Afghan tries to cut off pregnant wife's tongue: Police

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An Afghan man has been arrested for trying to cut off his pregnant wife's tongue when he attacked her during an argument, police said on Wednesday.

The woman later lost her baby, police spokesman Sher Jan Durani said.

"The suspect is in our custody and his wife has been taken to a safe house. She has received eight stitches on her tongue," he said.

The man, identified only by his first name Saleh, reportedly attacked his wife with a knife during the argument on Tuesday in Balkh province, in the north of the country.

Physical abuse of women is rife in Afghanistan, where women are often seen as second-class citizens despite a Western-backed constitution that guarantees equal rights for both sexes.

In March, President Hamid Karzai indicated support for an edict by the Ulema Council, the nation's highest Islamic authority, saying "men are fundamental and women are secondary".

Earlier this month, the case of a tortured child bride whose treatment shocked the world led to three members of her husband's family being jailed for 10 years.

Sahar Gul, 15, who refused to work as a prostitute, was burned and beaten and had her fingernails pulled out while locked in the basement of her husband's house for six months.

According to figures by the British charity Oxfam, 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.