"Afghan women are frequent victims of abuse, despite some success by authorities in prosecuting rape cases, forced marriages and domestic violence under a three-year-old law, according to a report [.pdf] issued Tuesday by the United Nations," the Associated Press reports (Reichmann, 12/11). "Enacted in August 2009, the Afghan legislation criminalizes and specifies punishments for acts such as child marriage, forced marriage, selling and buying women under the pretext of marriage, giving away a woman or girl to settle a dispute, forced self-immolation, rape and beating," VOA News notes (Gul, 12/11). For the report, "[t]he U.N. collected information from 22 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces over a 12-month period ending in September to find out how existing laws protecting women were being implemented," Al Jazeera writes (Latifi, 12/12).