Afghan woman makes her way on the outskirts of Kabul

An Afghan woman passes a vendor on the outskirts of Kabul, the capital. Post-Taliban reforms have brought greater rights for Afghan women, but activists worry that those rights will be eroded with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. (Rahmat Gul / Associated Press / April 24, 2013)

By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times

May 21, 2013, 3:36 p.m.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The number of women and girls jailed by Afghan authorities for "moral crimes" has risen by 50% in the last year and a half, an alarming statistic that reflects the Afghan government's need to step up efforts to protect women's rights, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

The New York-based rights group cited Afghan Interior Ministry statistics showing a sharp increase in the number of women and girls imprisoned for "moral crimes," from 400 in October 2011 to 600 in May 2013. Human Rights Watch said the offenses often involve women who are victims of domestic violence or forced marriages and have left home without permission.

Under Afghan law, running away is not a crime. However, the Afghan Supreme Court has told judges to regard as criminals women who flee their homes, the rights group said in a statement issued Tuesday.

"Four years after the adoption of a law on violence against women and 12 years after Taliban rule, women are still imprisoned for being victims of forced marriage, domestic violence and rape," said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch's Asia director. "The Afghan government needs to get tough on abusers of women and stop blaming women who are crime victims."

Before the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban pressed a strict interpretation of Islam that severely curtailed the rights of women. Women could not hold jobs or attend school and could not leave their house without being accompanied by a male relative. Offenders were publicly flogged or executed.

In recent years, the Afghan government has overseen reforms that have markedly improved the rights of women. Still, conservative segments of Afghan society continue to put up roadblocks to further reforms. Last weekend, lawmakers balked at passing legislation that bans violence against women and strengthens women's rights.

The law has been in place since 2009, when President Hamid Karzai enacted it by decree. But women's rights advocates want it passed by the parliament to prevent any future leader from striking it down. It came up for a vote Saturday, but conservative lawmakers blocked its passage.

Rights activists are especially concerned that support for women's rights will continue to erode with the planned withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. In its statement, Human Rights Watch noted that fewer than half of the country's 34 provinces have shelters available to women and girls fleeing violence at home.

The 18 shelters that exist, the rights group added, "may not be sustainable as they are entirely funded by international donors, and donor assistance is dropping rapidly as the 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of international combat forces from Afghanistan approaches."

Separately in Afghanistan, a roadside bomb in the western province of Herat killed seven police officers Tuesday, said Muhayudin Noori, a spokesman for the provincial governor. The officers were in a police vehicle headed to a hydroelectric dam in Herat when the bomb exploded, Noori said.

Also, four police officers were killed and seven were injured when Taliban militants attacked security checkpoints in the southern province of Helmand, said Omar Zowak, a spokesman for the provincial governor's office. The fighting began Monday and continued into Tuesday.

Zowak said that the checkpoints were attacked by hundreds of Taliban militants, but a statement from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization disputed that contention, saying there were 10 groups of militants, comprising about four or five fighters each, that attacked five police checkpoints.

alex.rodriguez@latimes.com

Special correspondent Hashmat Baktash in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.