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Women Rights in Afghanistan

1. Title, author, publication, date, and url for your news article.

The article that I selected for review is titled “Afghan Women Fear Peace with
Taliban May Mean War on Them”. The authors of the article, published by the New
York Times, are Rod Nordland, Fatima Faizi, and Fahim Abed. The article was published
on January 27, 2019 and can be found online on
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/world/asia/taliban-peace-
deal-women-afghanistan.amp.html

2. Brief (1-2 sentence) summary of the main topic of the article.

The article examines the likely impact on women of American troops leaving
Afghanistan after conclusion of on-going peace negotiations with the Taliban. Through
interviews with many women in Afghanistan, the article concludes that the departure of
American troops from Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban to position of power is
likely to lead to erosion of women’s rights that have Afghan women have enjoyed since
the Taliban were driven from power by the Americans in 2001.

3. Why would this article be of particular interest to a Women’s Studies student or
   scholar?
   There are so many things in this article that may interest a student or scholar of
   women’s studies. In particular, they may be interested in understanding the problems of
   trying to achieve gender equality through a top-down approach. From the article, it is
   clear that Afghan women only got their rights through actions of US-backed government.
   The Afghan society in general does not believe that women should have many of the
   rights that they currently have. The authors note that there is acute misogyny in

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Afghanistan society. The 2015 murder of a female Islamic scholar by a mob in the
presence of police, the sexual and physical abuse of female soccer players, and the
closure of Haidari’s restaurant in Kabul are a few examples that show that many Afghanis
share Taliban’s extreme negative views on women’s rights (Nordland et al., 2019). It is
perhaps because Afghan women got their current rights from the government without a
general change in society’s views about women rights that women find themselves in a
situation where they can lose their rights just as easily as their got them. Students and
scholars of women studies may, therefore, find the Afghanistan example as an important
case study on the need to have a bottom-up approach to securing of women rights.

4. What did you learn that you didn’t already know by reading this article?
   I knew that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan was oppressive but I just did not
   know how it bad it was for women. Rahima Jami, a current member of parliament, for
   instance, was beaten by Taliban enforcers with a horse whip until she could barely stand
   just because her feet were exposed when she was at the market (Nordland et al., 2019).
   Girls were also not allowed to receive education beyond dress making and reading of
   Qur’an (Nordland et al., 2019). In addition, women had to dress a burqa all the time that
   they were not in their houses. I certainly had no idea that the situation in Afghanistan was
   this bad during the reign of the Taliban.
5. Which topic, person, example, or idea in the article would you like to know more
   about? What questions would you suggest the reporter ask in a follow-up article?
   I would love to know more about Shukria Paykan. She is a current member of
   parliament who started a clandestine school for girls during a time when Taliban had
   banned girls from receiving non-religious education. I would love to know how she

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managed to run such a school in very difficult circumstances of the time. I would also
love to know what became of the school after the fall of the Taliban and whether similar
clandestine schools existed in Afghanistan during that time.
In a follow-up article, I would love the reporter to ask an Afghan government
official about their plans for women in the event that they, as it is likely to be the case,
are forced to share power with the Taliban. The question I suggest the reporter asks the
government official is, “Can you guarantee that there will be no erosion of women rights
even if you enter into a coalition government with the Taliban after the Americans
leave?”.

6. What social, political, personal, historical, economic, artistic, or other impact might
   the information in this article have? Why?
   The article had the potential of having major social-political and historical impact
   in Afghanistan. It has been written at the time when the US is having negotiations not
   only on conditions under which American troops will leave Afghanistan but also on the
   future of Afghanistan. As the authors of article note, women have not been involved in
   the peace negotiations with the Taliban. While the exact contents of the peace
   negotiations remain unclear, many Afghan women feel that women rights have not been
   given the prominence that they deserve in the peace negotiations (Nordland et al., 2019).
   However, as a result of this article, women rights may become a major component of the
   ongoing peace negotiations. If that happens, then the article would have contributed in
   securing social, political, and economic rights of women in Afghanistan’s future. In
   particular, the article could help Afghan women retain their current rights to education,

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freedom to wear the clothes that please them, pursue their careers of choice, and stand for
political positions.

7. Is there anything you read or thought about while reading the article that has
   relevance to your life outside of this class or outside of the article itself?
   Reading the article I just felt glad to live a society where women’s rights are
   respected. The idea that a women could be beaten for simply having their feet exposed or
   be harassed for a running a business is just shocking. I have read and written a lot about
   gender equality across the world. For me, it has largely been a matter of academic
   interest. It is clear from the article that there are some societies where the issues of gender
   equality and women rights are a matter of life and death.

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References

Nordland, R., Faizi, F., & Abed, F. (2019, January 27). Afghan Women Fear Peace With
Taliban May Mean War on Them. New York Times. Retrieved on 31 st January,
2020 from
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/world/asia/taliban-
peace-deal-women-afghanistan.amp.html