Afghan Government Seeks Control of Women's Shelters - A Recipe for More Corruption and Less Protection for Women

The Afghan government is now seeking control of the many women's shelters that are set up in Kabul and other parts of the country.  The government ministries are more conservative than the people running and supporting the women's shelters - and there lies the rub. Shelters administered by the government will be less likely to protect women who run away from abusive husbands and families and more likely to return these young girls to the communities for punishment, disfigurement, and possibly death.  Currently, most shelters are privately run and supported with money from the United Nations and other independent charitable organizations.  A draft law currently under consideration in Afghanistan will ask that the international community shift all funding to the Afghan Finance Ministry which would then transfer the money to the Ministry of Women's Affairs who would pass money on to the shelters.  This, of course, is just one more ploy for the corrupt central government of Karzai to get their hands on more of the international funds so that it can be diverted to Swiss and Dubai bank accounts.  Read more in "Kabul Seeks Control of Women's Shelters", NPR, February 21, 2011.