These codes blame women for being sexually harassed or assaulted. Women are doubly victimized, first by gender-based violence and then by their communities, which fault women for violating patriarchal codes of conduct. My previous research on women’s human rights and gender-based violence in places like Nigeria and Iraq shows that violence against women can follow a common trajectory. Women’s rights did improve significantly after the Taliban’s fall in 2001, as women and girls were again allowed to attend school, participate in the workforce and hold positions of authority in government. The general tenor of the public rhetoric at the time amplified the idea that Afghan women needed to be helped by Western countries. Womens’ rights violations in Afghanistan were a major topic of public concern in the 1990s. When the Taliban first rose to power in 1996, it famously banned Afghan women from holding jobs, or even leaving home without a male guardian or chaperone. Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images Women’s rights in Afghanistan then and today Alexia assisted in the research and writing of this story.Īs an expert on terrorism and violence against women, I find that the current situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is reminiscent of the Taliban’s last restrictive regime in the 1990s.Īfghan women march during a women’s rights protest in Kabul on Jan. But these reports are not eliciting international political concern.ĭuring a major peace and conflict conference I attended with Alexia Cervello San Vicente, a masters student at Columbia University, in January 2022, participants shelved questions about Afghan women’s gender-based violence in favor of discussing trade agreements and foreign aid.
Violence against women in Afghanistan also appears to again be worsening, according to local Afghan colleagues I know. Under the Taliban’s latest rule, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Afghanistan are facing “grave threats” of violence and death, according to new findings by the research and advocacy nonprofit organization Human Rights Watch. withdrew the last troops from the country. No Western media has covered the attacks.Īfghanistan made Western headlines in July and August 2021, as the U.S. 16, 2022, asking where the women of the Mazar-e-Sharif attack have gone.īut a careful online news search in English will not reveal details about these recent kidnappings and gang rapes – a common form of aggression by the Taliban in the 1990s. Women’s rights activists marched in Kabul on Jan.