An Afghan woman is in hospital after her nose and an ear were cut off, allegedly by her husband, police and a doctor said Tuesday. The woman was brought to hospital in the southern province of Zabul last week by her brother, a doctor at the main hospital in the town of Qalat said.
"We received a patient with a cut nose and ear," Mohammad Salem told AFP. Zabul provincial police chief General Mohammad Yaqub Khan said he did not know what led to the attack. "We don't know much about their fight but the husband did cut the nose and one ear of his wife. She's in the hospital now and we're searching for her husband, who has escaped," he said.
Afghan media said the woman, reportedly aged about 17, was also beaten, her head shaved and her teeth broken by the same man. Domestic abuse is believed to be high in Afghanistan, where the post-Taliban government has given women new rights but many still live in difficult conditions.