Afghan working women still face perils at home, office

Minutes before Mena Mangal, a prominent Afghan journalist and parliamentary adviser, was shot dead by two men in Kabul, she had slammed the door of her parent's home after reminding them to pay the neighbourhood shopkeeper 15 Afghanis (20 cents).

"Mena never forgot her duty towards our home and work. After years of struggle she had achieved success and happiness," said Anisa Mangal, Mena's mother, as she sat surrounded by her husband, four daughters, a son, grandchildren at her two-story home in eastern Kabul. "She did the right things ... worked very hard to become a professional woman."

No-one has been arrested over the broad daylight killing, but police officials said Mangal's family had filed a case against four men, including her ex-husband.

"These four people are on the run, but the police are trying to arrest them," said Kabul police spokesman Firdaws Faramarz.

Mangal's mother believes it was her dedication to home and career that got her killed.

She accuses her daughter's ex-husband of involvement in the murder because Mangal would not give up her job and continued to appear on television.

Educated Afghan women, the torchbearers of a drive to improve women's rights since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, say they still face hostility, be it from conservative family members or hardline Islamist groups, for pursuing professional and financial independence.

Though many hardships remain, access to public life has improved for Afghan women since US-backed forces ousted the Taliban, especially in cities such as Kabul, where tens of thousands now work outside the home.

But for many, concerns about the hazards of going out to a job extend beyond their own safety.

Until April, thousands of Afghan women now working for the government were happy to bring their children to the office.

The daycare centre attached to every government building provided reassurance their children were close by and safe.

But this sense of security changed in April, after a suicide bomber and gunmen belonging to the Islamic State group attacked the Afghan communications ministry in central Kabul.

Orooj Hakimi Rupam Jain