Improvements in the Quality of Life for Afghan Women Have Slowed Since 2001.

The Taliban were ejected from Afghanistan exactly five years ago this week.

One of the great hopes of the western occupiers was that the quality of life for women would drastically improve.

And there was a good start, with the new government ending the compulsory wearing of the burqa and reopening some girls schools. But since then progress has been pitifully slow.

There are still few opportunities in education or in the workplace, and many women who are locked in abusive relationships or forced marriages see suicide as the only way out.

The number of women setting fire to themselves in Kabul alone has doubled in the past year.