Center for Investigative Reporting

With news of the assassination of the second female minister in Afghanistan this week, we look at the oppression and intimidation of Afghan women and the implications for their security as the U.S. withdraws its troops.

We went inside women’s prisons in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif to provide a rare glimpse of a shocking aspect of Afghan society little known to the outside world. The majority of Afghan women in prison have committed no other crime than being in love with the wrong man — or running away from abusive husbands who were selected by their fathers.

According to the new documentary “The Invisible War”, military women are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. This new film, premiering at the San Francisco Film Festival this week, looks at the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military. We’ll be interviewing the director Kirby Dick about the production of his film for our series Behind the Story. What questions would you ask him?

A new series called “Notes from the Field” on our (redesigned!) website, features reporter diaries and interviews capturing first impressions and raw experiences from the front lines. Senior correspondent Mark Schapiro talks by Skype with journalist Mimi Wells on assignment for CIR in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. In this first video, Wells discusses how female Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., before leaving on their mission, learn about Afghan culture and language. On the eve of their departure, they say goodbye to their families.

The Price of Sex is an award-winning documentary about young Eastern European women who’ve been drawn into a netherworld of sex trafficking and abuse. In a web extra, the above video examines how sex trafficking works.

From The New Yorker: Videos of Women Daring to Drive

“Today is Friday, and I would like to drive to the supermarket to get some stuff.” So said one of the many Saudi women joining the #Women2Drive campaign today to protest their country’s prohibition on women driving by defying the law, driving themselves—perhaps to the supermarket, to get some stuff—and uploading evidence of it to YouTube.

The main force behind the protest is Manal Al Sharif, who was arrested on May 22nd for disturbing the public order by uploading a video to YouTube of herself driving. In that video, Sharif and the woman filming her lament the humiliations and expenses that women must endure by having to depend on taxis, hired drivers, or family members for rides. One woman she knows spends a third of her salary on her driver, Sharif says.

Thousands of Iranians took to the streets in 2009 as part of the Green Movement to protest a disputed presidential election. The government crackdown that followed included some women being imprisoned, tortured and raped. This report, which the Center for Investigative Reporting co-produced with PBS NewsHour, shares some of their stories. 

(Source: pbs.org)