Five years of Taliban Authority in Afghanistan: Women Refuse to Back Down!

Women protest in Kabul, August 2023

Five years ago the Taliban assumed the role of de-facto authority in Afghanistan following the US's withdrawl.The International Women's Alliance recognizes the significance of August 15 as a day to recognize the continued struggle of Afghan women to oppose that Taliban's repression and gender apartheid policies. Since the late 1970s, Afghanistan has been a target for US military activity and military occupation, first deploying troops in a proxy war against the USSR and then formally occupying Afghanistan in 2001 under the guise of the so-called "war-on-terror".  In reality the US sought to control Afghanistan to protect its own interests in West, Central, and South Asia, as its location serves as a crossroads and trade route to the different regions - giving it political influence over the regions as well.

General support for US occupation relied on a manufactured narrative that the US' presence protected and empowered Afghan women. Within a week of the occupation of Afghanistan the New York Times editorial board praised the invasion stating that it liberated Afghan women as a “collateral benefit” of the war. While the US used women’s rights and participation in civil society as justification for spending over $2 trillion in 20 years (roughly $100 billion per year), there was no meaningful long-term improvement in women’s lives and Afghan women were left in the lurch after the US withdrew in 2021. Many women watched their rights rapidly recede as the artificial support from the US literally flew away and found themselves in a worse position than before the US first invaded. Women's long history under US involvement in Afghanistan proves that there can be no "collateral benefit" to women through imperialist led war and occupation. The only sustainable solution for women's progress is genuine change led by the most exploited and oppressed people of society.

Women in Afghanistan today face many challenges and a chronically worsening situation under the DFA. Under the Taliban's systemic approach to gender apartheid, women have lost many rights and freedoms; face economic challenges; and are at a greater risk of violence than ever before. The Taliban takeover has been marked by the introduction of laws that impacted every aspect of a woman’s life, especially rural women. The DFA relies on a culture of fear and surveillance to further restrict women’s freedoms beyond what laws are formally passed. This fear has made it extremely dangerous and precarious for women to gather together, to attend school, to seek social services, and to be involved in civil society organizations or NGOs.

The entire country of Afghanistan is in economic crisis following 43 years of US occupation and invasion – which is exacerbated by women’s exclusion from participation in the economy. A 2024 report found that only 24% of Afghan women are employed or are seeking employment compared to nearly 90% of men - primarily due to attempts the Taliban has made to remove women from public life and to relegate them to the home. Since women do not have their own source of income of institutional standing outside their husbands they are often not able to pursue domestic violence cases or report violence at home. Afghan women and children today face an uphill battle when it comes to ensuring their safety from state violence, intimate partner violence, and abuse. The Taliban was quick to dismantle the already limited infrastructure built to address violence against women – including the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Law on Ending Violence against Women – and further services for survivors of intimate partner violence have sharply reduced their operational scope. In 2023 the Attorney General's office was abolished, meaning there is no official state agency collecting data on the murders of women, through local reports journalists have found 231 cases of women being killed - with 165 (71%) of those being housewives who did not have a job outside the home.

Afghan women continue to prove these challenges are not insurmountable! Afghan women are far from passive and continue to show that they are a powerful force for change across the country. While the people of Afghanistan did not gain liberation under US occupation and have watched the situation worsen under the Taliban, the perspective for a better Afghan society still persists. Women defy the Taliban by confronting Taliban officials, holding protests, wearing colorful dresses and carrying the slogan: "Bread, Work, and Freedom" as their primary demand. Brave organizations of women are taking up many forms of protest and push back on the Taliban's backwards laws and norms by finding creative ways to resist, empower, and fight for an Afghanistan where women's rights are not a collateral benefit or an empty promise - but are guaranteed and protected by the government and all of society. The future of Afghanistan is a not set in stone, and the people's will and determination for justice, equality and non-discrimination will surely win in the end!