KABUL, Afghanistan, June 10 (UPI) -- About 240 honor killings and 160 rape cases were registered with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in the past two years, the agency says.
Agency officials said the numbers were "shocking," Khaama Press reported Monday.
Suraya Sobhrang, in charge of the commission's women's affairs department, said the actual number of cases could be much higher than those filed since many families of victims do not report them.
The report said about 21 percent of the honor killings -- slayings of people, usually women, who are perceived to have shamed their families or communities -- were committed by the victims' husbands, 7 percent by their brothers, 4 percent by their fathers and the rest by other relatives.
The agency said 65 percent of the rapes were committed by strangers and the rest involved the victims' close relatives and neighbors.
