Crisis in Kabul
No group has been more failed by the US pullout from Afghanistan than the nation’s women
IN 2002 I stood on a stage in the Zainab Cinema in Kabul to celebrate International Women’s Day as Afghanistan’s first minister of women’s affairs. The Zainab Cinema was the only cinema in the country named after a woman and, like much of the nation, had suffered destruction during 23 years of war that began with the Sovietbacked government and the military invasion of the USSR in 1979 and resulted in Taliban control from 1996-2001.
But we restored the Zainab Cinema and made it a part of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, to celebrate International Women’s Day and the end of the Taliban regime that had systematically deprived women of all human rights. Our 2002 event was filled with hope for the future and the pledges of the international community to stand by Afghan women and girls.
We achieved a lot. More than 3 million girls returned to schooling. Women comprised 25% of university students. Afghanistan adopted a constitution that guaranteed equal rights for women and men and that a quarter of the seats in parliament would be held by women. The country ratified the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Women advanced in professions, opened businesses, and served in the military and the police force. Violence against women was criminalized for the first time. We still had a long way to go, but we were making progress.
On Aug. 15, 2021, after the Taliban retook the country by force and President Ashraf Ghani abandoned his nation, we lost everything. The US and the international community that had promised to stand by us were gone. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs was replaced with the Ministry of Vice and Virtue and a hateful mandate that restricted freedom and violated the rights of women. Hope was replaced with fear. Day after day, the Taliban issued new decrees to erase women from public life and punish them for being female.
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world that does not have a constitution. It is the only country with an official ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade. The Taliban have closed the doors of universities to women. They restrict women’s movement and clothing. They prohibit women from working and even from going to parks. Advocates of women’s rights have been imprisoned, abducted, and tortured. Young girls have been kidnapped for not wearing their hijabs. Poverty has increased, especially for femaleheaded households, who have no way to make a living or lack access to even the most meager amounts of economic aid. Child marriage and forced marriages have increased.
The United States government and the international community made promises to Afghan women and girls. In fact, President George W. Bush invited me as the first ever minister of women's affairs to attend the State of the Union address in January 2002 and introduced me to worldwide television audiences as an example of women freely participating in Afghan government and society.
Once again we are standing witness to gender apartheid. History is repeating itself. These gross human rights violations are happening under the watch of the UN and the international community. This promotion of patriarchy under the pretext of religion and culture is not confined to Afghanistan’s borders. It is spreading throughout the region and beyond.
Human rights and women’s rights are not only western values; they belong to all of humanity. The Taliban’s inhuman policies toward women should be treated as crimes against humanity. The international community should impose targeted sanctions on the Taliban and end their recognition of this illegal regime. Humanitarian aid must be distributed equally and with dignity, including women’s access to reproductive health and contraception. Most crucially, the Taliban must be held accountable for their international crimes against women and humanity.
Many people see the 20 years the international community spent in Afghanistan as a failure. Consider this: during that time, life expectancy went from 47 years to 63 years, maternal mortality dropped by 50%, nation building began. That’s not a failure, it’s a miracle. We are waiting for a miracle to happen again.