WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

In Afghanistan, women are largely seen as second-class citizens. Under Taliban rule, merely being a woman could be life-threatening.While reporting in Afghanistan, freelance journalist Masha Hamilton saw women marginalized in their families and villages.

Before 9/11, American journalist Masha Hamilton stumbled across a video of Taliban members brutally executing a woman in Afghanistan. The gruesome footage inspired her to create the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, which helps women in the war-ravaged country share their stories.

Afghan officials said Wednesday that they have foiled a plot to assassinate President Hamid Karzai and arrested six people, including one of Karzai's bodyguards.The bodyguard was recruited by a network of al-Qaida sympathizers at Kabul Medical University that is linked to the Pakistan-based Haqqani

Last week's assassination of the former Afghan president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, not only dashed hopes for peace negotiations, it also increased the talk of civil war.It came at the time that American troops are preparing to begin a gradual withdrawal from Afghanistan, exposing deep anxiety among Afgh

Last week, Adm. Mike Mullen, the departing head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sat in front of Congress, where he described the Haqqani Network as a "veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency."

A minivan carrying women and children returning from an engagement party in Afghanistan struck an improvised land mine that killed 16 people, Afghan officials said Tuesday.Eleven children were among the dead in Herat province's Shindand district.

Gen. AbdulGen. Abdul Raziq is the acting police chief of Afghanistan's Kandahar province. Just 33 years old, he's a former warlord on whom the United States relied during its 2010 "surge" operation.