How Afghanistan improved its health in 10 years despite bombs and bullets

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and as a country recovering from conflict, Afghanistan had some of the worst health indicators in the world. More than one-in-two (54%) children under five were stunted and around four-in-ten (39%) children were underweight in Afghanistan in 2004. It ranked 181/182 on the human development index, ranked the worst in stunting prevalence across the world and its under-five mortality was 257 per 1,000 live births.

In just 10 years, despite conflict and widespread poverty, Afghanistan made significant improvements in its health indicators: Under-five mortality reduced 29%, stunting declined from 54% in 2004 to 40% and underweight children declined from 39% to 20% in 2013.

Coverage of several maternal care interventions increased: Antenatal care–care during pregnancy–increased from 16% to 53%, births assisted by a skilled birth attendant from 14% to 46%, and births in a health facility from 13% to 39%. Childhood vaccinations doubled from 40% to 80% during this time.

The reduction in stunting has a lot to do with the health ministry’s focus on early breastfeeding and convergence of various ministries and aid agencies to achieve the goal, according to Homayoun Ludin, director of public nutrition, Ministry of Public Health.

How Islamic State is luring women with false sense of 'empowerment': Report

The dreaded Islamic State terror group is luring foreign women recruits with a false sense of "empowerment", according to a new report by a UK think tank.

The report compiled by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) said the reasons that drove hundreds of women to journey from Europe to ISIS territories were "complex".

"We talked to women who hadn't been radicalised but could understand why some of these girls might have gone to Syria and Iraq so they could live as 'good Muslims'," said Emily Winterbotham, the report's co-author.

She said the use of the term "jihadi bride" to describe all female ISIS members was not truly representative.

"ISIS has been successful at selling that image to women. It's not just about the naive vulnerable jihadi bride, it's women saying: 'This is in line with my religion, my political beliefs, the fact I want to live how I want'," Winterbotham told 'The Independent'.

Possible draws were found to include "a rejection of Western feminism, online contact with recruiters who offer marriage and adventure, peer or family influence, adherence to ISIS ideology, naivety and romantic optimism, and the chance to be part of something new, exciting and illicit", she said.
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Islamic State is on its knees, but its legacy will long haunt Middle East

After three years of violence, Islamic State has encountered a major defeat that could mean that its end is near. On July 10 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, after a successful nine-month military offensive to “liberate” the northern city of Mosul, declared “total victory” over IS in Iraq.

He categorically said: “I announce from here the end and the failure and the collapse of the terrorist state of falsehood and terrorism which the terrorist Daesh announced from Mosul”, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS or ISIL.

Almost exactly three years ago, on June 29 2014, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the group’s self-styled caliph, proclaimed a cross-border caliphate stretching over vast swathes of northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria.


Today, the Iraqi half of that territory has been almost totally eliminated (the northwestern Iraqi city of Tel Afar, close to the Syrian border, being an exception) while the Syrian half, based in the city of Raqqa, is facing imminent collapse under powerful US-backed Kurdish-led military offensives.

It’s a major turning point.

In the summer of 2014, an ISIL blitzkrieg swiftly defeated Iraqi defence forces across northwestern Iraq, capturing some 40% of Iraqi territories.

Prior to this rapid conquest, ISIL fighters had captured the Syrian province of Raqqa in January 2014, taking advantage of the bloody civil war let loose by pro-democracy movements.
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Not in my name: Prompted by a FB post, groups in 12 cities to protest against lynchings today

On Saturday, horrified by the murder of a 15-year-old Muslim boy in a train on the outskirts of Delhi two days earlier, Gurgaon-based filmmaker Saba Dewan posted a message on Facebook calling for a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Wednesday evening against the recent spate of lynchings of Muslims and attacks on Dalits. She decided to call the demonstration “Not in My Name”.

“We want to speak up against the recent incidents of communal or caste-based violence that have been happening in the past few years and specifically after Junaid’s lynching,” said Dewan. “We want to convey that whatever is happening in the society is not happening in our name; I do not approve of it.”

The message has rippled across India – and as far as the United Kingdom and Canada. On Wednesday, groups in at least nine other Indian cities will hold similar protests. Events are also planned in London and Toronto.

The immediate spark for the protests was the murder of Junaid on a Mathura-bound train on Thursday. He was returning to his home in Faridabad district with his brothers and two friends after some Eid shopping in Delhi. A dispute over a seat led to the boys being assaulted by a group of men who taunted them for being Muslim. Junaid and two of his companions were stabbed. The assailants flung them onto the platform at Asoti railway station. Junaid died soon after.

Series of attacks

This was the latest in a series of lynchings that started in September 2015, when an ironsmith named Mohammed Akhlaq was murdered in his home in the Uttar Pradesh area of Dadri by a mob that accused him of storing beef in his fridge.

Dewan said the repeated lynchings have left her distraught. “These attacks show that our fundamental rights are being violated and nd the state chooses to be silent,” said the filmmaker. “We need to remind the state that they are duty-bound and allowing repeated such attacks is a violation of the Constitution.”
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