400 women and girls held in Afghanistan for 'moral crimes'

Source: The Telegraph - 

Up to 400 women and girls are being held in Afghan prisons for "moral crimes" including running away from home to escape beatings or forced marriage according to a study.

Ten years after the toppling of the Taliban government was accompanied by Western promises of a new era of women's rights, the justice system remained "stacked against them at every stage", it found.

Virtually all teenage girls held in prison are accused of immorality, either extramarital sex or running away, and around half of adult women inmates.

Imprisonment for immorality has risen steadily since a supreme court ruling that any woman who runs away from her home and does not immediately go to a close relative or the police should be imprisoned.

The report by Human Rights Watch found many inmates had fled a forced marriage, or violent husbands and in-laws.

To read more visit >> The Telegraph

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