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 victim of 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. Taliban era, civil war, USSR invasion fuelled mental and psychological problems among Afghan women.

According to a mental health survey conducted by Lopez Cardozo in 2002, the three most common psychiatric disorders among the Afghans are depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involving 73 percent, 84 percent and 59 percent of the Afghans respectively. And women make around 50 percent of Afghan population.

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.

Last year, a report by Oxfam said that with the imminent withdrawal of international forces, there was a risk that the government might sacrifice women's rights in order to secure a political deal with the Taliban and other armed opposition groups.

Not only the hard-earned 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 insurgency 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 might take place. It has to be seen how the international community and the government of Afghanistan that have been blowing trumpets of democracy and women rights work to protect Afghanistan from once again falling in the hand of extremists who have been violent to women.