{"id":10552,"date":"2019-03-23T13:12:19","date_gmt":"2019-03-23T11:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=10552"},"modified":"2019-03-23T13:13:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T11:13:41","slug":"new-analysis-women-here-are-very-very-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2019\/03\/new-analysis-women-here-are-very-very-worried\/","title":{"rendered":"New analysis \u2018Women Here Are Very, Very Worried\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/03\/22\/sunday-review\/women-afghanistan-taliban.html\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; color: #800000;\">THE NEW YORK TIMES<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By Susan Chira<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-ls6wgr ehdk2mb0\">\n<h6><a href=\"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/24Chira-superJumbo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-10553 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/24Chira-superJumbo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/24Chira-superJumbo.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/24Chira-superJumbo-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/24Chira-superJumbo-768x525.jpg 768w, https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/24Chira-superJumbo-1024x701.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><\/h6>\n<h6 id=\"link-6fad9559\" class=\"css-2tpadd e1h9rw200\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><span class=\"css-8i9d0s e13ogyst0\">The issue of protecting the expanded rights of Afghan women is not a part of peace talks between the Taliban and the United States.<\/span><span class=\"emkp2hg2 css-1nwzsjy e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit<\/span><span class=\"css-1dv1kvn\">Credit<\/span>Parwiz\/Reuters<\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">It was once a prominent and bipartisan cause: the liberation of Afghan women from the tyranny of the Taliban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">These women were championed by an array of strange bedfellows: feminists like Eleanor Smeal, celebrities like Lily Tomlin and stalwarts of a conservative administration like Laura Bush and Dick Cheney.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">In the early days of the invasion, the world heard vivid stories of the changes the war had brought. Women could\u00a0walk freely\u00a0outside\u00a0their houses\u00a0and put on makeup; girls could go to school. It was a narrative that helped buoy public support for the fight in Afghanistan and deflect criticism about American empire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">In November 2001, as American troops were fighting to drive Al Qaeda out of the country and topple the Taliban government, Mrs. Bush was given the megaphone of the president\u2019s weekly radio address. \u201cOnly the terrorists and the Taliban forbid education to women,\u201d she said. \u201cOnly the terrorists and the Taliban threaten to pull out women\u2019s fingernails for wearing nail polish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Nearly two decades later, Afghan women are all but invisible to an American public thoroughly weary of the war. The future of Afghan women was not on the American agenda for its peace talks with the Taliban \u2014 they have been limited to core security issues of terrorism and American military presence. And there is agreement among many Democratic presidential candidates about leaving Afghanistan. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar joined male presidential hopefuls in voting against a Senate rebuke of President Trump\u2019s plans for\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/01\/31\/us\/politics\/senate-vote-syria-afghanistan.html?module=inline\">swift withdrawal<\/a>\u00a0from Afghanistan and Syria.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">In 2004, Nasrine Gross, an Afghan women\u2019s rights activist, was among those fighting to include a clause on women\u2019s equality in Afghanistan\u2019s Constitution. Today she wonders whether all the support she thought Afghan women had from America was just a fig leaf, a way to make military intervention more palatable to the American public via photographs of girls going to school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">\u201cHow angry I am, how anguished I am,\u201d Ms. Gross said last month. She predicted an expansion of Taliban control and a return to past atrocities like stonings and whippings. \u201cWhere are these American women?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">It may seem that American priorities have changed and that past concerns for all the girls who couldn\u2019t go to school simply dissipated as the war dragged on. But it\u2019s also worth noting that years of well-publicized Taliban repression of women in Afghanistan did not prompt the American invasion; Sept. 11 did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Afghan women were never at the heart of American strategic interests, said Barnett Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at New York University who worked on Afghan issues in the Obama administration. Military goals came first.<\/p>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">\u201cYou do things for people in order to get a permissive environment to help your military operation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Still, many in the administration did support the idea of expanding rights for women, and the United States, along with European governments and nongovernmental organizations, allocated substantial aid toward that end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">The aid has made a real difference. In the 17 years since the invasion, education for girls has spread; today they make up about 40 percent of the country\u2019s elementary school students and about 35 percent of its middle and high school students, according to<strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">\u00a0<\/strong>the Feminist Majority Foundation, a Virginia-based organization led by Ms. Smeal that has been an advocate for Afghan women for more than two decades. Women now make up nearly a third of civil servants, according to the foundation, and have been encouraged to become police officers and judges. And a network of women\u2019s\u00a0shelters\u00a0has been established across the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Yet very conservative attitudes prevail in many areas outside Kabul, the capital, and women who enter men\u2019s worlds like law enforcement have often been attacked or threatened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">In the current peace talks, the United States wants a Taliban promise not to shelter terrorist groups like Al Qaeda in exchange for a military withdrawal. It is leaving other issues like women\u2019s rights to separate talks, not yet even agreed to, between the Taliban and the Afghan government, which pledges to preserve women\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Signals from the Taliban have been discouraging. In interviews, diplomats speak about a group that seems emboldened. Mariam Safi, director of the Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies in Kabul, said she was told that during talks in Moscow with Afghans who are not part of the government, the Taliban said women could go to school and hold political office but not become judges or president. They regard the Constitution, with its commitment to women\u2019s equality, as illegitimate and imposed by America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Afghan women are speaking up, at home and abroad. They are insisting they be at the\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/28\/world\/asia\/afghanistan-women-taliban.html?module=inline\">negotiating table<\/a>\u00a0during future talks; more than 700 gathered recently to urge that the peace they desire not come at their expense.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-o6xoe7\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-190ncxp efqptxt0\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">\u201cThe talks are behind closed doors \u2014 it\u2019s not transparent,\u201d said Sima Samar, chairwoman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard nothing about the discussion of women. The Taliban keep saying we will give women rights based in Shariah. Women here are very, very worried and I think we are all united in saying we are not going back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Both Ms. Smeal and Mrs. Bush have continued to speak out about Afghan women over the years, but Ms. Smeal said the absence of women\u2019s rights from the talks\u2019 agenda so far has infused a new sense of urgency. \u201cNow we\u2019re all waking up to the problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Ms. Smeal said she was talking to members of Congress, bringing up the issue at the United Nations and trying to reignite bipartisan alarm, including\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/07\/opinion\/letters\/united-states-afghanistan-war-pullout.html?module=inline\">signing a letter<\/a>\u00a0objecting to the withdrawal plans along with a scholar from the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire and the only woman on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was among several Democrats who\u00a0<a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2019\/02\/05\/democrats-afghan-peace-women-1147244\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote a letter<\/a>\u00a0urging that the Trump administration ensure that women\u2019s rights are protected during withdrawal negotiations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">But neither the public nor the Trump administration seems to be listening \u2014 at least not so far.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Ms. Safi and Dr. Rubin pointed out that Afghan women have been victims of 40 years of war \u2014 killed during Taliban attacks and American and Afghan troops\u2019 night raids or bombings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Dr. Rubin believes a political settlement between the Afghan government and the Taliban is the only answer because the Taliban are not going away; he argues for a gradual withdrawal to ensure the Taliban live up to their commitments. \u201cDon\u2019t think the U.S. is going to protect you from your own fellow Afghans forever,\u201d he said. \u201cThe best fight for women\u2019s rights is not to wage wars that cost hundreds of billions of dollars. It\u2019s not like war is good for women.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">Afghan women do, indeed, long for peace. But the Taliban\u2019s track record leaves them wary, and they fear that the United States, like other great powers, sided with them only when convenient and is all too ready to abandon them when it is not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0\">\u201cWomen were pawns in the game in 2001,\u201d Ms. Safi said. \u201cAnd now they are again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>See the website <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/03\/22\/sunday-review\/women-afghanistan-taliban.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-z6dj7x e1wiw3jv0\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Afghan women used to be championed by almost everyone. Now they\u2019re all but forgotten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,88,48,17,49],"tags":[541,1071,583],"class_list":["post-10552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-slider","category-war-and-peace","category-women","category-womens-rights","tag-peace-building","tag-womens-equality","tag-womens-rights-defenders","country-afghanistan","Documents-statements-multimedia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10552"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10555,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10552\/revisions\/10555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}