Women activists in Afghanistan have planned a protest on Tuesday after a U.N. report on rape in the country attributed the majority of the assaults to sexual tourism by foreign troops.
The Associated Press reports on the rally, which may be the largest ever in support of women in the country.
“We want to show to the world and to the international community that women in Afghanistan want to live in a democratic Afghanistan where they are free and in which their rights and their safety can be guaranteed,” said Sima Samar, the head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.
The report, titled “Unwanted Visitor – Vulnerable Women in Afghanistan,” also blamed sex tourism in Kabul for as many as 60 percent of the estimated 16,000 rapes and other sexual assaults in Afghanistan last year.
The report accused American and NATO troops of dumping victims of sexual abuse in Afghan police or Afghan institutions, and often failing to investigate or punish alleged abusers.
Nearly $50 billion has been spent by the U.S. and NATO to train and expand Afghan security forces, in a bid to turn Afghanistan over to an Afghan government that can take responsibility for its own security before American forces withdraw by the end of 2014.
But the report calls Afghan security forces “not robust enough” to take the lead in fighting the Taliban insurgency.