracked the rural livelihoods in Helmand Province for more than a decade and recently published an exhaustive study of the province’s rural economy.
Helmand’s governor, Gulab Mangal, coupled the wheat seed distribution program with aggressive poppy eradication in the food zone, where Nakilabad Kalay is. By the second year, there were impressive results: a 33 percent reduction in poppy cultivation in the food zone. But that trend diminished sharply in subsequent years, with only a 7 percent reduction in 2010 and a 3 percent reduction in 2011, according to statistics from the provincial reconstruction team in Helmand, suggesting that the alternative crop program’s effectiveness may have reached its limit.
While wheat pays relatively well, selling it can be a problem, several farmers in Nad Ali said. That is even more true of cotton. Farmers have complained that the government’s cotton mill often either is not working or is slow to pay farmers for their crops. Moreover, Afghan cotton cannot compete with cheaper Pakistani cotton, they say.
For poorer farmers, many of whom say they were sharecroppers when they worked land in the food zone, moving to the desert to grow poppies has meant they can afford to buy land since it is cheap, and they can feed their families better because they can earn more. Mr. Mansfield’s study notes most farmers in the desert areas can afford meat more often than they could as sharecroppers growing legitimate crops in the food zone and can afford to marry off their children, an expensive undertaking in Afghanistan.
“People are committed to grow poppies, because there aren’t any other crops where we can make enough money to fill our children’s stomachs,” said Abdul Rauf, a farmer in the desert area of Nad Ali.
Even in the food zone, there are worries about the sustainability of the alternative crops policy because of corruption, according to provincial elders and Western officials. While many farmers in the food zone have stopped growing poppies, some are paying off the police and judges to be allowed to continue to grow it.
And some farmers are trying to have it both ways: growing legal crops in the food zone as well as farming illegal poppies in the desert.
“The harvest was very good this year: I am growing wheat, and I am growing poppies,” said Gul Hamid, 20, a farmer in Nakilabad Kalay, as he sat in a plastic chair with some friends outside a small shop that sold combs and detergent.
“People will grow more poppies next year,” he said. Taimoor Shah contributed reporting.
2011 Reflections: What happened to the US debate on Afghanistan?
Seven Monitor correspondents reflect on the world's hot spots. In this installment, Ben Arnoldy is bothered by silence on the war because, unlike him, US troops can’t choose when to come home.
Christian Science Monitor By Ben Arnoldy, Staff writer January 1, 2012
It's the middle of the night and I've just been awakened by an explosion. Standing in the dark of the Afghan guesthouse, I hear gunfire approaching.
I am the only Westerner in Baharak, a far-flung town. My curiosity turns to fear. I start looking for a hiding spot. Then, mercifully, the guns fall silent.
During my three years in the region, it was times like these that made me consider whether I wanted to keep reporting on Afghanistan, where the US involvement is entering its 11th year. Was it worth the risks if few Americans seemed to be paying attention to the conflict?
Since my move back to Boston in November, I'm still bothered by the neglect of the war because, unlike me, roughly 90,000 US troops over there cannot choose when to come home – that's up to us, the electorate. So far, I have encountered few real debates or deep curiosity here about this mostly forgotten war, just the occasional sentimentality for the troops.
"When did you get back?" the receptionist at the dentist asked me recently. "They didn't have you stick around to cover the end of the war?"
"I wasn't going to stay another three years – or more," I said.
Confused, she said: "I thought the war just ended."
"Oh, that's Iraq," I said.
"Where were you again?" she asked. Afghanistan does feel impossibly far away here. Even the scenes that play back in my mind look a bit like the moon.
I remember piling into a light armored vehicle, a military version of a duck boat. I was embedded with a group of US Marines in the far south.
We sped into the wake of the lead vehicle, which was kicking up plumes of "moon dust" – the powdery sand in that part of Helmand Province – that covered anyone leaning out of the truck's open bed. I didn't have aviator goggles, so I faced in, looked down, and noticed the guys were wearing velcro straps around their thighs.
If we hit an improvised explosive device (IED), they explained later, they could quickly tighten the straps to serve as a tourniquet.
When that's the nature of daily life there, a daily conversation ought to be taking place here about whether such sacrifices are still worth the costs. Instead, it's just not a priority – at least, not for most.
The Republican debates, when they touch on war, are fixated on Iran. The "Occupy" protests are not focused on the ongoing war, either, though returned veterans got some attention for putting themselves between police and fellow protesters. Explain this to me
I ask people why it's such a forgotten issue. "People are more concerned about the economy," said a PhD student I met recently. Like most Americans, she wants the United States out of Afghanistan. I asked whether she'll protest. She shrugged. "We'll be out by 2014 anyway, right?"
I was in the Afghan capital, Kabul, when President Obama announced a surge of US forces into Afghanistan in 2010. He made a fateful decision to also mention a drawdown date. The reason, US officials in Kabul said, was to light a fire under Afghan President Hamid Karzai: Get serious about good governance because the US won't be there forever.
But the date seemed more important for those outside Kabul: the Taliban and the American people. The Taliban have shown little urgency in a peace process, perhaps calculating that they just need to wait until 2014, when the US says it will leave.
And in the US, the issue of ending the war has lost its potency because of a similar perception that it's winding down anyway.
And so Afghanistan has become something of a zombie war – a dead conflict that violently carries on. More than 400 US troops were killed there in 2011. Rationale for keeping US troops
What originally animated this conflict was the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Taliban regime failed to immediately turn over Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. The US overthrew the government but failed to get Mr. bin Laden until this past May. Even then, his death didn't end the war.
For journalists covering Afghan¬istan, it's at times challenging to figure out the latest US reasons to remain there. Here are the rationales given to me most often in the field – all of which deserve more debate:
1. Make peace with the Taliban. Diplomats, in particular, talk up the importance of this in order to end the vicious cycle of war in Afghanistan. But 2011 has brought one setback after another to the peace process, from a Taliban imposter fooling NATO into thinking he was a top Taliban peace negotiator to a suicide bomber who killed Mr. Karzai's peace envoy by detonating an explosive hidden in his turban.
At press time, however, a breakthrough seemed possible: Reuters reported that after 10 months of talks, the US and the Taliban may be close to taking initial confidence-building steps necessary for more serious political talks to start.
2. Rid nuclear-armed Pakistan of militants. Military strategists suggest the Afghan war is crucial for cleaning up Pakistan – a country with nuclear weapons and one that plays host to a who's who of militants. The US wants Pakistan to end militant havens or to allow the US to do it for them.
But it's worth a more serious cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the terrorists left in Pakistan remain a major threat to the US homeland.
3. Reserve US jobs. Occasionally, a cynic would point out that the war doubled as a massive jobs program. As an American contractor in Kabul once confided to me over breakfast: "I am having a good war."
Should the war run for three more Christmases? That question can be answered in various ways. But as someone who has just returned to the US, I simply want it to be asked here.
As I enjoy the peace of this holiday season, so removed from the conflict zone I recently experienced, I remind myself that we should spare a few thoughts for those who won't be home for the holidays – and consider why exactly that is.
NATO Hopes for Reopening of Pakistani Supply Routes
VOA News January 2, 2012
NATO hopes to mend relations with Pakistan quickly in order to reopen key supply routes for its forces fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.
NATO spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobsen said Monday that the closure of the routes has adversely affected the economies of both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan blocked the Khyber and Chaman routes to Afghanistan in November after NATO airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the border.
Pakistan has rejected a NATO investigation that blamed the incident on mistakes made by both sides.
The closure of the routes choked a major supply line for the 130,000-strong U.S.-led force in Afghanistan.
However, Jacobsen said the coalition has a stockpile of supplies that can keep operations in Afghanistan running at their current level even if the routes through Pakistan remain closed.
Dismissing Panelists Cannot Destroy Report: Samar
TOLOnews.com By Lotfullah Najafizada Sunday, 01 January 2012
A detailed report highlighting human rights violations in Afghanistan's three decades of war cannot be destroyed and would eventually be released, said the head of the Afghan human rights body, Sima Samar.
The conflict mapping report documenting human rights violations from late 70s to the end of the Taliban regime in 2001 reportedly includes names of high-profile people in President Karzai's government.
In her first interview after the dismissal of three commissioners of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), the commission's chairperson, Sima Samar told TOLOnews that the report represents "realities of Afghanistan's history" which cannot be ignored.
"It's possible [that people who would replace us would not release the report as it is], but they cannot totally destroy all the documents because today's technology is different from a century ago," Samar told TOLOnews evening talk show, Kankash, on Saturday evening.
Two weeks earlier, President Karzai dismissed three members from human rights panel, including prominent human rights activists Nader Naderi and Fahim Hakim.
Mr Naderi was mainly responsible for preparing the war crimes report, documenting crimes during the communism era, the Mujahiddin government and the Taliban regime.
"I think if we turn a blind eye on the realities in the past, we cannot bring a sustainable peace in Afghanistan," she said.
The palace had said that the commissioners' five-year terms were over last month and weren't extended and it was the legitimate right of the president.
Samar said she was not officially notified about the dismissal of her commissioners, therefore, Naderi and his colleagues still occupy their seats. The president, Samar said, had promised her two months ago that she would be consulted for appointing new members for another term.
"In the meeting I had with the President two months ago, I reminded him that our terms were coming to an end. He said you have to continue and I said that if I continue, I want to select my team or at least have a role in it and promised to do it," she said.
Asked whether the report prepared by Naderi includes names of influential government officials and key allies of President Karzai, she responded that the Afghan people know those people without her naming them.
"Firstly, the commission doesn't want to add to the conflict in Afghanistan, secondly, security of our staff in different offices and provinces is an issue for us, thirdly, I think these events are the realities and the people of Afghanistan should accept this reality.
Whether we release it today, ten or fifteen years later, it will remain part of the history of Afghanistan, she said during the one-hour show.
Samar was in the United States to receive a peace award from the International Crisis Group when the news of the dismissal of prominent members of her office had leaked.
She argued that the she doesn't think the president has made his final decision.
She insisted that the seats of the human rights commission should not be distributed among key stakeholders in the government as, according her, is common in other places in the government and the appointees should have commitments to human rights.
Members of a civil society group had requested the president to replace all nine members of the commission, a request President Karzai said he would consider.
Samar said she doesn't know the president's decision about her.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
Reuters By Agnieszka Flak and Hassib Sadat Mon Jan 2, 2012
KABUL - Teenage Afghan sisters Shabnam and Sadaf Rahimi are taking the fight for women's rights more literally than most of their peers, throwing punches in a ring as members of their country's first team of female boxers.
They practice inside a spartan gym with broken mirrors, flaking paint, four punching bags, and a concrete floor padded with faded pink and green mats. Some girls wear face masks to keep away the dust coming up from the floor.
"It was my dream to become a boxer. At first my father did not agree with me. He said girls should not be boxing," 18 year-old Sadaf told Reuters, out of breath from punching the bag. "After I got my first medal, he changed his mind."
Female boxing is still relatively unusual in most countries, but especially in Afghanistan, where many girls and women still face a struggle to secure an education or work, and activists say violence and abuse at home is common.
Three times a week, the girls come to practice at the Ghazi stadium, once used for public punishment by the Taliban, the hardline Islamists who ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.
Women were stoned for adultery there and despite an expensive revamp, its gory past sometimes spooks the athletes.
"My family fled to Iran during the Taliban...but I heard that women used to be killed here and sometimes when I exercise alone inside the stadium I panic," Sadaf said.
Under the Taliban, all sports for women were banned. They still have far fewer opportunities for exercise than men.
Boys peered through the dirty training hall windows during one practice, curiosity piqued by the sight of girls doing push ups and throwing punches.
Not all onlookers are simply curious.
Many in this conservative society still consider fighting taboo for women, and the girls deal with serious threats.
"Two years ago someone called my father...and threatened that he would either kidnap or kill us if he let us train," 19- year-old Shabnam said.
They did not return to training for a month, until their trainer offered to organize transport for the girls, and still limit workouts to the gym, where the government provides security.
OLYMPIC MEDALS
The team was created in 2007 by Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee to challenge stereotypes and encourage girls to stand up for what they believe in.
"We want to show the world that Afghan women can be leaders, too, that they can do anything, even boxing," their coach, Mohammad Saber Sharifi, said.
The team received some financial support from the Olympic committee and a local non-governmental group, Cooperation for Peace and Unity, but supplies are still scarce.
Sharifi, himself a former professional boxing champion, hopes to source more support to build a boxing ring, improve their equipment and send the girls to international meets to hone their skills.
The biggest hope is to reach the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where women's boxing will debut as a medal sport, but a tough qualification round in China in May stands in the way.
No Afghan woman has ever won a medal at the Olympic games, but taekwondo fighter Rohullah Nikpai may have paved the way by taking a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games, becoming a national hero in the process.
The Rahimi sisters are aiming at the same podium. Shabnam won her first gold medal at an international competition in Tajikistan this year, where her younger sister also took silver.
"I want to become a good boxer so that I can bring more pride to my country. My dream is to raise the Afghan flag for my country," Shabnam said.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
Tortured Afghan Teen to Go to India For Treatment
VOA News January 2, 2012
Afghan officials say a 15-year-old girl brutally tortured for months by her in-laws will be sent to India for medical treatment.
The Interior Ministry said Monday that Sahar Gul's mother-in-law and sister-in-law have been arrested and police are seeking her husband and father-in-law.
President Hamid Karzai ordered the ministry to investigate the case, saying whoever used violence against Gul will be punished.
Gul was beaten, starved, burned and had her fingernails pulled out in an attempt to force her into prostitution. She has been married seven months.
She was freed from a basement at her husband's home in northeastern Baghlan province last week after her uncle called the local police.
Despite progress since the fall of the Taliban 10 years ago, women's rights in Afghanistan remain problematic in a country with a strict patriarchal culture.
Under Taliban rule, girls' schools were banned and women could only leave the house accompanied by a male family member.
Security to remain daunting challenge for Afghan gov't in 2012
By Abdul Haleem, Chen Xin
KABUL, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- While the war-weary Afghans have been praying for the restoration of viable peace in their war-wrecked country and wish 2012 a year of peace and reconciliation, the horizon of the year likewise the yesteryear seems bleak as it was heralded with security incidents.
On Sunday, the first day of the year 2012, when people across the globe including the Afghans wished for peace, an explosive- laden car designed for subversive activities was discovered and defused in Helmand province 555 km south of Afghan capital Kabul.
Notorious for growing poppy and known as the hotbed of the Taliban, Helmand has been the scene of increasing militancy over the past couple of years.
The discovery of the explosive-laden car coincided with the handover of security to Afghan forces from NATO-led troops in Nawa district of Helmand Province.
According to officials, anti-government militants were attempting to disrupt the security handover process in Nawa district but security forces foiled the conspiracy and arrested four insurgents.
The process of security handover from some 130,000-strong NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) with over 90, 000 of them Americans, to the Afghan government begun in July 2011 and is scheduled to complete by 2014.
Also on Sunday, an explosion, believed to be a controlled one, rocked Zharai district of Taliban former stronghold Kandahar province.
Security incidents have also been registered in Afghanistan on Monday.
Three civilians lost their lives as a car struck a roadside bomb planted by suspected insurgents in Logar province 60 km south of Kabul on Monday.
Several insurgents, according to an ISAF statement, have been arrested in Kandahar, Nangarhar and Logar provinces on Monday.
In addition to keeping on pressure on militants by Afghan and NATO-led forces, taming the Taliban and bringing them to the negotiation table would remain a big challenge for the Afghan government and its international allies in 2012.
Taliban militants fighting the Afghan government and the NATO- led troops have often conditioned any talks with the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, a condition unacceptable for both Kabul and Washington.
Media reports suggest that the Taliban would open an liaison office in Gulf state of Qatar. But the adamant Taliban outfit has yet to confirm the opening of the office in Qatar or any other state.
"Taliban outfit does not have the ability to confront the security forces. Nevertheless, the militants would continue to carry out suicide attacks and roadside bombings in 2012," an Afghan analyst and the former diplomat Ahmad Saydi observed.
He also was of the view that bringing Taliban to the negotiation table and convincing them to give up fighting is a difficult task.
The Afghan Defense Ministry also believes that the Taliban- linked militancy would continue this year but in isolated cases.
"Although 2012 would be better compared with the last year in terms of security, the terrorist activities would continue," Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi told newsmen Monday.
The Afghan government wants the Taliban to accept the national constitution which guarantees education to both men and women, freedom of press and general elections; while the Taliban denies gender equality and polling.
With this perspective, it seems difficult for the Afghans to overcome insurgency and embrace lasting peace in their country this year.
24 insurgents killed, 120 detained in month: Afghan official
KABUL, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan National Army (ANA) have eliminated at least 24 suspected insurgents and detained 120 others during joint and independent operations over the past month, a spokesman for the country's Defense Ministry said on Monday.
"The ANA have killed a total of 24 insurgents and detained 120 other suspected insurgents during independent and joint operations with NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces over the last month," General Zahir Azimi told reporters in a joint press briefing with ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobson here in Kabul.
However, he asserted that seven ANA soldiers and officers have been killed and 23 others injured in insurgent attacks, military operations and Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts around the country over the same period of time.
Meantime, Azimi said the security situation in Afghanistan will improve in 2012, adding that "Our finding is that security will improve around the country this year since insurgents have lost the control of several key areas in the southern part of Afghanistan and many insurgents leaders have been killed or detained during military and cleanup operations in 2011."
"For example, year-on-year enemy-initiated attacks decreased for the first time in 2011 in this campaign, a trend that started in May and continued from then on," the spokesman of around 130, 000 ISAF forces added.
Afghan and ISAF officials often use the word "insurgents" referring to the Taliban. However, the insurgent group, who launched in May this year a rebel offensive against Afghan and NATO forces, has yet to make comments.
Roadside bomb kills 3 Afghan civilians
PUL-E-ALAM, Afghanistan, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Three civilians were killed as a roadside bomb struck their car on Monday in Logar province, 60 km south of capital city Kabul, an official said.
"The tragic incident took place outside provincial capital Pul- e-Alam at around 10:00 a.m. local time leaving three civilians including a child dead," spokesman for provincial administration Deen Mohammad Darvish told Xinhua.
He also blamed Taliban militants for planting the mine on the road and killing non-combatants, but the outfit has yet to make comment.
In Afghanistan, Poppy Growing Proves Resilient
New York Times By ALISSA J. RUBIN January 1, 2012
NAKILABAD KALAY, Afghanistan - This stretch of the Helmand River Valley, the heart of the nation’s poppy-growing area, stands as a showcase for one of NATO’s most ambitious offensives against the Taliban and the drug trade. But now, the area is also becoming an object lesson in the resilience of militants and opium producers alike.
Beginning four years ago, a huge military offensive, first by British troops and then by United States Marines, broke the Taliban’s hold on much of the valley. At the same time, there was an all-out effort to educate farmers and encourage them to grow other crops, with the aim of cutting poppy production. The provincial governor reinforced this initiative with a tough eradication program in the land along the river.
Today, most farmers in this district, Nad Ali, as well as in nearby Marja and other settlements along the river, grow wheat and cotton. The district governor just opened a school in this remote village, and there is a small bazaar with a handful of mud-walled shops doing a steady business in gum, candy and toiletries. Patrols by NATO troops, the Afghan Army and the police are frequent.
Beyond the fertile river lands, however, a more troubling pattern is emerging. According to interviews with farmers, elders and Afghan and Western officials, the poor sharecroppers who used to farm poppy here have moved to the outer reaches of the district, turning the desert into remarkably productive opium fields. The Taliban have moved as well, evading the NATO offensive and offering the poppy farmers protection.
Over just a couple of seasons, these relocated farmers, unhampered by any military presence, have undercut the offensive’s initial gains against poppy production for this district. This, in turn, has raised hard questions about what will happen in villages like this one once the International Security Assistance Forces begin withdrawing.
“Four years ago, no one could stay here like these shopkeepers,” said an elderly man who refused to give his name, as he looked up from repairing a bicycle in the shadow of the thatch awning stretched just outside his little shop. “And when ISAF leaves, no one will be able to stay here.”
The pull of poppies is hard to resist. Despite NATO’s successes in balancing military saturation with agricultural incentives in Helmand, the province provides raw material for more than 40 percent of the world’s opium, and overall poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2011 was up 7 percent from the previous year. It is expected to rise further in the years ahead, both because opium prices are high and because the profitability of alternative crops is limited, in part by difficulties in marketing them, according to farmers and academics who study the poppy economy.
Poppy cultivation thrives on a combination of antigovernment feeling, armed insurgency and government corruption. Counternarcotics experts describe a situation in which farmers looking to make money turn to the Taliban for protection. At the same time, the farmers resent the government for what they see as its hypocrisy in simultaneously pursuing eradication, which takes away the farmers’ livelihood, and being open to corruption, which allows those farmers who pay off government officials to continue growing poppies.
In Afghanistan, the developing politics and economics of opium production make it seem as if “you are in Colombia in the early stages, in Mexico in the early years,” said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, who heads the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan.
He said that the Colombian FARC rebels started out as an ideological, antigovernment movement, which was later taken over by financial interests. He described “collusion” among Helmand’s power brokers and the Taliban, who, for a price, protect the farmers from poppy eradication by government security officials. That has added to the sense that the government has little to offer — a feeling compounded by the lack of government services like schools or clinics in poppy-growing areas.
Nad Ali elders agree that the eradication effort is fostering a bond between poppy farmers and the insurgency.
“People who are living in areas where the government has control and where they don’t allow them to grow poppies, they don’t like the ban and they are going to areas where the Taliban have control,” said an elder from Nad Ali, who asked not to be named because he feared government reprisals. “There is nothing more important for people than poppies, and there is nothing more productive for people than poppies.”
The United Nations drug and crime office, as well as academic researchers who study poppy cultivation, say that in the desert areas where poppies are now grown, the Taliban made a strategic decision to refrain from charging the usual tax based on production amounts and are asking for smaller fees on farmers’ harvests.
The big profits do not go to the farmers or to the Taliban. The United Nations estimates that, of the total opium profits that remain in the country, about 10 percent goes to the insurgents, 20 percent to the farmers and the rest to the traffickers, the police, power brokers and those government officials who facilitate the transport out of the country.
“From the farmers on, there’s collusion,” said Mr. Lemahieu, referring to the payments the farmers and the traffickers make to protect the poppy crops.
Though poppy cultivation continues to flourish elsewhere, NATO has shown real progress in the Helmand River Valley in the area now called the food zone. Here, the poppy crop has been eliminated almost entirely, and the Taliban have had to relinquish their hold.
In the irrigated areas of Nad Ali, the British, who had military responsibility for Helmand until last year, distributed high-quality wheat seed to spur farmers to stop planting poppies. The effort worked best among farmers who had well-irrigated land and were able to grow enough wheat that they could invest in secondary businesses in towns to augment their income, according to David Mansfield, a researcher at Tufts University who has tracked the rural livelihoods in Helmand Province for more than a decade and recently published an exhaustive study of the province’s rural economy.
Helmand’s governor, Gulab Mangal, coupled the wheat seed distribution program with aggressive poppy eradication in the food zone, where Nakilabad Kalay is. By the second year, there were impressive results: a 33 percent reduction in poppy cultivation in the food zone. But that trend diminished sharply in subsequent years, with only a 7 percent reduction in 2010 and a 3 percent reduction in 2011, according to statistics from the provincial reconstruction team in Helmand, suggesting that the alternative crop program’s effectiveness may have reached its limit.
While wheat pays relatively well, selling it can be a problem, several farmers in Nad Ali said. That is even more true of cotton. Farmers have complained that the government’s cotton mill often either is not working or is slow to pay farmers for their crops. Moreover, Afghan cotton cannot compete with cheaper Pakistani cotton, they say.
For poorer farmers, many of whom say they were sharecroppers when they worked land in the food zone, moving to the desert to grow poppies has meant they can afford to buy land since it is cheap, and they can feed their families better because they can earn more. Mr. Mansfield’s study notes most farmers in the desert areas can afford meat more often than they could as sharecroppers growing legitimate crops in the food zone and can afford to marry off their children, an expensive undertaking in Afghanistan.
“People are committed to grow poppies, because there aren’t any other crops where we can make enough money to fill our children’s stomachs,” said Abdul Rauf, a farmer in the desert area of Nad Ali.
Even in the food zone, there are worries about the sustainability of the alternative crops policy because of corruption, according to provincial elders and Western officials. While many farmers in the food zone have stopped growing poppies, some are paying off the police and judges to be allowed to continue to grow it.
And some farmers are trying to have it both ways: growing legal crops in the food zone as well as farming illegal poppies in the desert.
“The harvest was very good this year: I am growing wheat, and I am growing poppies,” said Gul Hamid, 20, a farmer in Nakilabad Kalay, as he sat in a plastic chair with some friends outside a small shop that sold combs and detergent.
“People will grow more poppies next year,” he said. Taimoor Shah contributed reporting.
2011 Reflections: What happened to the US debate on Afghanistan?
Seven Monitor correspondents reflect on the world's hot spots. In this installment, Ben Arnoldy is bothered by silence on the war because, unlike him, US troops can’t choose when to come home.
Christian Science Monitor By Ben Arnoldy, Staff writer January 1, 2012
It's the middle of the night and I've just been awakened by an explosion. Standing in the dark of the Afghan guesthouse, I hear gunfire approaching.
I am the only Westerner in Baharak, a far-flung town. My curiosity turns to fear. I start looking for a hiding spot. Then, mercifully, the guns fall silent.
During my three years in the region, it was times like these that made me consider whether I wanted to keep reporting on Afghanistan, where the US involvement is entering its 11th year. Was it worth the risks if few Americans seemed to be paying attention to the conflict?
Since my move back to Boston in November, I'm still bothered by the neglect of the war because, unlike me, roughly 90,000 US troops over there cannot choose when to come home – that's up to us, the electorate. So far, I have encountered few real debates or deep curiosity here about this mostly forgotten war, just the occasional sentimentality for the troops.
"When did you get back?" the receptionist at the dentist asked me recently. "They didn't have you stick around to cover the end of the war?"
"I wasn't going to stay another three years – or more," I said.
Confused, she said: "I thought the war just ended."
"Oh, that's Iraq," I said.
"Where were you again?" she asked. Afghanistan does feel impossibly far away here. Even the scenes that play back in my mind look a bit like the moon.
I remember piling into a light armored vehicle, a military version of a duck boat. I was embedded with a group of US Marines in the far south.
We sped into the wake of the lead vehicle, which was kicking up plumes of "moon dust" – the powdery sand in that part of Helmand Province – that covered anyone leaning out of the truck's open bed. I didn't have aviator goggles, so I faced in, looked down, and noticed the guys were wearing velcro straps around their thighs.
If we hit an improvised explosive device (IED), they explained later, they could quickly tighten the straps to serve as a tourniquet.
When that's the nature of daily life there, a daily conversation ought to be taking place here about whether such sacrifices are still worth the costs. Instead, it's just not a priority – at least, not for most.
The Republican debates, when they touch on war, are fixated on Iran. The "Occupy" protests are not focused on the ongoing war, either, though returned veterans got some attention for putting themselves between police and fellow protesters. Explain this to me
I ask people why it's such a forgotten issue. "People are more concerned about the economy," said a PhD student I met recently. Like most Americans, she wants the United States out of Afghanistan. I asked whether she'll protest. She shrugged. "We'll be out by 2014 anyway, right?"
I was in the Afghan capital, Kabul, when President Obama announced a surge of US forces into Afghanistan in 2010. He made a fateful decision to also mention a drawdown date. The reason, US officials in Kabul said, was to light a fire under Afghan President Hamid Karzai: Get serious about good governance because the US won't be there forever.
But the date seemed more important for those outside Kabul: the Taliban and the American people. The Taliban have shown little urgency in a peace process, perhaps calculating that they just need to wait until 2014, when the US says it will leave.
And in the US, the issue of ending the war has lost its potency because of a similar perception that it's winding down anyway.
And so Afghanistan has become something of a zombie war – a dead conflict that violently carries on. More than 400 US troops were killed there in 2011. Rationale for keeping US troops
What originally animated this conflict was the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Taliban regime failed to immediately turn over Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. The US overthrew the government but failed to get Mr. bin Laden until this past May. Even then, his death didn't end the war.
For journalists covering Afghan¬istan, it's at times challenging to figure out the latest US reasons to remain there. Here are the rationales given to me most often in the field – all of which deserve more debate:
1. Make peace with the Taliban. Diplomats, in particular, talk up the importance of this in order to end the vicious cycle of war in Afghanistan. But 2011 has brought one setback after another to the peace process, from a Taliban imposter fooling NATO into thinking he was a top Taliban peace negotiator to a suicide bomber who killed Mr. Karzai's peace envoy by detonating an explosive hidden in his turban.
At press time, however, a breakthrough seemed possible: Reuters reported that after 10 months of talks, the US and the Taliban may be close to taking initial confidence-building steps necessary for more serious political talks to start.
2. Rid nuclear-armed Pakistan of militants. Military strategists suggest the Afghan war is crucial for cleaning up Pakistan – a country with nuclear weapons and one that plays host to a who's who of militants. The US wants Pakistan to end militant havens or to allow the US to do it for them.
But it's worth a more serious cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the terrorists left in Pakistan remain a major threat to the US homeland.
3. Reserve US jobs. Occasionally, a cynic would point out that the war doubled as a massive jobs program. As an American contractor in Kabul once confided to me over breakfast: "I am having a good war."
Should the war run for three more Christmases? That question can be answered in various ways. But as someone who has just returned to the US, I simply want it to be asked here.
As I enjoy the peace of this holiday season, so removed from the conflict zone I recently experienced, I remind myself that we should spare a few thoughts for those who won't be home for the holidays – and consider why exactly that is.
NATO Hopes for Reopening of Pakistani Supply Routes
VOA News January 2, 2012
NATO hopes to mend relations with Pakistan quickly in order to reopen key supply routes for its forces fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.
NATO spokesman Brigadier General Carsten Jacobsen said Monday that the closure of the routes has adversely affected the economies of both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan blocked the Khyber and Chaman routes to Afghanistan in November after NATO airstrikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the border.
Pakistan has rejected a NATO investigation that blamed the incident on mistakes made by both sides.
The closure of the routes choked a major supply line for the 130,000-strong U.S.-led force in Afghanistan.
However, Jacobsen said the coalition has a stockpile of supplies that can keep operations in Afghanistan running at their current level even if the routes through Pakistan remain closed.
Dismissing Panelists Cannot Destroy Report: Samar
TOLOnews.com By Lotfullah Najafizada Sunday, 01 January 2012
A detailed report highlighting human rights violations in Afghanistan's three decades of war cannot be destroyed and would eventually be released, said the head of the Afghan human rights body, Sima Samar.
The conflict mapping report documenting human rights violations from late 70s to the end of the Taliban regime in 2001 reportedly includes names of high-profile people in President Karzai's government.
In her first interview after the dismissal of three commissioners of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), the commission's chairperson, Sima Samar told TOLOnews that the report represents "realities of Afghanistan's history" which cannot be ignored.
"It's possible [that people who would replace us would not release the report as it is], but they cannot totally destroy all the documents because today's technology is different from a century ago," Samar told TOLOnews evening talk show, Kankash, on Saturday evening.
Two weeks earlier, President Karzai dismissed three members from human rights panel, including prominent human rights activists Nader Naderi and Fahim Hakim.
Mr Naderi was mainly responsible for preparing the war crimes report, documenting crimes during the communism era, the Mujahiddin government and the Taliban regime.
"I think if we turn a blind eye on the realities in the past, we cannot bring a sustainable peace in Afghanistan," she said.
The palace had said that the commissioners' five-year terms were over last month and weren't extended and it was the legitimate right of the president.
Samar said she was not officially notified about the dismissal of her commissioners, therefore, Naderi and his colleagues still occupy their seats. The president, Samar said, had promised her two months ago that she would be consulted for appointing new members for another term.
"In the meeting I had with the President two months ago, I reminded him that our terms were coming to an end. He said you have to continue and I said that if I continue, I want to select my team or at least have a role in it and promised to do it," she said.
Asked whether the report prepared by Naderi includes names of influential government officials and key allies of President Karzai, she responded that the Afghan people know those people without her naming them.
"Firstly, the commission doesn't want to add to the conflict in Afghanistan, secondly, security of our staff in different offices and provinces is an issue for us, thirdly, I think these events are the realities and the people of Afghanistan should accept this reality.
Whether we release it today, ten or fifteen years later, it will remain part of the history of Afghanistan, she said during the one-hour show.
Samar was in the United States to receive a peace award from the International Crisis Group when the news of the dismissal of prominent members of her office had leaked.
She argued that the she doesn't think the president has made his final decision.
She insisted that the seats of the human rights commission should not be distributed among key stakeholders in the government as, according her, is common in other places in the government and the appointees should have commitments to human rights.
Members of a civil society group had requested the president to replace all nine members of the commission, a request President Karzai said he would consider.
Samar said she doesn't know the president's decision about her.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com