Afghan women see little gains 15 years after Taleban’s ouster

kabul — Fifteen years after the US ousted the Taleban regime, Afghanistan remains one of the worst places in the world to be a woman, said the US government watchdog who monitors the country’s reconstruction.

Improving the lives and opportunities of Afghan women has been a policy goal of the US rebuilding effort, and at least $1 billion has been committed for activities to improve their condition, John Sopko, the US special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said in a quarterly report. Yet corruption and lack of security remain major roadblocks.

Inadequate security “not only makes it dangerous for women to go to school, work outside the home, and access health services, but also perpetuates social attitudes that women are vulnerable and thus should not leave the home,” Sopko said in the report.

More than 40 prominent Afghan women interviewed for the project said women are often excluded from the country’s political and economic system.

“This is a big problem for women because men run the system, and it is hard for women to be part of this,” said Shinkai Karokhail, a member of parliament from Kabul Province.

“Men bring people into the system that they want, and because of warlords who have a lot of power, they do not support women.”

Overall the United States has allocated $115 billion for relief and reconstruction, and Afghanistan still needs help. International donors this month pledged another $15 billion through 2020 to help the country achieve selfreliance.

Sopko has long campaigned to curb the endemic corruption he says continues to undermine the fight against the Taleban, 15 years political and economic system. > They say men run the system. > Overall the US has allocated $115 billion for relief and reconstruction. > Corruption continues to undermine the fight against the Taleban. and more than 2,200 combat deaths following the American invasion weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.

The majority of Afghanistan’s roads need repairs and maintenance despite at least $2.8 billion having been spent by the US, according to the report. — Bloomberg

Corruption, lack of security big roadblocks

AFP file Afghan burqa clad women sit in a cemetery overlooking the outskirts of Kabul. —

AFP Protesters wearing masks of South Korean President Park GeunHye and her confidante Choi Soon-Sil (left) denounce the role of Park’s aide in the scandal during a rally in Seoul. —