In the midst of the chaotic withdrawal of the US-led forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban swept back to power in Kabul on 15 August 2021. Since then, the Taliban have repeatedly attempted to project a more moderate brand of governance. However, the Taliban leaders have yet to enunciate clear policies on issues such as women’s and girls’ access to education, employment, and political participation. Early indications nonetheless suggest that the group has not shed its fundamentalist vision of Islamic society, and is pursuing an approach to governance, political pluralism, and female freedoms that will threaten past gains. With the Taliban now approaching six months of their rule, this report aims to analyse their actions and pronouncements so far, and their impact on the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan.
Attribution: Akanksha Khullar, “Taliban’s Return Threatens Past Gains for Aghanistan’s Women and Girls,” Special Report No. 183, February 2022, Observer Research Foundation.
Before the 1970s, women in Afghanistan enjoyed their essential rights and freedoms. They attained the right to vote as early as 1919, only a year after women in the United Kingdom, for example, won the right to exercise adult franchise. In the 1950s, gender segregation—which was historically determined by patriarchal kinship arrangements—was abolished in Afghanistan and the 1960s saw women entering the country’s political mainstream. In the 1970s, rising instability in the region...
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