Afghanistan | Afghan woman has nose cut off by husband

A young woman in a remote northern region of Afghanistan had her nose cut off by her husband, officials in the region said yesterday.
Fawzia Salimi, a hospital director in Maymana, capital of Faryab province, said 22-year-old Reza Gul was brought in early Monday having lost a great deal of blood.
Gul’s husband, 25-year-old Mohammad Khan, has since fled their village. Salimi said the Afghan-­Turk Hospital in Maymana was trying to arrange transport for Gul to Turkey for further treatment.
Domestic violence is widespread in Afghanistan, where women are often denied constitutional rights designed to protect them.
Violence has also become somewhat entrenched in Afghan society after 40 years of war, with nearly non-existent mental health care and few options or outlets for a traumatized population.
Hafizullah Fetrat, the head of Fayrab’s provincial human rights commission, said violence in the area had risen by at least 30 percent in the past year.
“It’s not just in Faryab, it is across the entire north of the country — poverty, high unemployment, ignorance about marriage,” he said.
Faryab borders Turkmenistan and is among the poorest regions of Afghanistan, with many people relying on government food handouts. Corruption is also rife, and many residents complain that officials pilfer the aid.
Over the past year, the Taliban’s presence in the region has grown. The militant group has intensified its campaign following the drawdown of the international combat mission in 2014.
The district where Gul’s family lives is under Taliban control, said Rahmatullah Turkistani, a member of Fayab’s provincial council.
Salimi said Khan had returned from Iran three months ago, and since then had repeatedly beaten and tortured his wife. He had also taken another wife who is just seven years old, she said.
Community elders and Taliban representatives in their village had tried mediating with the family to help sort out their problems, a traditional method of dealing with marital issues, Salimi said.
Khan had disappeared from the village, and local security forces including the intelligence agency and police were searching for him, said the provincial governor’s spokesman Ahmad Jawed Dedar. Humayoon Babur, Kabul, AP