Ahmad Hanayish is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.
Afghanistan has seen a surge in the number of female suicides since the Taliban takeover in 2021, making the country one of the few in the world where more women take their own lives than men.
Afghanistan's high maternal mortality comes with the territory in a country marked by political upheaval, economic woes, and cultural restrictions, all of which have limited women's access to adequate health care.
A growing number of teenage Afghan girls, who are banned from attending school, are turning to Taliban-run madrasahs to get an education. The Taliban has allowed girls of all ages to attend Islamic seminaries, which have surged in number since the hard-line Islamist group seized power in 2021.
While the Taliban was immediately blamed for the shooting death of a young Afghan health worker early this month, investigators now are exploring other possibilities.
The shooting death of a young Afghan woman who had volunteered as a health worker for a polio-vaccination program has widely been blamed on the Taliban.
Parwan Governor Abdul Basir Salangi tries to explain how he could have recently described his province as the "backbone of security" in Afghanistan, in the face of its current notoriety as the site of a disturbing extrajudicial execution for adultery.
Locals in northern Afghanistan have cried foul after officials recently claimed the end of illicit drug production in Parwan Province. Many say that despite the back-patting, the production, sale, and use of illegal narcotics continues unabated throughout the region.
Elected local councils are Afghanistan's best hope for building democracy and marginalizing the Taliban. But they face enormous challenges.
