Foundation for Self Reliance

FSR elects new Board of Directors In keeping with our model of building self-reliance, a new team of SF Bay Area Afghan American youth have taken over the helm of FSR. Details... Afghanistan - Annual report 2008 From Reporters Without Borders For Press Freedom: Afghanistan, which has been destabilised by an increasingly violent civil war, finds it difficult to protect its journalists. Details... Conflict threatens access to children by humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan KABUL, Afghanistan, 8 July 2008 Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy (left) and UNICEF's Director of Emergency Programmes Louis-Georges Arsenaul have completed a five-day tour of Afghanistan. Details... AFGHANISTAN: High birth rate killing mothers, infants - UNFPA expert KABUL, 14 July 2008 (IRIN) - Afghanistan has the highest fertility rate in Asia - 6.7 - which not only means the deaths of thousands of young mothers and infants every year but also poses long-term challenges, an expert of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) warned. Read the full report... Details... AFGHANISTAN: Food prices fueling sex work in north? MAZAR-I-SHARRIF, 16 July 2008 (IRIN) - High food prices, drought, unemployment and lack of socio-economic opportunities are pushing some women and young girls in northern Afghanistan into commercial sex work, women’s rights activists and several affected women told IRIN. Read the full report.... Details... Need for Survival Fuels Sex Work, High Birth Rate Kills Mothers in Afghanistan feminist wire | daily newsbriefs: July 21, 2008. Women and young girls are being pushed to commercial sex work due to high food prices and widespread unemployment in Afghanistan. High fertility rates, poor health services, and a high maternal mortality rate compound these issues. Details... AFGHANISTAN: 1.5 million "severely" hit by drought KABUL, 17 July 2008 (IRIN) - At least 1.5 million people in 19 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces - mostly farming communities in the north - have been severely affected by drought and are in need of urgent humanitarian relief, an Afghan minister told IRIN. Read the full report... Details... Alarm Bells in Afghanistan 07/18/2008. Center for American Progress. Caroline Wadhams & Colin Cookma. Reprinted from e-Ariana. The forgotten war in Afghanistan has once again leapt back into the news with disturbing reports of rising international casualties and large-scale Taliban offensives in the south. Read the full article... Details... --= NFSP =-- Afghanistan continues to suffer... ...from a pervasive culture of impunity and a weak rule of law. Read the full 2008-2009 OHCRH report... Details...

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Need for Survival Fuels Sex Work, High Birth Rate Kills Mothers in Afghanistan

feminist wire | daily newsbriefs: July 21, 2008. Women and young girls are being pushed to commercial sex work due to high food prices and widespread unemployment in Afghanistan. High fertility rates, poor health services, and a high maternal mortality rate compound these issues. Sex work is considered to be a serious crime in Afghanistan, where offenders can face the death penalty or lengthy prison sentences for engaging in sex outside of marriage. Fariba Majid, Director of the Balkh Province Women's Affairs Department, calls sex work "an abhorrent deed and an appalling crime," according to Irin News. However, many sex workers do not have other means to survive or feed their families.

Afghan women face high fertility rates and one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Only 14% of women receive skilled birthing attention during childbirth. Access to health services is limited by a lack of awareness, economic barriers, and men's willingness to take women to health centers. One of six Afghan women will die from complications during pregnancy or childbirth; the average woman will have six or seven children.

Parental responsibility is often tied to sex work in Afghanistan. An Afghan prostitute, Najiba, told Irin News, "I am a widow and I have to feed my five children. I am illiterate and no one will give me a job. I hate to be a prostitute but if I stop doing this job my children will starve to death."

Media Resources: Irin News 7/14/08, 7/16/08; Feminist Majority Foundation

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