THE WOMEN OF

AFGHANISTAN

Presented by:
Dipakshi Goswami, Bhuvana
Ganguly & Suravi Jaisi
 As Taliban Return, a History of Afghan Women’s Rights

• When we think of Afghanistan and its women, we can’t help but associate the term with gender
inequality, oppression, violence and patriarchy.

• However, Women in Afghanistan were not always oppressed by fundamentalism as occurred

under the Mujahideen and the Taliban.

• History shows us that women’s issues were an integral part of national construction agendas
even as far back as the 1920s.
 A brief History: women under the rule of the monarchy

■ King Amanullah Khan, who ruled for a decade starting in 1919, pushed for Western-style reforms
and intended to modernize the country. He introduced a new constitution that sought to guarantee
rights for women as well as men.

■ Child marriage was banned and the jurisdiction of religious leaders narrowed. Women were no
longer required to wear the veil. Queen Soraya, who opened the first girl’s school in Kabul, became
a champion of women’s rights.

■ By the mid 1960s, women helped draft a new constitution which gave them the right to vote and
allowed them to seek elected office. They got jobs, ran businesses and entered politics. Tensions
with traditionalists never went away, but women protested any attacks on their rights.
 1990s to early 2000s- A living nightmare for women
■ In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and installed a Marxist puppet regime. The
status of women began to erode when the state descended into civil war between the
communist troops and their opponents, including Islamist fighters called mujahedeen.

■ After the Soviets retreated in 1989, the Taliban, which formed in the early 1990s as a
movement among pious youth, eventually gained the upper hand. During this era, women
were….

1- Banned from School, work, speaking in public, Speaking in public and even health care.

2- They were forced to wear the burqa, cover themselves from head to toe and could not leave
their homes without being escorted by a male relative.

3- The penalties for violations included public lashings and death by stoning. The suicide rate
among women rose.

4- Women were excluded from any social or political life, including all kinds of governance .
 A woman begs on the Jadah-ye Maiwand road in the old center of Kabul soon after the Taliban came to power in
1996 and banned women from working. The Taliban arose out of civil war among rival Afghan mujahideen factions
in the 1990s. By Seamus Murphy
 Post 9/11 – The retreat of the Taliban
■ .In the years since the Taliban were defeated in late 2001, there had been a
measurable improvement in Afghan women's rights, and their position in the
Afghan society.. While the progress was slow, there was a measurable
improvement in Afghan women's rights, and their position in Afghan society..

■ In 2003, the new government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all
Forms of Discrimination Against Women.. During this time period, Afghanistan had
gone from having almost no girls at school to tens of thousands at universities,
although 60% of them were reported to be still devoid of any form of education..

■ Even though there was progress, the Taliban had started annexing small territories
in rural Afghanistan, which put women in danger again.
 Inspiring Stories
From The Women of Afghanistan
Fahima Mirzaei hopes the Sufi dance called Sama will help students fight depression and find inner
peace in Afghanistan

Fahima, first female mystical dancer in Afghanistan.

 Inspiring Stories
From The Women of Afghanistan

Reihana Mamadi was a

Member of the National

Cycling team, does

snowboarding and skiing.

 Inspiring Stories
From The Women of Afghanistan

From an early age she had a deep interest

in music, so ever since she has tried to
pursue her interest in the field. She was

part of a musical organisation in Bamiyan.

Freshtha Farrokhi, aspires to be a

musician.
 Inspiring Stories
From The Women of Afghanistan
 The Taliban return to power in Afghanistan twenty years
after their ouster by U.S.
 Despite talks about the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan, they never really left.
For two decades they loomed in the political backstage, but were very much
present in every aspect of Afghanistan and the lives of the people

 The Taliban have said that women will enjoy their rights in Afghanistan under
the Sharia Law.

 The Taliban have been known for their strict interpretation of Sharia Law when
they controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

 The Taliban spokesperson said that women would be allowed to work and
study, and that women should participate in government — signalling a
possible break with past practices.
 An Uncertain Future for the citizens of Afghanistan

■ Several Afghan women gathered in Kabul on 5th September 2021 to demand

the right to work and study under the new Taliban-run government

■ Over a dozen women protested outside the premises of what used to be the
Afghan Women's Affairs Ministry until the Taliban turned it into the department
for the "propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice."

■ “ In Islam, women are given more rights. Why are they taking our rights? We
need schools for ladies to reopen again. Women should go back to their jobs.
All the employees should go back to their jobs and they should start working as
they used to. We are not asking for anything else, we need our human rights”
said Basira Tawana a protester.
Several Afghan Women gathered in Kabul on Sunday to demand the right to work and study
under the new Taliban run government.
 Conclusion slide

Fears over rights under Taliban rule are rising after the Islamist militants closed the
Afghan Women's Affairs Ministry and ordered only boys back to schools.

Afghan women's rights activists fought a long, hard battle to create a system to
prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. One of the less visible
but hugely devastating acts of the Taliban is to effectively dismantle that system
overnight.

The role of the united nations

The United Nations intends to remain in Afghanistan to continue providing its impartial
assistance
Despite immense challenges, humanitarian organizations – both the UN and non-
governmental organizations – in Afghanistan are committed to stay and deliver aid and
services to millions of people in need while adhering to the humanitarian principles of
humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence