Labour MP Joan Ruddock writes for ePolitix.com on the continuing difficulties facing Afghan women.

Two years ago coalition forces launched the military campaign which ousted the Taliban regime from Afghanistan. It was not the knee-jerk reaction many of us feared in the wake of September 11, but a considered response consistent with international law.

Promises of post-conflict reconstruction were quickly made. At the first prime minister's question-time of the new parliament I raised the issue of women's participation in the transition. The following day the broadsheet diaries were scathing, suggesting my next demand would be for "all women short-lists in Kabul".

The message was clear - the blue burkha-clad figures flitting across our TV screens each night were powerless victims and no one expected them to make demands.

Yet Afghan women had been educated in the past, they had been the majority of the country's teachers, half the local government workers and more than a third of the doctors. These women, both in Afghanistan and in the diaspora, were indeed to make demands. I decided to help and set up the UK Women's Link with Afghan Women.

At the UN-brokered Bonn conference in December 2001 Afghan women's voices were heard. The Declaration put in place arrangements for "a broad-based, gender sensitive, multi-ethnic and fully representative government". And the UN, in charge of the overall process, was specifically given the right to investigate human rights violations and recommend corrective action.

In Kabul, a year ago, I saw plenty of evidence of continuing repression of women, but I thought the right mechanisms were in place. Today I fear our promises to Afghan women are being broken. A report published by Amnesty International, based on interviews with many Afghan women, reveals continuing abuses of women's most basic human rights on a grave scale.

There is widespread forced and underage marriage of girls between the ages of 10 and 16. "Fariba" reported to Amnesty that she was forced to marry a 48-year-old man who then subjected her to sexual abuse. Her father apparently received a large payment for her.

The heavy reliance on informal justice mechanisms, due to the slow process in reforming the criminal justice system, also permits the exchange of girls as "compensation" between families who agree to settle disputes between themselves.

Slow criminal justice reform means that penal codes are still in place which provide for a defence in cases of honour killings, and there is routine prosecution and imprisonment of women and girls by the authorities for "zina" crimes - adultery, "running away from your husband", and consensual sex before marriage.

An 18-year-old woman reported that when she refused to marry a cousin, her father pressured the police to arrest her. She was then subjected to two forced virginity tests and imprisoned indefinitely.

Many women report violence against them in the home which is said to be leading to untold numbers of suicides - a doctor in Jalalabad's main hospital reported about one case a month of a woman having burnt herself to death. Another woman doctor reported to Amnesty that "domestic violence is normal practice - most Afghan men are using violence".

And there is a crucial, new, post-war factor in Afghan women's lives - the ever-present threat of rape or sexual assault by members of armed groups who still patrol many parts of the country because the international community will not extend security operations beyond Kabul. One interviewee reported to Amnesty that "during the Taliban era you were flogged if you showed an inch of flesh - now you are raped".

Many women said to Amnesty International that the insecurity and risk of sexual violence they face make their lives worse today than they were during the Taliban era.

This insecurity has trapped women in Afghanistan in a vicious circle where the lack of physical security has a huge impact on their day-to-day lives, and is effectively preventing them participating in the political reconstruction process. Women participants in the first "loya jirga" (grand council) were threatened and intimidated.

But until women are fully involved in politics and the justice system (where Amnesty International reports that they are currently just 27 of 2,006 judges) the lack of legal protection will not be addressed and there will be no reform of the penal codes.

There has been some progress over the last two years. But Amnesty argues that these advances are threatened by a desperate lack of resources and a basic lack of political will. Women's rights are not a priority.

For example the lead countries in charge of justice reform and rebuilding the police force, Italy and Germany respectively, have taken few steps to ensure women's rights are part of their work. There are now serious concerns that the loya jirga on the constitution, due to be held later this year, which will produce the final version of Afghanistan's Constitution, may even find including the vote for women controversial.

Women's rights have their champions all over Afghanistan. In my experience there is no shortage of women prepared to work in NGOs, to stand for office and to risk their lives as role models. Habiba Sorabi, the minister for women's affairs, and Dr Sima Samar, head of the Human Rights Commission, are passionate advocates of the universality of women's rights.

But only the international community can provide the security in which civil society can flourish and women's individual freedoms can be guaranteed. Only the international community can provide the training and infrastructure to support a legitimate constitutional process leading to democratic elections.

Amnesty International's calls for donors to consult Afghan women and establish their specific needs, and for long-term support to build the capacity of the policing and criminal justice systems to protect rather than persecute women, must be heeded.

The specific recommendations made in the report, including the establishment of a cross-ministerial task force on violence against women, the training of judges in the theory and practice of protecting women's rights and the provision of shelters for victims of violence and those at risk must be acted on by the transitional authority and the international community.

Crucially, the international security force, ISAF, must be extended outside Kabul.

Without that all we will see is a continuation of the back-sliding which is denying Afghan women their basic rights.