Afghanistan female journalist has notebook, will report

Mina Habib has been waiting for half an hour at police headquarters, preparing for a showdown with the chief of criminal investigations.

She sits on a plush sofa and adjusts her head scarf as a dozen men parade past. None of them pays much attention to Habib, 25, despite her striking shock of auburn hair, amber eyes and iridescent pink lipstick.

She eavesdrops as the men demand that the police investigate rape allegations, neighborhood disputes and runaway wives. (She perks up at the mention of runaway wives; she smells a story.)

But first, she has to confront the chief about Massoud Khalil.

The 16-year-old had been detained on burglary charges and died two weeks earlier at Kabul's juvenile detention center, she says. The medical examiner told her that Massoud had been beaten with blunt objects and his head bashed against a wall.

Habib interviewed police officers stationed outside the juvenile facility, who told her they had seen Massoud being pummeled by other detainees, older youths from powerful, well-connected families. Two of the detainees were later charged with murder.

Habib believes she has evidence that police and guards at the facility failed to protect Massoud as he resisted the youths, who allegedly were trying to sexually assault him.

An armed guard arrives. The chief is ready.

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Habib is one of a small but growing cadre of Afghan female newspaper reporters in the Kabul press corps, women who brave death threats and family disapproval to expose corruption and strengthen their country's fledgling democracy.

She is something of a latter-day Nellie Bly, the pioneering turn-of-the-20th-century American journalist who capitalized on being taken for granted to penetrate institutions and champion the poor and voiceless.

The guard ushers Habib across the thick rug in the chief's office. The chief arrives, scowling in his rumpled gray suit, and sits across the room from Habib, two gleaming cellphones in hand, one silver, one gold. On the glass coffee table between them, she places her constant companion, a battered Panasonic tape recorder.

She speaks first, in a calm, even tone. She has come to ask about the 16-year-old's death.

The chief gives her a tired look.

"That is not our department," he says, reminding her that police guard the outside of the juvenile center and the Justice Ministry is responsible for the inside.

Habib makes a sour face that says, "Come on, you can do better than that!"

"These police in the juvenile center, they are not well-trained. There is mismanagement. Everything is going wrong there," the chief says, gaining momentum. "They should be taken before the attorney general's office."

Habib jots quick notes in Dari, silver fingernails fluttering over the page. This she can use.

The chief's silver cellphone rings. He takes the call and wraps up the interview.