Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Women’s Achievements, Fragile

Women are the most deprived section of Afghan society and Afghanistan is the worst place for women to live in. Throughout the history of Afghanistan, women have been subjected to violence of various forms – sexual abuse, rape, physical and mental punishment and now being used in launching terror attacks. Violence causes a significant number of Afghan women to commit acts such as suicide and self-immolation every year. The Taliban era was the darkest for women as they were prisoners in their own homes and were not allowed to get education or be engaged in other activities of a social life.

Although ten years have passed after the defeat of Taliban and women participation in all fields of life has somehow increased, life for majority of women population has not altered much.

Taliban still continue to practice violence and their rules apply to all areas under their control and influence.

In addition, a big portion of Afghan population has resembling mentality as Taliban which has resulted in the sufferings of Afghan women to become manifold.

The Oxfam report on women's rights released couple of weeks ago pronounced the condition of women in Afghanistan as 'fragile.' "Women in Afghanistan have achieved real progress in areas such as political participation, the rule of law, and education since 2001 but these hard-won gains remain fragile.

With the imminent withdrawal of international forces, there is a risk that the government may sacrifice women's rights in order to secure a political deal with the Taliban and other armed opposition groups," Oxfam's report said.

Not only the hard-won achievements of women are in a fragile position but also the overall political, economic, democratic and security gains are fragile and high-level of uncertainty prevails in the country.

The fragility of Afghanistan is due to the growing strength of Taliban at times when the international troops have been scheduled to withdraw by the end of 2014.

As the only way out in Afghanistan is being considered to be political rather than military, negotiations with Taliban and more importantly with countries backing them is necessary.

It has to be seen how the international community and the government of Afghanistan that have been blowing trumpets of democracy and women rights works protect Afghanistan from once again falling in the hand of extremist regime, the Taliban.