Afghan women stage rare protest

Several hundred women have staged a rare demonstration in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar calling for the release of a kidnapped US aid worker.

The woman aid worker, Cyd Mizell, and her Afghan driver were abducted on Saturday by unidentified gunmen.

A Taleban spokesman said he could neither confirm nor deny that his group carried out the abductions.

Kidnappings are common in Afghanistan, although the abduction of foreigners is quite rare.

Rallies by women are rare in Afghanistan, and all the more so in the conservative southern city of Kandahar where 49-year-old Ms Mizell and her driver Muhammad Hadi were kidnapped from a residential neighbourhood.

Some 500 to 600 women, many wearing the burqa, gathered in a wedding hall on Tuesday for prayers and speeches calling on government officials to work for the captives' release.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7216882.stm