In Afghanistan, women face entrenched harassment - Latimes

In Kabul, a city of more than 6 million, women and girls complain of sexual harassment in their daily lives — on the streets, in the workplace and at school. Newly elected President Ashraf Ghani spoke out on the issue in October, saying Afghan women are subject to "shocking" levels of harassment and ordering the Education Ministry to report every incident in the nation's schools.

"No matter what you do, they will stop and say something," said Masouma. "'Where are you going?' 'Where are you from?' 'Are you married? Where is your husband?' 'Where do you work?' 'Take my phone number, I promise I won't bother you.'"

Afghanistan has no law explicitly forbidding sexual harassment, and in the weeks since his inauguration after a bitterly disputed runoff election, Ghani has faced calls from human rights groups and women's advocates to enact such legislation. But some say that in a tradition-bound society struggling to emerge from decades of civil war, strict Taliban rule and the U.S.-led military intervention, it will take more than a law to change societal attitudes.

"The war has polluted the public's minds," said Soraya Goharshad Halimi, a university professor in the northern province of Baghlan. "This is not something a single person or the government can change overnight. Each person must do it for themselves."  Read More