Meanwhile, back in Afghanistan, women are going to pay the price
by digby
Does everyone remember when the Bush administration tried to sell some drivel that they invaded Afghanistan because of the Taliban’s mistreatment of women? Yeah. They actually did that. Karen Hughes (remember her?) was in charge of the propaganda on that. It was true that women were systematically being tortured by the most repressive form of Islam on the planet, but nobody really cared about it until 9/11. And after the invasion and ongoing occupation things did improve for women. I’m not saying that justifies endless occupation but it does mean that there should at least be some effort to make it a priority that the country doesn’t regress on women’s rights once it’s over.
Well, guess what? The ongoing talks with the Taliban are very likely to sell women down the river. And nobody cares, not really. Women’s rights are always negotiable. I mean, they should be happy just to have the small gains they received during the war. If they have to give many of them up now, well, that’s just the way it is.
For four hours, Khadeja begged her in-laws to take her to the hospital. The skin on her face and neck was peeling. The pain was excruciating. Her husband had thrown a pot of scalding water on her face and upper body.
Her head was bowed and sobs convulsed her body as she remembered the moment. “The pain . . . I can’t say how much I hurt.”
She eventually received treatment, but scar tissue on her neck makes breathing difficult and her hands are misshapen. Her husband — a man she was forced to marry at 16 by her father — was never held accountable. Such impunity for violence against women remains pervasive in Afghanistan.
The suffering of young women like Khadeja is why women rights activists say they are demanding a seat at the table in negotiations between the government and the Taliban over peace and Afghanistan’s future.
Women have made gains since the 2001 fall of the Taliban, but the country remains among the worst places in the world to be a woman. Activists fear the advances they have achieved will be bargained away in negotiations, with pressure heavy for a deal as the United States seeks to end its military involvement in the country.
The Taliban were notorious for their repression of women during their rule, including banning education for girls and imposing the all-encompassing burqa on all women. But activists are just as worried about the other side: Afghanistan’s leadership since the Taliban’s ouster has been dominated by conservatives, warlords and strongmen whose attitudes toward women are often little different.
[…]
The advances made since 2011 have been important. Women are now members of parliament, girls have the right to education, women are in the workforce and their rights are enshrined in the constitution. Women are seen on television, playing sports and winning science fairs.But the gains are fragile, and their implementation has been erratic, largely unseen in rural areas where most Afghans still live, Samar said.
International funding for projects for women is drying up. Political will is also uncertain. Ghani refused to put legislation on the Elimination of Violence Against Women to a vote in parliament, fearing it would be defeated by the overwhelming conservative majority, say activists.
Nearly 18 years after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban, Afghan women still live under a crushing weight of discrimination. The 2018 Women, Peace and Security Index rated Afghanistan as the second worst place in the world to be a woman, after Syria.
Only 16 percent of the labor force is women, one of the lowest rates in the world, and half of Afghanistan’s women have had four years or less of education, according to the report’s data, compiled by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the Peace Research Institute of Oslo. Only around half of school-aged girls go to school, and only 19 percent of girls under 15 are literate, according to the U.N. children’s agency.
Nearly 60 percent of girls are married before they are 19; of those, the average marry between 15 and 16, and to spouses selected by their parents, according to UNICEF. Most women in Afghanistan’s prisons are there for “morality crimes,” which include leaving abusive husbands or demanding to marry a man of their choice.
A survey released in January said only 15 percent of 2,000 men polled believed women should be allowed to work outside the home after marriage and two-thirds said women already had too many rights. The survey was conducted by U.N. Women and Promundo, a group promoting gender justice.
It’s painful to consider that after all the death and suffering and money expended, women are going to be required to continue paying the price. I just don’t think the world cares very much.
Read the whole story, here.
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