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BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
For years, Afghanistan has been dubbed as the most dangerous place in the world for women. But with efforts from the international community and some enlightened government officials the Afghanistan society shows a silver lining.
Better healthcare and more girls attending schools have knocked Afghanistan from its position as the worst place on earth to be a mother, Save the Children said in a major report. But at the same time it stressed on the precarious nature of any gains.
Rediff.com takes a sneak peek into the lives of the Afghan girls as the battle for gender quality gathers steam.
An Afghan woman holds her newborn baby at Cure International's hospital in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
An Afghan girl blows a bubble while returning from school in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
An Afghan girl plays outside her house in Kandahar province.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
Afghan teen practices inside a boxing club in Kabul. Female boxing is still relatively unusual in most countries, but especially in Afghanistan, where many girls and women still face a struggle to secure an education or work, and activists say violence and abuse at home is common. Many in this conservative society still consider fighting taboo for women, and the country's first team of female boxers deal with serious threats.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
A schoolgirl uses a mobile phone to take pictures of artifacts on display at Kabul National Museum. While everyone else is worrying about Afghanistan's future, a dedicated band of women is gathering up its past, hoping that a growing museum collection will show the world Afghan culture is more sophisticated than the tide of news reports suggest.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
An Afghan girl takes part in a skate boarding competition in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
A teacher watches a female student play the violin at the Kabul Music Academy. In Afghanistan's sole music academy, students learn how to play traditional and western instruments as part of a government initiative to relieve the pains of decades of war through music.
Despite a rich musical legacy, Afghanistan's melodic development has been severely disrupted by years of war and outright banned during the austere rule of the Taliban. At the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, orphans learn how to sing and play instruments alongside talented promising musicians who are selected on merit.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
Afghan girls work at a first Internet cafe for women in Kabul March 8, 2012.
Afghanistan opened its first female-only internet cafe, hoping to give women a chance to connect to the world without verbal and sexual harassment and free from the unwanted gazes of their countrymen.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
A disabled Afghan girl exercises with her prosthetic legs at the Orthopedic Center of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul. The free-of-charge centres log some 6,000 new patients every year, all of them Afghans. Of those, 1,000 are direct victims of war, many grievously wounded by the heightened potency of bombs.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
A girl walks away from a chalkboard after writing on it during class in the town of Kunjak in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
Girls play on a swing in Baghe Zanana park and shopping area for women and children only, in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
Afghan girls put their hands on the face to avoid to be photographed at the village of Bazaar e Panjwai in Kandahar.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
Army Private First Class Danny Comley of Camdenton Missouri, assigned to Delta Company 4th Brigade combat team, 2-508, 82nd parachute infantry Regiment, receives flowers from an Afghan girl during a patrol in the Arghandab valley in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
An Afghan girl pull her brother and sister down a street in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
Girls balance on a wall in Kabul on their way back home from school.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
A girl wearing a traditional burqa plays in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
A schoolgirl sits in a classroom at Syed Pasha school, which was built by Canadian troops, near Kandahar Air Field.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
An Afghan girl attends a traditional Koran school in Herat.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
Afghan girls wear burqas for fun as they play near their house in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
US Captain Scott Peterman, a dentist from the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, prepares to check the teeth of an Afghan girl in the village of Dah-e-Naw in Logar.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
A girl looks out the shattered window of a bus in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
An Afghan woman and girl approach soldiers from the US Army's 20th Battalion, 584 Mobile Augmentation Compan, Route Clearance Patrol during a dismounted patrol in Kandahar.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
An Afghan girl looks at Canadian soldiers on patrol as she travels with women in the back of a taxi at Bazaar e Panjwai in Kandahar.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
A girl stands next to her cow at an animal market in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
An Afghan girl holds a sign during a demonstration against poverty in Afghanistan at Nader Khan hill in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
An Afghan woman walks with her daughter during a wind storm in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
Afghan girls stand at a doorway as an Afghan army soldier keeps watch from the roof during a joint mission with U.S. army soldiers from Charlie troop, 4-73 Cavalry Regiment, 4th brigade 82nd Airborne division in the Maiwand district in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
An Afghan girl looks on behind barbed wire as Afghan forces investigate the site of a suicide attack in Kabul.
BEHIND THE VEIL: Afghan's new-age girls!
Afghan girls carry bread on their heads on a street as they run chores for their family after school.
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