Afghans celebrate women's day

Afghanistan is promising more help for women

Countries around the world are celebrating International Women's Day - the main theme being the plight of Afghan women.

Afghan women leaders called for at least 25% of the seats in the loya jirga or traditional assembly - being set up to appoint a transitional government to run the country until elections in 2004 - to be reserved for women.

We want every Afghan girl to have a pen and book in her hands and go to school

Sima Samar, Minister of Women's Affairs

The call came as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, attended a ceremony in Kabul to mark women's day.

Events have been organised all week to highlight the plight of women in Afghanistan - denied access to education and the right to work under the Taleban regime.

The day is being marked in various ways all around the world - in New York, First Lady Laura Bush, the wife of President George W Bush, addressed a conference at the UN.

"Afghanistan under the Taleban gave the world a sobering example of a country where women were denied their rights and their place in society," Mrs Bush said.

"Prosperity cannot follow peace without educated women and children," she added.

Celebrating freedom

In Kabul, Ms Robinson shared a podium in a bombed-out former cinema with interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and UN envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi.

Victims of acid attack joined a protest in Bangladesh

Four girls released white doves into the air as a woman recited verses from the Koran.

"We want every Afghan girl to have a pen and book in her hands and go to school," said Sima Samar, the interim government's Minister of Women's Affairs.

In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that after years of conflict, hardship and human rights violations, Afghan women had regained hope and started exercising their rights to education, work and an active role in society.

Other events around the world include:

• In the Colombian capital Bogota a six-hour curfew is placed on the city's male population - with the streets cleared of men as women attend special events.
• The Romanian government offers more than 20,000 jobs to unemployed women.
• In the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, police decide that instead of fining female drivers for minor traffic violations, they will give them flowers and perfume.
• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf vows to end discrimination and violence against women and help them win greater political and economic rights.
• Cyprus announces plans to recruit Greek Cypriot women as volunteers in its army of male conscripts.
• Demonstrations in Bangladesh, including a male-only march in the capital, Dhaka, are held to protest against acid attacks on women.
• Russian mothers, wives and daughters are feted with flowers, chocolate and television tributes in what is one of the country's biggest holidays.

According to UN figures, only about 3% of girls received any form of primary education under Taleban rule.

Afghanistan still has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

Afghan women have also suffered domestic and other types of violence for the past 25 years, not just under the Taleban, says the UN.

Overlooked areas

As military action in Afghanistan focused world attention on the Taleban's repression of women, the repression of women in nearby countries such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan remains largely unscrutinised, Amnesty International said on Friday.

"Violence against women is one of the most pervasive yet hidden forms of human rights abuse throughout the world," Amnesty International's Secretary General Irene Khan said.

Amnesty also cited the case of Turkey, where around 200 girls are killed in the name of honour every year, and the US, where it says there are continuing reports of mental, physical and sexual abuse as well as medical neglect in women's prisons.