{"id":121810,"date":"2021-04-19T12:13:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T12:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=121810"},"modified":"2021-04-19T12:13:13","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T12:13:13","slug":"afghan-women-fear-the-worst-whether-war-or-peace-lies-ahead-the-denver-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/afghan-women-fear-the-worst-whether-war-or-peace-lies-ahead-the-denver-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan women fear the worst, whether war or peace lies ahead – The Denver Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Fatima Faizi and Najim Rahim<\/strong>, The New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n

KABUL, Afghanistan — Farzana Ahmadi watched as a neighbor in her village in northern Afghanistan was flogged by Taliban fighters last month. The crime: Her face was uncovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery woman should cover their eyes,\u201d Ahmadi recalled one Taliban member saying.<\/p>\n

People silently watched as the beating dragged on.<\/p>\n

Fear — even more potent than in years past \u2014 is gripping Afghans now that U.S. and NATO forces will depart the country in the coming months. They will leave behind a publicly triumphant Taliban, who many expect will seize more territory and reinstitute many of the same oppressive rules they enforced under their regime in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

The New York Times spoke to many Afghan women — members of civil society, politicians, journalists and others \u2014 about what comes next in their country, and they all said the same thing: Whatever happens will not bode well for them.<\/p>\n

Whether the Taliban take back power by force or through a political agreement with the Afghan government, their influence will almost inevitably grow. In a country in which an end to nearly 40 years of conflict is nowhere in sight, many Afghans talk of an approaching civil war.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the time, women are the victims of men\u2019s wars,\u201d said Raihana Azad, a member of Afghanistan\u2019s Parliament. \u201cBut they will be the victims of their peace, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Taliban governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it barred women and girls from taking most jobs or going to school, and practically made them prisoners in their own homes.<\/p>\n

After the U.S. invasion to topple the Taliban and defeat al-Qaida in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Western rallying cry for bringing women\u2019s rights to the already war-torn country seemed to many a noble undertaking. The cause helped sell the war to Americans who cringed at the sight of a B-52 carpet bombing insurgent positions.<\/p>\n

Some schools reopened, giving young women and girls a chance at education and careers that many before them didn\u2019t have. But even before U.S. troops touched Afghan soil, some women had already risked their lives by secretly pursuing an education and teaching themselves.<\/p>\n

Over two decades, the United States spent more than $780 million to promote women\u2019s rights in Afghanistan. The result is a generation who came of age in a period of hope for women\u2019s equality.<\/p>\n

Although progress has been uneven, girls and women now make up about 40% of students. They have joined the military and police, held political office, become internationally recognized singers, competed in the Olympics and on robotics teams, climbed mountains and more — all things that were nearly impossible at the turn of the century.<\/p>\n

As the conflict dragged on over 20 years and setbacks on the battlefield mounted, U.S. officials and lawmakers frequently pointed to the gains of Afghan women and girls as proof of success of the nation-building endeavor — some measure of progress to try to justify the loss of life, both American and Afghan, and billions of dollars spent in the war effort.<\/p>\n

Even in the twilight weeks before President Joe Biden made his final decision to pull out all U.S. troops by September, some lawmakers and military officials argued that preserving women\u2019s rights was one reason to keep U.S. forces there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when Americans came and they said that they will not leave us alone, and that Afghanistan will be free of oppression, and will be free of war and women\u2019s rights will be protected,\u201d said Shahida Husain, an activist in Afghanistan\u2019s southern Kandahar province, where the Taliban first rose and now control large stretches of territory. \u201cNow it looks like it was just slogans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the country, schools are now being forced to contemplate whether they will be able to stay open.<\/p>\n

Firoz Uzbek Karimi, the chancellor of Faryab University in the north, oversees 6,000 students — half of them women.<\/p>\n

\u201cFemale students who live in Taliban areas have been threatened several times, but their families send them secretly,\u201d Karimi said. \u201cIf foreign forces leave early, the situation will get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human rights groups, nongovernmental organizations, schools and businesses are left trying to figure out contingency plans for female employees and students should the Taliban return to power by force or through an agreement with the Afghan government.<\/p>\n

In his announcement Wednesday, Biden said the United States would continue to prioritize women\u2019s rights through humanitarian and diplomatic assistance.<\/p>\n

But even now, the gains for women in some places over the past 20 years have been fleeting and unevenly distributed despite the millions invested in women\u2019s rights programs.<\/p>\n

In Taliban-controlled areas, women\u2019s education is extremely restricted, if not nonexistent. In some areas in the country\u2019s east and west, the Taliban have opened schools to girls who can attend until they reach puberty, and in the north, tribal elders have negotiated to reopen some schools for girls, although subjects like social science are replaced with Islamic studies. Education centers are routinely the targets of attacks, and more than 1,000 schools have closed in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my dream to work in a government office,\u201d said Ahmadi, 27, who graduated from Kunduz University two years ago before moving to a Taliban-controlled village with her husband. \u201cBut I will take my dream to the grave.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there is one thing that decades of war have taught Afghans, it is that conflict was never a good way to achieve human or women\u2019s rights. Since the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, war has continuously fueled more war, eventually undermining any humanitarian achievements.<\/p>\n

Under the U.S. occupation, education opportunities, cultural shifts, employment and health care have benefited some and barely affected others, especially in rural areas. In those places, some of the war\u2019s most brutal chapters played out with many civilians dead and livelihoods devastated.<\/p>\n

Often, women\u2019s opinions are unclear in these parts, where roughly three-quarters of Afghanistan\u2019s 34 million people live, and are often unreachable because of geographical, technological and cultural constraints.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite real improvements, Afghanistan remains one of the most challenging places in the world to be a woman,\u201d a U.S. government watchdog report released in February said. \u201cU.S. efforts to support women, girls and gender equality in Afghanistan yielded mixed results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the Taliban\u2019s harshly restrictive religious governing structure virtually ensures that the oppression of women is baked into whatever iteration of governance they bring.<\/p>\n

The Taliban\u2019s idea of justice for women was solidified for Ahmadi when she saw the insurgents beat the unveiled woman in front of her in Kunduz province.<\/p>\n

For many other Afghan women, the government\u2019s judicial system has been punishment of a different kind.<\/p>\n

Farzana Alizada believes that her sister, Maryam, was murdered by her abusive husband. But a police investigation of any sort took months to start, thwarted by absent prosecutors and corruption, she said. Alizada\u2019s brother-in-law even pressured her to drop the charges by accusing her of stealing. The police asked her why she was pushing the case if her sister was dead.<\/p>\n

Domestic violence remains an enduring problem in Afghanistan. About 87% of Afghan women and girls experience domestic abuse in their lifetimes, according to a Human Rights Watch report.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost all the hope I have in this government. In some cases, maybe the Taliban is better than this system.\u201d Alizada said. \u201cNo one is on my side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alizada\u2019s sentiments were similarly portrayed in Doha, Qatar, at peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Despite months of negotiations, there has been little progress, especially when it comes to discussing women\u2019s rights, which neither side has made a priority.<\/p>\n

At a separate peace conference held in Moscow in March between the Afghan government, political power brokers and the Taliban, only one woman, Habiba Sarabi, was on the 12-member delegation sent by the Afghan government. And only four are a part of the 21-person team in Doha.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoscow — and Doha, as well, with its small number of women representatives \u2014 laid bare the thin veneer of support for genuine equality and the so-called post-2001 gains when it comes to who will decide the country\u2019s future,\u201d said Patricia Gossman, the associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n

But one of the gains that is almost indisputable has been Afghanistan\u2019s access to the internet and the news media. Cellphone coverage extends across much of the country, meaning that Afghan women and girls have more space to learn and connect outside their familial bubbles and villages. The Afghan news media, too, has blossomed after large investments from foreign governments and investors, and many women have become nationally known journalists and celebrities.<\/p>\n

But even their futures are uncertain.<\/p>\n

Lina Shirzad is the acting managing director of a small radio station in Badakhshan, in Afghanistan\u2019s restive north. She employs 15 women and fears, given the growing insecurity, that they will lose their jobs. Even some of the larger national outlets are looking to relocate employees or move some operations outside the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the withdrawal of foreign forces in the next few months, these women that are the breadwinners for their family will be unemployed,\u201d Shirzad said. \u201cWill their values and achievements be maintained or not?\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Fatima Faizi and Najim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":121809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23056],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAfghan women fear the worst, whether war or peace lies ahead – The Denver Post - Pre Coin News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/afghan-women-fear-the-worst-whether-war-or-peace-lies-ahead-the-denver-post\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Afghan women fear the worst, whether war or peace lies ahead – The Denver Post - Pre Coin News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Fatima Faizi and Najim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/afghan-women-fear-the-worst-whether-war-or-peace-lies-ahead-the-denver-post\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pre Coin News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-19T12:13:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Afghan-women-fear-the-worst-whether-war-or-peace-lies-ahead-\u2013-The-Denver-Post.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mediabest\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/afghan-women-fear-the-worst-whether-war-or-peace-lies-ahead-the-denver-post\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/afghan-women-fear-the-worst-whether-war-or-peace-lies-ahead-the-denver-post\/\",\"name\":\"Afghan women fear the worst, whether war or peace lies ahead – The Denver Post - 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