The conversation
Women in Afghanistan fear that peace deal with Taliban extremists could cost them hard-won rights
Audience members heard Afghan MP MP Fawzia Koofi speak in 2014. Women’s access to politics increased long after the Taliban’s fall in 2001. Sha Marai / AFP via Getty ImagesThree Afghan women who worked at a media company were shot to death in Jalalabad in early March. In January, unidentified gunmen killed two Supreme Court judges in Kabul. These are the latest victims of a long list of murders and attempts to assassinate women politicians and women’s rights activists. These attacks have intensified since the government started peace talks with the Taliban militant group in September 2020. Last year, 17 human rights defenders were killed in Afghanistan. The Taliban government in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 was the darkest period for Afghan women. Assuming an austere interpretation of Islamic Sharia and Pashtun tribal practices, the group limited women’s access to education, employment and health services. Women were required to wear a full veil and have male escorts in public. We are scholars of women’s rights in Muslim-majority countries, including Afghanistan. We have been following the peace negotiations in Afghanistan with attention to gender, seeking to understand how Afghan women see the prospect of their government signing a power-sharing agreement with the group that oppressed them. A mixed private school classroom in Kabul, September 2019. Girls’ education is still restricted in areas controlled by the Taliban. Scott Peterson / Getty Images Sitting at the table Women are a pale presence in the peace process in Afghanistan, brokered and brokered by the United States, underway in Doha, Qatar. The Taliban, which still controls about 30% of Afghanistan’s territory, has no women on its negotiating team. Only four of the 21 Afghan government negotiators are women – although several women play a prominent role within the national government. The last six months of negotiations have demonstrated the contradictions between the positions on each side on the equality of women and other central issues. The government intends to preserve Afghanistan’s democratic institutions and constitution, which guarantee the rights of women and minorities as equal citizens of an Islamic republic. The Taliban, on the other hand, is pushing for an Islamic emirate controlled by an unelected council of religious leaders who govern based on their conservative interpretation of Islam, according to an unpublished analysis by the non-profit organization Women who live under the Muslim laws, of which we are board members. Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other American officials met with Taliban leaders in Doha, Qatar, in November 2020. Patrick Semansky / Pool / AFP via Getty Images Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States, says having women on your team gives the Afghan government more power to negotiate women’s rights. This is important because our research indicates that the Taliban maintains its extremist position in relation to women. “The Taliban lives in its 1990s universe and refuses to see the reality of Afghanistan and, in particular, of the younger generations of today who are entitled to human rights, education and an open public sphere,” Palwasha Hassan, an Afghan women’s rights activist, told us in an interview in December 2020. The Taliban say their views on women have evolved. But in some Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan, girls are prohibited from receiving education after puberty – which violates the Afghan constitution. And while women are elected and appointed to high-level positions across the country, their political participation is restricted in regions controlled by the Taliban. There is a “gap between the Taliban’s official rights statements and the restrictive positions taken by Taliban officials on the ground,” according to the international non-profit organization Human Rights Watch. Women were forced to wear headscarves in public when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Kabul, 1996. Roger Lemoyne / Liaison Women and war Armed conflicts can be fought mainly by men, who are killed or injured, but women are victims of war in a different way – and therefore have different needs when it ends . Many lose their husbands and children and, therefore, their income, and are disproportionately displaced by violence. Since rape is a weapon of war, women can be sexually abused or raped en masse. In 2000, the United Nations adopted a resolution emphasizing that women should be included in all post-conflict reconstruction efforts. Colombia was the first country to guarantee gender equality in its peace process. In their historic 2016 agreement with the FARC insurgents, which was mediated by Sweden, women were on the insurgent and government negotiating teams, and the final agreement included a chapter outlining what assistance women in conflict zones would need to start. business and participate in politics, thrive in rural and similar areas. Afghanistan, the first major globally negotiated peace agreement to follow Colombia’s, does not follow this model. In interviews with more than 15 Afghan women’s rights leaders, we heard frustration at the exclusion of women from peace negotiations, as women are the main victims of the 40-year conflict in Afghanistan. These women support the national reconciliation effort. But they cited the selective killings of women last year as a reason for concern that the Taliban’s disregard for human rights would jeopardize the longevity of any peace deal. As one interviewee said, “the victory of the Taliban is a victory of ISIS, Boko Haram and other extremist groups”. Targeting women Outstanding critics of the Taliban’s undemocratic vision of peace have been threatened or killed. In August 2020, Fawzia Koofi, a longtime Afghan government negotiator and Afghan parliamentarian, was shot in the arm in an assassination attempt. The attack is an example of the gender-based violence that women often face as a way of preventing them from participating in politics. Koofi refused to be silenced. A few days after her injury, she flew to Doha to participate in the peace negotiations. The Afghan government has also made recent mistakes about women’s rights. In 2020, the Afghan government dissolved the State Ministry of Human Affairs, led by Dr. Sima Samar, a leading advocate for women’s rights with almost two decades of experience in Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission. Afghan women’s rights defender Sima Samar, center, at a United Nations event on domestic violence in Afghanistan in 2015. Parwiz Sabawoon / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images This ministry, as the main body that documents and reports on the rights situation Afghanistan, could have played an instrumental role in the negotiations. After the fall of the Taliban in the 2001 invasion of the United States, women eagerly embraced every opportunity to advance professionally in various sectors, from politics to social services. Today, women represent about 27% of the Afghan Parliament, one of the highest rates of female political representation in the region. “There is no turning back,” Zarqa Yaftali, a women’s rights activist, told us. “Women intend to guide their country towards peace and stability.” This article has been republished from The Conversation, a non-profit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Mona Tajali, Agnes Scott College and Homa Hoodfar, Concordia University. Read more: Afghanistan peace talks begin – but will the Taliban delay the deal? The Taliban is a megarique – this is where they get the money they use to fight the war in Afghanistan. Mona Tajali is affiliated with Women Living Under Muslim Laws, a transnational feminist research network. Homa Hoodfar is affiliated with Women Living Under Muslim Laws, a transnational feminist research network