Armed men in hospitals, harassing patients; health facilities used to identify and apprehend enemies; clinics abandoned and hospitals destroyed. Overwhelmed emergency services, where medical staff are in terror of reprisals for having provided care for a patient; ambulances blocked from accessing the wounded, or held up for hours at checkpoints; entrenched animosities and divisions denying certain groups of people the medical assistance they need.

By Pamela Constable,

KABUL — Amid the scattered but steadily mounting carnage of the Taliban’s annual spring offensive, including a suicide bombing Monday that killed a provincial council head, hopes of stirring life into peace talks with the Islamist insurgents seem to be dying here with each new suicide attack, kidnapping and roadside bombing.

Afghanistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zalmai Rassoul, requested UNESCO’s support in protecting heritage, expanding education and improving women’s rights, during a meeting with UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, in Kabul on 19 May.

KABUL, 20 May 2013 – The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and UN Women have urged Afghan authorities to step up their efforts to ensure the full implementation of the law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW), in line with their international commitments.

Journalists belonging to the Afghan Women Journalists’ Association urged UNESCO to play a leading role in supporting Afghanistan’s transformation after 2014, the date when most peacekeeping forces are expected to withdraw and national elections are to be organized.

On 17 May, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova met in Kabul with the Association, founded in 2005 by Ms Shafiqa Habibi and now counting 350 members in five provinces.

In Afghanistan, far more boys go to school than girls. WFP is trying to change that by providing food incentives for female students.

Char Dara is one of the most insecure districts in Kunduz province of northern Afghanistan. More than 27,000 children attend classes in the 51 operational schools in the area, but boys outnumber girls almost 2 to 1.

On the occasion of her official visit to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, met President Hamid Karzai on 18 May 2013 at the Presidential Palace in Kabul.

They want to be teachers, doctors and scientists, a dream that would not have been possible just ten years ago.

On 18 March, throngs of girls lined up singing and clapping to welcome UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, and Afghanistan’s Education Minister Farooq Wardak to the Ayesha-e-Durrani school in Kabul.

The school, named after the first woman who opened a girls’ school in Afghanistan, was severely damaged during the war. Reconstruction started in 2002 and lasted two years. Today, the school welcomes 1600 girls from Grade 1 through the high school years.