Authorities are striving to improve health conditions for women in Afghanistan, where maternal mortality and female life expectancy indicators are the worst in the world, says a new report. According to the State of the World’s Mothers 2011 report, published on 24 June by NGO Save the Children, about 50 women die in childbirth each day in Afghanistan. One in three is physically or sexually abused and the average life expectancy of women is 44.  It said that more than 85 percent of Afghan women are illiterate, while 70 percent of school-age girls do not attend school for various reasons - conservative parents, lack of security, or fear for their lives.

Taking all indicators into consideration, “Afghanistan is the worst country” to be a mother, concluded the report, which assessed 164 countries. Children in Afghanistan, along with those in sub-Saharan Africa, too have the highest risk of death in the world. One child in five, the report said, dies before reaching age five meaning ‘every mother in Afghanistan is likely to suffer the loss of a child”.