mechanisms to promote public awareness for the reduction of the rate of forced and under-age marriages and to obliterate the phenomena of “Bad” (giving girls for settling disputes) and the exchange of daughters. In Afghan villages the awareness raising should be done through mosques and Mullah Imams. 16. Article 39 of EVAW law grants the right of complaint to the victim, which deprives the justice and judicial institutions to initiate prosecution on their own. The government and national assembly of Afghanistan must amend this article by granting the right to the judicial institutions to initiate prosecution independent of complaint by any complainant; 17. Article 41 of the EVAW law states that in addition to punishment, reparation must be given commensurate to a criminal act. The reparatory amount is unclear under this article. The government and the National Assembly must amend this law by clarify the reparatory amount for each criminal act; 18. The Afghan government, through the Ministry of Hajj and Charities, should develop guidelines based on relevant articles of the Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women and the Afghan civil law to foster and establish healthy marriages. These guidelines should be distributed widely among Mullah Imams and councils of mosques (Shura-ye Masajid). 19. The Afghan government, particularly the Ministry of Interior, should provide necessary capacity building for the Afghan National Police (ANP) regarding the Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women and ensure that the ANP acts in accordance with the law in cases of violence against women. 20. The Afghan government should develop new regulations requiring Afghan judicial agencies such as the Office of the Attorney General and the Supreme Court to give priority to cases of violence against women and promptly investigate these cases. 21. High ranking authorities in prosecution offices and the Supreme Court should be obliged to ensure that their subordinates enforce the provisions of the Law on the Elimination of Violence against Women, effectively guaranteeing the physical integrity of victims of violence in all phases of an investigation, including prosecution and trial, and prevent reprisals against the victims and their families by the alleged perpetrators. 22. The Afghan government should provide free legal assistance to female victims of violence so as to enhance their legal awareness of various legal procedures including legal defense, potential lawsuits and obtaining reparations. AHRDO Afghan Women after the Taliban: Will History Repeat Itself? Page 9