Group urges Afghanistan to protect female police

Associated Press

Human Rights Watch has urged Afghanistan's government to force police stations to build restrooms for female officers to protect them from sexual harassment. The group said Thursday that only a handful of provincial police stations have separate, safe and lockable toilets or changing rooms for women officers, leaving them at risk in a nation where some have reportedly been raped by male colleagues. The report said the provinces have repeatedly ignored previous orders to provide women officers with such facilities in a nation where females make up only 1.4 percent of the nation's 157,000 police officers. Sidiq Sidiqi, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which oversees the Afghan police, said that while women do have their own facilities at major police stations they often are lacking in the provinces.