The Washington Post has put up a nice multi-media feature by Paula Lerner entitled “The Women of Kabul. Here's the synopsis: ”Five years ago today the Taliban fled Kabul, bringing an end to a harsh regime. This feature tells the stories of five women entrepreneurs in Kabul who are rebuilding their lives and their country by building their businesses. They are struggling to take control of their future against a backdrop of a country still recovering from decades of war and facing an ongoing insurgency.“ Lerner also took part in an online conversation with Marla Gitterman, Program Director of the Business Council for Peace (Bpeace). A transcript of that can be found here.

The following is an update on the situation in Sudan with words and photograph provided by Dan Morrison, a freelance journalist currently in the region. His Sudan reports can also be found here, here and here:

The danger and want in Darfur cannot be both an emergency and a chronic condition, and yet it now has the attributes of both. Two years after ethnic cleansing of the region's non-Arab tribes reached its height, more than two million people continue to live in camps as captive dependents of the world humanitarian community, cut off from their homes and livelihoods. Residents I interviewed at camps in South Darfur and West Darfur states were adamant that they could not and would not return to their homes in an atmosphere of continuing attacks by Arab militias. ``When they kill the Janjaweed, then we can go back,'' was a common statement. Another deterrent placed a distant second to the memory and fear of the government-backed marauders - opportunity. Widows described their pleasure at sending their children, including their daughters, to UNICEF-funded schools inside the camps. It will be a long time indeed before international community and its ``partners'' in the government of Sudan are able to replicate the range of health and educational boons that exist inside many of Darfur's displaced-person camps. It was the absence of such services that helped push the region into civil war. For those who continue to live in the countryside, outside the sometimes- protected perimeters of the camps, conditions are growing less safe and international aid more scarce. Increasing banditry, fighting between rebels and government troops, and harassment by state security services have all reduced the flow of aid to rural areas. All eyes were on January 2007, when diplomats and aid offiicals assumed a UN force would take over from the underfunded and underequipped African Union force. Sudanese diplomacy and bruised egos at the higher levels of the African Union secretariat have combined to delay that by at least six months. Peace talks in Nigeria have withstood the combined arbitrage and hectoring of the UN, AU, EU, US and UK secure in their dysfunction. Most dangerous is a projected gap in food aid that could leave 2.8 million people without food in Darfur over the coming months. ``It's big and it's frightening,'' says Carlos Veloso, the World Food Program's emergency coordinator for Darfur.

Technorati Tags: abuse, african union force, darfur, ethnic cleansing, janjaweed, morrison, genocide, sudan, world food program

Redux Pictures photographer Katherine Kiviat and journalist Scott Heidler have allowed WarShooter to post ten of the images and interviews contained in their the two-year book project, Parwana. the project documents the stories of women in Afghanistan who are acting as "agents of change" there. None of the photographs have been published in the United States.

BEBE GUL GHOLAMRI Flag Woman with Street Construction Crew “I feel that it’s a good thing that women are now working side-by-side with men.” Q: How long have you been working on rebuilding the roads of Kabul? A: One year, two months. Q: What were you doing before this? A: I went to people’s houses and washed their clothes. Q: How does your husband feel about you working on the streets of Kabul? A: My husband died two years ago. Q: How did he die? A: He was killed by a landmine in Kabul. Q: How did you find out about this construction job? A: My friend Zekia found out about the job and told me. Q: How do you feel about doing a job that is normally reserved for men? A: I do this job to help our government and help build a better country for my children. Being a widow, it is very difficult for me to earn money. This job gives me the money to buy food for my family. I feel that it’s a good thing that women are now working side-by-side with men. Q: How do the men treat you, the men you work next to? A: They act like brothers.

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