Afghans celebrate International Women's Day

KABUL, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Afghans on Friday joined the United Nations at events across the war-torn country to call for greater investment in Afghanistan's women and girls as the world prepares to mark International Women's Day.

In the Afghan capital, women and children streamed into Kabul's women's garden to mark the day with a UN agency fair, a film show highlighting the daily realities of the lives of Afghanistan's women and children.

Artists from Afghanistan's mobile mini circus, a local NGO, performed a play focused on the need to invest in Afghan women.

Meanwhile female counselors from UN agencies were also on hand to provide advice and guidance on key health, education and social issues facing Afghan women.

In the southern city of Kandahar, the hot-bed of Taliban insurgents, hundreds of women marched for peace while women from the north of the country toured provincial capitals holding public meetings on "Giving Women Voices", with the participation of the provincial governors, women's councils, local police, judges and religious leaders.

Bo Asplund, acting Special Representative for the UN Secretary General in Afghanistan said in a statement Friday that despite theprogress that has been made in Afghanistan, violence against womenremains endemic, with many women continue to die from complications during childbirth and many women remain illiterate.

The UN representative also called on more work for Afghan women, to build a better future for them, and for all of Afghanistan.

According to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), women represent 27 percent of the National Assembly in Afghanistan and account for 25.9 percent of all civil servants.

Only 38 percent of women in Afghanistan are economically active, and women receive on average three times less wages than most men.

One woman in Afghanistan dies every 29 minutes due to reproductive health related complications, and the average life expectancy for women is only 44 years.