Afghanistan In-Depth

When the Taliban seized control in Afghanistan, this extremist militia violently took away the most basic human rights of women and girls to education, work, healthcare, and freedom of movement. Afghan women lived under a brutal system of gender apartheid until November 2001. With the establishment of an interim government, women slowly have regained some rights.

In January 2004, Afghanistan adopted a new constitution providing equal rights for women before the law. Afghan worked tirelessly to win seats in the news parliament for women. Women will comprise 25 percent of the Lower House and 17 percent of the Upper House. However, the constitution leaves women's rights and human rights vulnerable to extremist judicial interpretations of Islam. Moreover, the new constitution and its equal rights provisions cannot be enforced without a significant improvement in security throughout the country. Without the full-scale expansion of international peacekeeping forces and significant new funding for reconstruction and institutions that protect and promote women's rights and human rights, freedom for Afghan women will remain unfinished work.

In the absence of sufficient numbers of peacetroops, security has deteriorated resulting in the postponement of the first post-Taliban elections initially scheduled in June. Since last fall, more than 30 girls' schools have been set on fire, bombed, or violently attacked. In addition, two Afghan women election workers that were registering women to vote were killed by the Taliban in an effort to derail Afghanistan's first post-Taliban elections. Several women promoting women's rights have either been killed or threatened by the Taliban. Warlord restrictions on women, threats against women who dare to exercise their rights, and intimidation tactics against human rights defenders continue without impunity. The Taliban is re-emerging and gaining strength.

Despite the deteriorating security situation, Afghan women continue to fight for their political, economic, and social rights. Currently, women hold only two cabinet seats in the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Ministry of Public Health. In addition, the previous Minister of Women's Affairs Dr. Sima Samar serves as the Chair of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission.

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The Taliban & Afghan Women: Background