Afghanistan’s ministry of counter-narcotics Tuesday said that over a million young Afghan male and female youths are drug addicts.
 
The total number of addicts in the country is estimated to be about 3.5 million and three percent of them constitute women, said the minister of counter-narcotics Salamat Azimi.
 
Azimi said that those suffering from addiction in some way escalate violence within their families and affects women and children.
 
A joint meeting of three female cabinet ministers, including minister of counter-narcotics Salamat Azimi, minister of women’s affairs Dilbar Nazari and minister of higher education Farida Momand, was held Tuesday where they discussed the issue of violence against women in the country.
 
"Around 3.5 million people use drugs in Afghanistan, more than one million of them are the youths and three percent of them are  women," said Azimi.
 
The minister of women’s affairs said that there is a need for coordination between government institutions to curb violence against women in the country.
 
"Violence which is committed today is one of the most dangerous methods of violence, when a man is able to commit violence against his wife or chop off her nose or set her ablaze, then it means that psychologically and mentally he is not well," said Zuhra Yusuf, advisor to Afghanistan's First Lady Rula Ghani.
 
"The ministry of women's affairs as one of the monitoring institutions is committed to seriously oversee the efforts which are carried out for women including the implementation of violence against women law and the execution of a strategy for prevention of violence against women," said Nazari.
 
The Ministry of Women's Affairs on Monday launched a national strategy and action plan aimed at ensuring the Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW) Law is effectively implemented so that more women have access to shelter, protection services and justice, and contribute to ending the impunity of perpetrators.
 
The launch is part of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence.
 
The law was passed by a presidential decree in 2009 and criminalizes 22 acts of violence against women and harmful practices including child marriage, forcing or prohibiting marriage, forced self-immolation, rape and beating.
 
Meanwhile, it has been reported that drugs are in some instances forcibly injected into girls who have been forced into child marriages.  
 
"Research which was recently conducted on child marriages indicates that in a district in the northern part of the country, the girls who physically and mentally are not prepared for the marriage are subjected to drugs and snuff," said Jamila Afghan, deputy minister of martyrs, labor and social affairs.