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Wondering about Women in Afghanistan Today
By marciahopple on 2020-10-12 10:27:03
I re-connected with a charter member of Women Against War recently when we both joined a hiking club outing, and we
reminisced about the worldwide opposition to a US invasion of Afghanistan almost 20 years ago, after the terrorist attacks
on the World Trade Center in New York City. That chance meeting with
someone I haven’t seen in about 15 years added to my sense that the war in Afghanistan has been going on forever. And my
amazement that after so long, the Taliban and the Afghanistan government are attempting peace talks today. I wondered
what the implications are for the rights and freedom of women in Afghanistan. The US used to claim that we wiped out the
Taliban and therefore freed women from harsh and inhumane restrictions under Sharia law. Here is a summary of what I
found in reviewing news of the Afghan-Taliban Peace Talks. And news of the mixture of promising and discouraging
developments for girls and women in Afghanistan in the past 20 years. To start, consider the story of Shamsea Alizad, a teen
age girl in Kabul, told in detail in The New York Times on [caption id="attachment_14578" align="alignright" width="300"]
Shamsea Alizad[/caption] September 26, 2020. Shamsea recently achieved
the highest score out of nearly 200,000 students on the national university entrance exam. She studied for the exam at a
tutoring center in Kabul for underprivileged Afghans, where she narrowly escaped the carnage of a suicide bomber
exploding his vest in a lecture hall packed with more than 200 students, two years ago. Her family sacrificed and uprooted
from their district of the country to find opportunities for their three children like the tutoring center in the capital. Under
the Taliban, and to a large extent still 20 years later in rural areas, Shamsea would have been denied an education.
According to UNICEF, a third of all school-aged children remain out of school in Afghanistan today. The tensions and
contradictions affecting Afghanistan society, and plaguing the peace talks, are difficult to appreciate, but include: deep
distrust of the Afghanistan government in what the Times calls “proud corners” of the country; traditional oppression of
females and many religious minorities, especially in those remote conservative corners; and encouragement of young people
to get educations and build lives but in a society beset by violence from within and without. The bombing at Shamsea’s
school was claimed by an offshoot of the Islamic State that has exploited the complicated battlefield in Afghanistan,
including US troops.B— Now that the Taliban and representatives of the Afghan
government are in peace talks, neither side has ended the violence. The Times says extremists in Afghanistan are keeping up
the violence to help their position in the talks now, while holding to their goal of a return to an unbending Islamic rule later.
But the Taliban are not claiming “credit” for the violence during the talks. [caption id="attachment_14577"
BEG News
align="alignleft" width="300"] Saba Sahar[/caption] And women are often
targeted. The BBC reports, in a story about an assassination attempt on the life of Saba Sahar, Kabul actress, film director,
and senior police official, “Under Taliban rule in the 1990s women were not allowed to attend school or work. Since the
hardline group were overthrown in 2001, fragile progress has been made in bringing more Afghan women back into public
life, though challenges remain.” “The Taliban now say they don't oppose women's education, or them working. But some
remain skeptical.” “The attack on Saba Sahar is one of a number of assassination attempts that have taken place in Kabul in
recent months, often targeting prominent figures. In many instances, including the shooting of Ms. Sahar, the Taliban has
denied being responsible, but no other militant group has admitted involvement either.” Her husband believes she was
targeted because of her work for women’s rights. That appears to be true also in the case of politician Fawzia Koofi, who is
part of the negotiating team meeting with the Taliban. She was shot last month while returning from a neighboring
province. She survived, with injuries to her arm. She told the BBC the shooting would not deter her from her work or from
attending the talks when they begin. "In fact, it has given me more strength," she said. "I could see that the whole public
stood by me. Even those who have views that are different from my views condemned this attack." The BBC reports that
Ms. Koofi, who has been a vocal proponent of women's rights, believes she may have been targeted both because of her
political stance, and in an effort "to spoil the peace talks". So far, no-one seems clear exactly who is behind the attacks, per
the BBC. They wonder, could the Taliban be responsible, and deliberately not claiming them publicly? Or could other
militants such the Islamic State group, or even regional intelligence agencies be trying to play a disruptive role? The BBC
continues, the targeting of prominent female figures is feeding into wider concerns about what the outcome of the peace
process will mean for Afghan women, and whether there could be a rolling back of the progress made in the last two
decades. Ms. Koofi says she worries in the coming weeks and months that more women will be targeted. “We will,
unfortunately, have to pay a bigger price before peace." For a timeline of what we call the war in Afghanistan, a US
preemptive strike at a country that was harboring Osama bin : Laden, who claimed
responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, but as a country was not otherwise involved, and for many related stories like the ones
cited above, visit www.bbc.com and search for Taliban peace talks. In a poignant sign of slow progress in Afghanistan as a
nation, Human Rights Watch reports the President signed in September this year a new law that will include mothers’ names
on their children’s birth certificates and identification cards. The law will make it easier for women to obtain education,
health care, and passports and other documentation for their children, and to travel with their children. It will be especially
significant for women who are widowed, divorced, separated, or dealing with abusive partners. In their country, widows of
the violence are everywhere.
