Afghanistan and Georgia

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Owen Bennett Jones introduces personal stories, insights and wit from correspondents around the world. In this edition, Caroline Wyatt reflects on whether Afghan women have really seen changes for the better in their lives over the last decade; while on a journey through the mountainous Svaneti region of Georgia, Joel Alas finds that the long arm of the law - and shiny modern police stations - now reaching into former "bandit country". A TALE OF TWO WOMEN Afghanistan's laws on personal and family life are very different to those in other countries - particularly when it comes to the rights and duties of women. Periodically the world erupts in condemnation of cases where Afghan women have been jailed, fined or punished for acts which would be considered inoffensive - or at least not criminal - elsewhere. Behaviour like sex outside marriage, leaving a violent home, or attempting to live alone and unmarried. Most recently, there's been an outcry over one raped woman who was found guilty of adultery. But some Afghans still think that a correct assessment – calling what happened to her merely "adultery by force". Caroline Wyatt went to meet her, and tried to understand the background to these attitudes. TRANSPARENT POLICING REACHES THE CAUCASUS In Georgia, as well as expressing a very combative attitude towards Russia, President Mikheil Saakashvili has also been taking a strong line against domestic enemies. In a decidedly tough neighbourhood, his government has been trying to extend the reach of the state and the rule of law. And that even applied to the police themselves, who're now being held to higher standards. The clearest symbol - in every sense - of this new policy has been the growing number of brand-new police stations, which are cropping up across the country. Joel Alas explains that their clean lines and acres of glass - they look rather like fish tanks - are meant to reflect a new transparency in policing. (Picture: Afghanistan's caretaker Minister for Women's Affairs visits an Afghan girl who was tortured for months after refusing prostitution in Kabul. Credit: Reuters)