'I Am Erased!': Afghan Women Leaders Urge International Community to Take Action

‘I Am Erased!’: Afghan Women Leaders Urge International Community to Take Action
3/7/2023 by Jessica Neuwirth


Fawzia Koofi receives the Casa Asia Award on Nov. 5, 2021 in Barcelona, Spain, in recognition for her work in favor of women’s rights in Afghanistan, for her role in the Doha peace talks, and for her commitment to the education of girls and women. (David Zorrakino / Europa Press via Getty Images)

This article originally appears in the Winter 2023 50th anniversary issue of Ms. Become a member today to read more reporting like this in print and through our app.

In August 2022, women around the world joined their Afghan counterparts in marking the one-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. In the months since, little has changed for Afghan women. There is despair over the growing intransigence of the Taliban, who have reneged on their promise to the international community to allow girls to return to school. Instead, the Taliban have instituted further restrictions and a crackdown on dissent—which continues despite the tremendous risks to protesters for speaking out. Their latest action: a ban on the sale of contraceptives.

There is also despair over the growing sense that the world, somehow unable to deal with more than one crisis at a time, has moved on and is now exclusively focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, as former Afghan diplomat Asila Wardak noted at the launch of the U.S.-Afghan Consultative Mechanism in July, the Taliban have not moved an inch toward the implementation of any promises they made to the international community to respect women’s rights. She stressed that in addition to monitoring and reporting on the regime, action was needed, and she urged the United States to use all of its leverage—economic and political—to pressure the Taliban.


The Afghan women leaders forced to leave their country have continued to speak out forcefully, but they are increasingly frustrated by the seeming hypocrisy of the international community—professing its commitment to human rights, women’s rights and Afghan women on one hand, while failing to take any effective measures on the other. In June, addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council, Shaharzad Akbar (former chair of the now-dismantled Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission) warned of the deteriorating situation for women and girls. While welcoming the dialogue with the council, she expressed concern that it was not an adequate response to the unfolding crisis and noted that “women are taking to the streets every day at great risk to their lives because they understand the urgent need for action.” Speaking on behalf of the Women’s Forum on Afghanistan, Akbar voiced their collective distress over the council’s inactivity. “We have heard you repeatedly say that you will judge the Taliban by their deeds, not their words,” she said, warning, “We too will judge the international community by their deeds, not their words.”

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In October 2001, just one month after the attacks of 9/11, “The Rifle and the Veil,” an op-ed I coauthored for The New York Times, began, “Anyone who has paid attention to the situation of women in Afghanistan should not have been surprised to learn that the Taliban are complicit in terrorism.” As terrorist attacks escalate, Afghan women are again the canaries in the coal mine. Is anyone listening?


https://msmagazine.com/2023/03/07/afghan-women-international-action/