Afghan Women – The Emerging Narrative and Why it is Wrong

By Daud Khan and Leila Yasmine KhanROME and AMSTERDAM, Oct 5 2021 (IPS) The USA and its allies have repeatedly stated that promoting women’s rights was one of the key reasons they were in Afghanistan. The US military top brass, in a letter to marines stated that they were in Afghanistan “for the liberty of young Afghan girls, women, boys, and men who want the same individual freedoms we enjoy as Americans”. Daud KhanPost-war, women’s rights are now among the conditions for improved relations. For example, it is a one of the conditions for release by the US of US$9 billion of Afghan assets. Similarly, the EU has made also women’s rights one of the conditions of engagement with the new Afghan Government. There is also much talk in the western press of how the new Government is trampling or women’s rights – girls are not allowed to go to school, working women are being told to stay home, and demonstrations by women are put down brutally. There is also much discussion of the fact that there are no women in the new Government. The position of the US and its allies, and the apparent intransigence of the Taliban, seems to suggest a long stalemate which will bring additional misery to ordinary Afghans. However, there is also a second narrative on women in Afghanistan that is emerging. The starting point for this alternative narrative is that the vast majority of Afghan women live in rural areas; and have seen their suffering increase many fold during the 20 years of ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Aid Armed Conflicts Asia-Pacific Crime & Justice Development & Aid Education Gender Gender Violence Headlines Health Human Rights Labour TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news