Women's rights in Afghanistan
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Women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
have oscillated back and forth depending on the time period. After King
Amanullah Khan Ghazi Amanullah Khan (Pashto and Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 25 April 1960) was the sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emir and after 1926 as King, until his abdication in 1929. After the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in August 1919, ...
's attempts to modernize the country in the 1920s, women officially gained equality under the 1964 Constitution. However, these rights were taken away in the 1990s through different temporary rulers such as the
mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...
and the
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
during the
Afghan civil war War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) *Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see als ...
. During the first Taliban regime (1996–2001), women had very little to no freedom, specifically in terms of
civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
. When the Taliban were removed from power following the 9/11 attacks in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, women's rights gradually improved under the presidential
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic that ruled Afghanistan from 2004 to 2021. The state was established to replace the Afghan interim (2001–2002) and transitional (2002–2004) administrations, which were formed ...
. Women were ''
de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legally ...
'' equal to men under the 2004 Constitution. After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, most teenage girls were again prevented from returning to secondary school education, and women were blocked from working in most sectors outside of
health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
and education. Women were ordered to wear face coverings in public, and barred from traveling more than without a close male relative. In December 2022, the Taliban government also prohibited university education and
primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...
for females in Afghanistan, sparking protests and international condemnation. In July 2022, Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban's reclusive leader, lashed out at the criticism and demands of the
international community The international community is an imprecise phrase used in geopolitics and international relations to refer to a broad group of people and governments of the world. As a rhetorical term Aside from its use as a general descriptor, the term is ...
on the Taliban's human rights restrictions, rejecting any negotiations or compromise on his "Islamic system" of governance.


Overview

Afghanistan is in
South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
and has a
population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...
of roughly 34 million. Of these, 15 million are male and 14.2 million are female. About 22% of the Afghan people are urbanite and the remaining 78% live in
rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...
s. As part of local
tradition A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
, most women are married soon after completing high school. Many live as housewives for the remainder of their lives.


History


Before Amanullah Khan

During the
Durrani Empire The Durrani Empire ( ps, د درانيانو ټولواکمني; fa, امپراتوری درانیان) or the Afghan Empire ( ps, د افغانان ټولواکمني, label=none; fa, امپراتوری افغان, label=none), also know ...
(1747-1823) and the early
Barakzai dynasty The two branches of the Barakzai dynasty (, "sons of Barak") ruled modern day Afghanistan from 1823 to 1973 when the monarchy ended under Musahiban Mohammed Zahir Shah. The Barakzai dynasty was established by Dost Mohammad Khan after the Durra ...
Afghan women customarily lived subjected in a state of purdah and
gender segregation Sex segregation, sex separation, gender segregation or gender separation is the physical, legal, or cultural separation of people according to their biological sex. Sex segregation can refer simply to the physical and spatial separation by sex w ...
imposed by patriarchal customs. While this was the case in all Afghanistan, the customs differed somewhat between regions and ethnic groups. Nomad women, for example, did not have to hide their faces and even showed some of their hair. Women did not play any public role in society, however there were some women, such as Ayesha Durrani, who became noted as poets and writers, which was an art form possible for a woman to perform while living in the seclusion of the harem.Ismati, Masoma. ( 1987), The position and role of Afghan women ·in Afghan society, from the late 18th to the 19th century; Kabul The rulers of Afghanistan customarily had a harem of four official wives as well as a large number of unofficial wives for the sake of tribal marriage diplomacy, in addition to enslaved harem women known as ''kaniz'' (“slave girl”
The History Of Afghanistan Fayż Muḥammad Kātib Hazārah’s Sirāj Al Tawārīkh By R. D. Mcchesney, M. M. Khorrami (trans.,ann.)
'
) and ''surati'' or ''surriyat'' ("mistress"), guarded by the ''ghulam bacha'' (
eunuch A eunuch ( ) is a male who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium ...
s).Emadi, Hafizullah, Repression, resistance, and women in Afghanistan, Praeger, Westport, Conn., 2002 Some women had influence over the affairs of state from inside the royal harem, notably
Zarghona Anaa Zarghona Anaa (died 1772), was an Afghan poet.M. Saed: Women in Afghanistan history She was the mother of Ahmad Shah Durrani (r. 1747–1772). She was married to Seman Khan. Her son conquered the Afghan throne in Kandahar in 1747. She was active ...
, Mirmon Ayesha and Babo Jan.


Amanullah Khan

Some Rulers of Afghanistan have attempted to increase women's freedom. Some limited reforms were made by
Abdur Rahman Khan Abdur Rahman Khan GCSI (Pashto/Dari: ) (between 1840 and 1844 – 1 October 1901) was Emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. He is known for uniting the country after years of internal fighting and negotiation of the Durand Line Ag ...
, who banned some forms of oppression originating from tribal customs rather than Islam, among them the custom of forcing widows to marry their brother-in-laws, and enforced some rights which Islam did approve of but local tribal customs did not, such as the right of widows to inherit. For the most part, these attempts were unsuccessful. However, there were a few leaders who were able to make some significant, if temporary, changes. The first of them was
King Amanullah Ghazi Amanullah Khan (Pashto and Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 25 April 1960) was the sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emir and after 1926 as King, until his abdication in 1929. After the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in August 1919, ...
, who ruled from 1919 to 1929 and made some of the more noteworthy changes in an attempt to unify as well as modernize the country. He promoted freedom for women in the public sphere in order to lessen the control that patriarchal families exerted over women. King Amanullah stressed the importance of female education. Along with encouraging families to send their daughters to school, he promoted the unveiling of women and persuaded them to adopt a more western style of dress. In 1921, he created a law that abolished forced marriage, child marriage, and bride price, and put restrictions on
polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...
, a common practice among households in the Afghanistan region. Modern social reform for Afghan women began when Queen Soraya, wife of King Amanullah, made rapid reforms to improve women's lives and their position in the family, marriage, education and professional life.Julie Billaud:
Kabul Carnival: Gender Politics in Postwar Afghanistan
'
She founded the first women's magazine ( Irshad-e Naswan, 1922), the first women's organization (
Anjuman-i Himayat-i-Niswan Anjuman-i Himayat-i-Niswan ('Association for the Protection of Women') was a women's organization in Afghanistan, founded in 1928.Julie Billaud: Kabul Carnival: Gender Politics in Postwar Afghanistan' It was the first women's organization in Afghan ...
), the first school for girls (Masturat School in 1920), the first theatre for women in Paghman and the first hospital for women (the Masturat Hospital in 1924). Queen Soraya set an example for the abolition of gender segregation by appearing with her husband, famously removing her veil in public, and her example was followed by others. The king declared that the veil was optional, permitted Western clothes in Kabul and reserved certain streets for men and women wearing modern clothes. In 1928, Amanullah sent fifteen female graduates of the Masturat middle school, daughters of the royal family and government officials, to study in Turkey. Soraya Tarzi was the only woman to appear on the list of rulers in Afghanistan, and was credited with having been one of the first and most powerful Afghan and Muslim female activists. However, Queen Soraya, along with her husband's, advocacy of social reforms for women led to a protest and contributed to the ultimate demise of her and her husband's reign in 1929. King
Amanullah Khan Ghazi Amanullah Khan (Pashto and Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 25 April 1960) was the sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emir and after 1926 as King, until his abdication in 1929. After the end of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in August 1919, ...
's deposition caused a severe backlash, and his successor reinstated the veilRobin Morgan:
Sisterhood is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology
'
and repelled the reforms in women's rights, reinforcing purdah. The Women's Association as well as the women's magazine was banned, the girls 'schools were closed, the female students who had been allowed to study in Turkey was recalled to Afghanistan and forced to put on the veil and enter purdah again, and polygamy for men was reintroduced.


Mohammed Zahir Shah

Successors
Mohammed Nadir Shah Mohammed Nadir Shah (Persian and ps, محمد نادر شاه – born Mohammed Nadir Khan; 9 April 1883 – 8 November 1933) was King of Afghanistan from 15 October 1929 until his assassination in November 1933. Previously, he served as Minist ...
and Mohammed Zahir Shah acted more cautiously, but nevertheless worked for the moderate and steady improvement of women's rights''Children of Afghanistan: The Path to Peace'' by Jennifer Heath, Ashraf Zahedi Women were allowed to take classes at the Masturat Women's Hospital in Kabul in 1931, and some girls' schools were reopened; the first High School for girls was officially called a 'Nursing School' to prevent any opposition to it. While women were again forced to be veiled in public, unveiling had become accepted in private among the Afghan upper class, and it was noted that upper-class women were met at the Kabul International Airport by servants running up to the stairs of the airplane to deliver a chadar (veil) upon their arrival to Kabul from abroad, since they had not used it during their stay abroad. After the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
modernization reforms were seen as necessary by the government, which resulted in the resurrection of a state women's movement. In 1946 the government-supported
Women's Welfare Association {{Short description, Afghani women's organization Muassasa-i Khayriyya-i Zanan ('Women's Welfare Association') or (WWA), also known as the 'Women's Society' and from 1975 called '(Afghan) Women's Institute (WI)', was a women's organization in Afghan ...
(WWA) was founded with Queen
Humaira Begum Humaira Begum ( fa, حميرا بیگم; 24 July 1918 – 26 June 2002) was the wife and first cousin of King Mohammed Zahir Shah and the last queen consort of Afghanistan. Marriage Humaira Begum was the daughter of ''Sardar'' Ahmad Shah Khan ...
as patron, giving school classes for girls and vocational classes to women, and from 1950 to 1951 women students were accepted at the
Kabul University Kabul University (KU; prs, دانشگاه کابل, translit= Dāneshgāh-e-Kābul; ps, د کابل پوهنتون, translit=Da Kābul Pohantūn) is one of the major and oldest institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. It is in the 3rd ...
. Following the election of
Mohammed Daoud Khan Mohammed Daoud Khan ( ps, ), also romanized as Daud Khan or Dawood Khan (18 July 1909 – 28 April 1978), was an Afghan politician and general who served as prime minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and, as leader of the 1973 Afghan coup ...
as Prime Minister in 1953, social reforms giving women a more public presence were encouraged. One of his aims was to break free from the ultra-conservative, Islamist tradition of treating women as second-class citizens. During his time, he made significant advances towards modernization. The Prime Minister prepared women's emancipation carefully and gradually. He began in 1957 by introducing women workers at the Radio Kabul and by sending women delegates to the Asian Women's Conference in Kairo, by employing forty girls to the government pottery factory,Tamim Ansary (2012
Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan
/ref> women as receptionists and telephone operators in the state Tele-Communications agency, and air hostesses at the Aryana Airlines in 1958. When this was met with no riots, the government decided it was time for the very controversial step of unveiling. In 1959, women employed by the state, such as radio announcers, were asked to come to their work places without the veil, instead wearing a loose coat, scarf and cloves; after that, the foreign wives, and daughters of foreign born wives, were asked to venture out on the streats in the same way, and in this way, women without the veil were started to be seen in the streets of Kabul. In August 1959, on the second day of the festival of Jeshyn, Queen
Humaira Begum Humaira Begum ( fa, حميرا بیگم; 24 July 1918 – 26 June 2002) was the wife and first cousin of King Mohammed Zahir Shah and the last queen consort of Afghanistan. Marriage Humaira Begum was the daughter of ''Sardar'' Ahmad Shah Khan ...
and Princess Bilqis appeared in the royal box at the military parade unveiled, alongside the Prime Minister's wife,
Zamina Begum Zamina Begum (11 January 1917 – 28 April 1978), also known as Zainab Begum, was an Afghan princess. She was the First Lady of Afghanistan in 1973–1978, as the wife of the first President of Afghanistan, ''Sardar'' Mohammed Daoud Khan. Life Sh ...
. A group of Islamic clerics sent a letter of protest to the Prime minister to protest and demand that the words of sharia be respected. The Prime minister answered by inviting them to the capital and present proof to him that the holy scripture indeed demanded the
chadri A burqa or a burka, or , and ur, , it is also transliterated as burkha, bourkha, burqua or burqu' or borgha' and is pronounced natively . It is generally pronounced in the local variety of Arabic or variety of Persian, which varies. Exampl ...
. When the clerics could not find such a passage, the Prime Minister declared that the female members of the Royal Family would no longer wear veils because the Islamic law did not demand it. While the chadri was never banned, the example of the Queen and the Prime Minister's wife was followed by the wives and daughters of government officials as well as by other urban women of the upper class and middle class, with
Kubra Noorzai Kubra Noorzai (1932–1986) was an Afghanistan, Afghan politician. She was the first woman to become a government minister in the country, serving as Ministry of Public Health (Afghanistan), Minister of Public Health between 1965 and 1969. Biogr ...
and
Masuma Esmati-Wardak Masuma Esmati-Wardak was an Afghan writer and politician. She was jointly one of the first women to serve in the Afghan parliament and served as Minister of Education. In 1953 she graduated from Kabul Women's College, and received a degree in bu ...
known as the first commoner pioneers. The
1964 Constitution of Afghanistan The 1964 Constitution of Afghanistan was the constitution of Afghanistan from 1964 to 1973, when it was annulled following a coup d'état though parts of the constitution were restored by future governments from 2002 to 2004 and from 2021. It was ...
granted women equal rights including
universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stanc ...
and the right to run for office. In the cities, women were able to appear unveiled, serve in public office and hold jobs as scientists, teachers, doctors, and civil servants, and they had a considerable amount of freedom with significant educational opportunities. Afghanistan had its first female cabinet ministers in the 1960s and Jameela Farooq Rooshna became the first female judge in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
(1969). Women also started appearing in media and entertainment.
Rukhshana Hamida Assil ( 20 December 2020), better known as Rukhshana, was an Afghans, Afghan singer. Referred as one of the first Afghan female singers, she earned her recognition during 1950s and 1970s. Biography Rukhshana (born as Hamida) was born ...
is popularly known as one of the first female Afghan pop singers, becoming well known in the 1960s, and
Safia Tarzi Safia Tarzi was a pioneering Afghan fashion designer. She enjoyed international fame in the 1960s and 1970s. Safia Tarzi rose to fame in the 1960s, when she had her own fashion studio i Kabul. Her profession was a new one in Afghanistan. In t ...
as the first Afghan fashion designer. However, despite the effort of the
Women's Welfare Association {{Short description, Afghani women's organization Muassasa-i Khayriyya-i Zanan ('Women's Welfare Association') or (WWA), also known as the 'Women's Society' and from 1975 called '(Afghan) Women's Institute (WI)', was a women's organization in Afghan ...
(WWA), the majority of women continued to be excluded from these opportunities, as these reforms had little effect outside of the cities and mainly concerned urban elite women. The countryside was a deeply patriarchal, tribal society, and the lives of rural women were not affected by the change taking place in the cities. In 1977, the
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) (Persian:جمعیت انقلابی زنان افغانستان, ''Jamiʿat-e Enqelābi-ye Zanān-e Afghānestān'', Pashto:د افغانستان د ښڅو انقلابی جمعیت) ...
(RAWA) was founded by Meena Keshwar Kamal. RAWA still operates in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.


Communist era

The
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA),, renamed the Republic of Afghanistan, in 1987, was the Afghan state during the one-party rule of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) from 1978 to 1992. The PDPA came to power ...
(1978–1987) and the Republic of Afghanistan (1987-1992), which followed the
Saur revolution The Saur Revolution or Sowr Revolution ( ps, د ثور انقلاب; prs, إنقلاب ثور), also known as the April Revolution or the April Coup, was staged on 27–28 April 1978 (, ) by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) ...
that toppled the government of
Mohammed Daoud Khan Mohammed Daoud Khan ( ps, ), also romanized as Daud Khan or Dawood Khan (18 July 1909 – 28 April 1978), was an Afghan politician and general who served as prime minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and, as leader of the 1973 Afghan coup ...
, was a period of unprecedented equality for women in Afghanistan. The Communist ideology officially advocated gender equality and women's rights, and the communist government sought to implement it - though without success - on all classes throughout both urban and rural Afghanistan.
Diasporas and Diplomacy: Cosmopolitan Contact Zones at the BBC World Service
'
In 1978, the government, led by
Nur Muhammad Taraki Nur Muhammad Taraki (; 14 July 1917 – 9 October 1979) was an Afghan revolutionary communist politician, journalist and writer. He was a founding member of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) who served as its General Secret ...
, gave equal rights to women. This gave them the theoretical ability to choose their husbands and careers. The women's emancipation policy of the government were supported by the
Democratic Women's Organisation of Afghanistan The Democratic Women's Organisation of Afghanistan (DOAW) (''Sazman-e Zanan-e Dimukratik-e Afghanistan'') was a women's organisation in Afghanistan, founded in 1965. It was a component of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). It pla ...
(DOAW) and later by the
Afghan Women's Council The Afghan Women's Council (AWC) (also known as the ''Women's Council'') was a women's organization. In Afghanistan. It was a non-profit organization that strived to help Afghan women and children by improving their living condition as well as raisi ...
(AWC), who sought to implement it. Until 1989, the AWC was led by
Masuma Esmati-Wardak Masuma Esmati-Wardak was an Afghan writer and politician. She was jointly one of the first women to serve in the Afghan parliament and served as Minister of Education. In 1953 she graduated from Kabul Women's College, and received a degree in bu ...
and run by a staff of eight women. The AWC had around 150,000 members and offices in nearly all the provinces. The AWC provided social services to women in Afghanistan, in the fight against illiteracy and provided vocational training in the secretarial, hairdressing and manufacturing fields. During the Communist era, women's rights were supported by both the Afghan government as well as by the Soviets who supported them. In contrast to what had been the case during the monarchy, when women's rights had been restricted to urban elite women, the Communists attempted to extend women's rights to all classes of society, also to rural women and girls.Timothy Nunan:
Humanitarian Invasion: Global Development in Cold War Afghanistan
'
The communist government's ideological enforcement of female emancipation in the rural areas took the form of enforced literacy campaigns for women and compulsory schooling for girls, which was heavily resisted in particularly the Pashtun tribal areas. The Communists abolished patriarchal customs still prevalent in rural areas, such as the bride price, and raised the age of consent to marriage for girls to sixteen. In rural Afghanistan, gender seclusion was a strong part of local culture. To attend school girls would have to leave home, and school was therefore seen as a deeply dishonorable thing. The policy of compulsory schooling for girls as well as boys was met with a strong backlash from the conservative rural population, and contributed to the resistance against the Soviets and the Communist regime by the
Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...
, the Islamic guerillas. The conservative rural population came to regard the urban population as degenerate partially because of the female emancipation, in which urban women mixed with men and participated in public life unveiled, and education for women, and by extension women's rights in general, came to be associated with Communism and atheism. While female emancipation was a part of the regime's policy, this policy was introduced mainly to benefit the party rather for any humanist principle.
Afghanistan under Soviet Domination, 1964–91
'
With a few exceptions, such as
Anahita Ratebzad Anahita Ratebzad (Persian/ ps, آناهیتا راتبزاد; November 1931 – 7 September 2014) was an Afghan socialist and Marxist-Leninist politician and a member of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and the Revolutionary C ...
, Masuma Esmati-Wardak and Salcha Faruq Etemadi, most women were active at the low and the middle level of party hierarchy rather than the top. During the Communist regime, thousands of urban women were recruited to the cadres and militias of the
PDPA PDPA can refer to: * People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan – a communist party * Personal Data Protection Act 2012 – a Singapore law governing the use and protection of personal data *Professional Dart Players Association – a trade associ ...
party and the
Democratic Women's Organisation of Afghanistan The Democratic Women's Organisation of Afghanistan (DOAW) (''Sazman-e Zanan-e Dimukratik-e Afghanistan'') was a women's organisation in Afghanistan, founded in 1965. It was a component of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). It pla ...
, and trained in military combat against the
Mujahideen ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...
, the Islamic guerillas, and there was a concern among urban women that the reactionary fundamentalists would topple the Communist regime and the women's rights it protected. The AWC came to symbolize women's rights in the eyes of many, who feared the sacrificing of the AWC in the national reconciliation talks which started in 1987. It is claimed that in 1991 around seven thousand women were in the institution of
higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
and around 230,000 girls studying in schools around Afghanistan. There were around 190 female professors and 22,000 female teachers.


Mujahideen era

In 1992, the government under Mohammad Najibullah transitioned to the Islamic State of Afghanistan. War in Afghanistan continued into a new phase when Gulbuddin Hekmatyar started a bombardment campaign against the Islamic State in Kabul. During the violent four-year civil war, a number of women were kidnapped, and some of them were raped. The Mujahideen had viewed the Communist regime as godless and anti Islamic partially because of the women's emancipation supported by the Communist policy, and when in power, their goal was to abolish the freedom women had enjoyed during the Communist regime in order to Islamicize society. The restrictions imposed when the Islamic State was established were "the ban of alcohol and the enforcement of a sometimes-purely-symbolic veil for women". On 27 August 1993, the Government Office of Research and Decrees of the Supreme Court issued an order to government agencies and state functionaries to dismiss all women in their employ, and further decreed: :"Women need not leave their homes at all, unless absolutely necessary, in which case, they are to cover themselves completely; are not to wear attractive clothing and decorative accessories; do not wear perfume; their jewelry must not make any noise; they are not to walk gracefully or with pride and in the middle of the sidewalk; are not to talk to strangers; are not to speak loudly or laugh in public; and they must always ask their husbands’ permission to leave home." In reality however this decree remained on paper only, since the government did not have enough control of the country to implement their desired policy. Women, thus, remained in the workplace despite the decree and the liberal provisions of the 1964 constitution were largely upheld. During the instable political situation in which different Islamic parties fought one another for domination, women in Kabul were abducted from their homes, jobs and offices and subjected to various forms of abuse by rivaling Mujahidin groups. Many educated women and professional women were abducted and killed because the Mujahidin considered their minds to have been poisoned. Women began to be more restricted after Hekmatyar was integrated into the Islamic State as Afghan Prime Minister in 1996. He demanded for women who appeared on TV to be fired.


First Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Like their leader
Mullah Omar Mullah Muhammad Omar (; –April 2013) was an Afghan Islamic revolutionary who founded the Taliban and served as the supreme leader of Afghanistan from Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001), 1996 to 2001. Born into a religious family of ...
, most Taliban soldiers were poor villagers educated in Wahhabi schools in neighboring
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. Pakistani Pashtuns also joined the group. The Taliban declared that women were forbidden to go to work and that they were not to leave their homes unless accompanied by a male family member. When they did go out, they were required to wear an all-covering burqa. Women were denied formal education and were usually forced to stay at home. During the Taliban's five-year rule, women in Afghanistan were essentially put under house arrest, and often forced to paint their windows over so that no one could see in or out. Some women who once held respectable positions were forced to wander the streets in their burqas, selling everything they owned or begging in order to survive. The
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
refused to recognize the Taliban government, with the United States imposing heavy sanctions, leading to extreme economic hardship. Because most teachers had been women before the Taliban regime, the new restrictions on women's employment created a huge lack of teachers, which put an immense strain on the education of both boys and girls. Although women were banned from most jobs, including teaching, some women in the medical field were allowed to continue working. This is because the Taliban required that women could be treated only by female physicians. Several Taliban and
Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
commanders engaged in human trafficking, abducting women and selling them into forced prostitution and slavery in Pakistan. ''
Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...
'' writes: "The Taliban often argued that the brutal restrictions they placed on women were actually a way of revering and protecting the opposite sex. The behavior of the Taliban during the six years they expanded their rule in Afghanistan made a mockery of that claim."


Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

In late 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan, and a new
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
under
Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...
was formed, which included women like in pre-1990s Afghanistan. Under the new constitution of 2004, 27 percent of the 250 seats in the House of the People are reserved for women. In March 2012, President Karzai endorsed a "code of conduct" which was issued by the Ulema Council. Some of the rules state that "women should not travel without a male guardian and should not mingle with strange men in places such as schools, markets and offices." Karzai said that the rules were in line with Islamic law and that the code of conduct was written in consultation with Afghan women's group." Rights organizations and women activists said that by endorsing this code of conduct, Karzai was endangering "hard-won progress in women's right since the Taliban fell from power in 2001". The overall situation for Afghan women improved during the 2000s, particularly in major urban areas, but those living in rural parts of the country still faced many problems. In 2013, a female Indian author
Sushmita Banerjee Sushmita Banerjee, also known as Sushmita Bandhopadhyay and Sayeda Kamala (1963/1964 – 4/5 September 2013), was a writer and activist from India. Her works include the memoir ''Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou'' (''A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife''; 1997 ...
was killed in
Paktika province Paktika (Pashto/Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. Forming part of the larger Loya Paktia region, Paktika has a population of about 789,000, mostly ethnic Pashtuns. The town of Sharana ...
by militants for allegedly defying Taliban diktats. She was married to an Afghan businessman and had recently relocated to Afghanistan. Earlier she had escaped two instances of execution by the Taliban in 1995 and later fled to India. Her account of the escape became a Bollywood film,
Escape from Taliban ''Escape from Taliban'' is a 2003 Indian film directed by Ujjwal Chatterjee. The film is based on the story ''A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife'' by Sushmita Banerjee, who fled Afghanistan in 1995 after six years of living there with her Afghan husba ...
. A 2011 government report found that 25 percent of the women and girls diagnosed with
obstetric fistula Obstetric fistula is a medical condition in which a hole develops in the birth canal as a result of childbirth. This can be between the vagina and rectum, ureter, or bladder. It can result in incontinence of urine or feces. Complications may inc ...
, a preventable childbirth injury in which prolonged labor creates a hole in the birth canal, were younger than 16 when they married. In 2013, the United Nations published statistics showing a 20% increase in violence against women, often due to domestic violence being justified by conservative religion and culture. In February 2014, Afghanistan passed a law that includes a provision that limits the ability of government to compel some family members to be witnesses to domestic violence. Human Rights Watch described the implementation of the 2009 Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women as "poor," noting that some cases were ignored. Under Afghan law, females across the country are permitted to drive
vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wa ...
s. They are also permitted to participate in certain international events such as
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
and robot competitions. Human rights organizations, including
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
and the
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the lead ...
have expressed concern at women's rights in the country.
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security is an academic institute that is housed in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. It was organized by the late Carol J. Lancaster, former Dean of Georgetown's ...
ranks Afghanistan as one of the worst countries for women. According to the new law signed by Ashraf Ghani president of
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, Afghan women were allowed to include their names on their children's birth certificates and identification cards. This law served as a major victory for Afghan women's rights activists, including
Laleh Osmany Laleh Osmany ( ps, لیلے عثمانی; born 1992) is a women's rights activist from Afghanistan, who founded the social media #WhereIsMyName campaign which opposes the tradition that women's names were not used publicly in Afghanistan. For her ...
, who campaigned under the social media hashtag #WhereIsMyName, for several years for both the parents' names to be included.


Second Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

In August 2021, Afghan president Ashraf Ghani and the United States left the country, and the Taliban took control and established a new all-male government. The interim government has not been recognized internationally, since the international community linked recognition to respect for women's and minority rights. Despite repeated assurances by the Taliban that women's rights would be respected, severe restrictions have been placed on their access to education and work. In some areas, the Taliban forced women to stop working altogether. Education in lower grades resumed only in classes segregated by gender. In higher grades (7 through 12) and at the university level, classes for girls and women have been suspended. On 27 September, the new chancellor of Kabul University, Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat, announced that women were not allowed to return to university to either study or work. The Taliban cited security concerns as the reason for these measures, however, did not specify under which conditions girls would be allowed to return to school. The new Taliban interim cabinet does not include any women as either ministers or deputy ministers. The Ministry of Women's Affairs has been abolished. The protests by women that followed these announcements, especially in Kabul, have been met with violence by the Taliban security forces. In May 2022, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice published a decree requiring all women in Afghanistan to wear full-body coverings when in public (either a burqa or an abaya paired with a niqāb, which leaves only the eyes uncovered). The decree said enforcement action including fines, prison time, or termination from government employment would be taken against male "guardians" who fail to ensure their female relatives abide by the law. Rights groups, including the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan, sharply criticized the decision. The decision is expected to adversely affect the Islamic Emirate's chances of international recognition.


Violence against Afghan women

Many women in Afghanistan experience at least one form of abuse. In 2015, the
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
reported that 90% of women in Afghanistan had experienced at least one form of
domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
. Violence against women is widely tolerated by the community, and it is widely practiced in Afghanistan.Denise Kindschi Gosselin, Heavy Hands: An introduction to the Crimes of Family Violence, (Pearson, 2010) 7 Violence against women in Afghanistan ranges from verbal abuse and psychological abuse to physical abuse and unlawful killing. From infancy, girls and women are under the authority of their fathers or husbands. Their freedom of movement is restricted since they are children and their choice of husbands is also restricted. Women and girls are deprived of education and denied economic liberty. In their pre-marriage and post-marriage relationships, their ability to assert their economic and social independence is limited by their families. Most married Afghan females are faced with the stark reality that they are forced to endure abuse. If they try to extricate themselves from the situation of abuse, they invariably face social stigma, social isolation, persecution for leaving their homes by the authorities and
honor killing An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of t ...
s by their relatives. Customs and traditions which are influenced by centuries-old patriarchal rules prevail, the issue of violence against women becomes pronounced. The high illiteracy rate among the population further perpetuates the problem. A number of women across Afghanistan believe that it is acceptable for their husbands to abuse them. Reversing this general acceptance of abuse was one of the main reasons behind the creation of the EVAW. In 2009, the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) was signed into law. The EVAW was created by multiple organizations which were assisted by prominent women's rights activists in Kabul (namely
UNIFEM The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, french: Fonds de développement des Nations unies pour la femme, ) was established in December 1976 originally as the Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade for Women in the International ...
,
Rights & Democracy The International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights & Democracy), was created to be a non-partisan, independent Canadian institution. It was established by an act of the Canadian parliament in 1988 to "encourage and suppor ...
,
Afghan Women's Network The Afghan Women's Network (AWN) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which was created in 1996 by Afghan women following the World Conference on Women in Beijing and works to "empower women and ensure their equal participation in Afghan socie ...
, the Women's Commission in the Parliament and the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs. In March 2015,
Farkhunda Malikzada Farkhunda Malikzada, commonly referred to as Farkhunda, was a 27-year-old woman who was publicly lynched by a mob in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on 19 March 2015. A large crowd formed in the streets around her claiming that she had burne ...
, a 27-year-old Afghan woman was publicly beaten and slain by an angry
mob Mob or MOB may refer to: Behavioral phenomena * Crowd * Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication Crime and law enforcement * American Mafia, also known as the Mob * Irish Mob, a US crimin ...
of radical Muslims in Kabul on a false accusation of
Quran desecration Quran desecration is the treatment of the Quran, in its original Arabic form, in a way that might be considered disrespectful or insulting. Respect for the Quran as a holy book, as in other faiths, is an important element of religious faith in ...
. A number of prominent public officials turned to
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
immediately after the death to endorse the
lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...
. It was later revealed that she did not burn the Quran. In 2018,
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
reported that violence against women was perpetrated by both state and non-state actors. In April 2020,
HRW Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ri ...
reported that in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, women with disabilities face all forms of
discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
and
sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
while they are accessing government assistance, health care and schools. The report also detailed everyday barriers which women and girls face in one of the world's poorest countries. On 14 August 2020,
Fawzia Koofi Fawzia Koofi ( fa, فوزیه کوفی, ; born in 1975) is an Afghan politician, writer, and women's rights activist. Originally from Badakhshan province, Koofi was recently a member of the Afghan delegation negotiating peace with the Taliban i ...
, a member of Afghanistan's peace negotiating team, was wounded in an assassination attempt near the capital,
Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
, while she was returning from a visit to the northern province of Parwan.
Fawzia Koofi Fawzia Koofi ( fa, فوزیه کوفی, ; born in 1975) is an Afghan politician, writer, and women's rights activist. Originally from Badakhshan province, Koofi was recently a member of the Afghan delegation negotiating peace with the Taliban i ...
is a part of a 21-member team which is charged with representing the Afghan government in upcoming peace talks with the
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
. A 33-year-old Afghan woman was attacked by three people while she was on her way from work to her home. She was shot and stabbed in her eyes with a knife. The woman survived the attack, but she lost her eyesight.
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
denied allegations and said that the attack was carried out on her father's order, as he vehemently opposed her working outside of home. United Nations Human Rights Council have reported that one or two women in Afghanistan are committing suicide every day. UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet condemned the massive unemployment of women, the restrictions placed on the way they dress, and their access on basic services. On 12 August 2022, the UN human rights experts urged international community to take stringent actions to protect Afghans from human rights violations including arbitrary detention, summary executions, internal displacement, and unlawful restrictions on their human rights, in particular those most likely to be affected such as women and girls and vulnerable citizens. Since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021, the UN has reported a plethora of human rights violations committed by the Taliban, with their virtual erasure and systematic oppression of women and girls from society being particularly egregious.


Honor killings

In 2012, Afghanistan recorded 240 cases in which women were the victims of
honor killing An honor killing (American English), honour killing (Commonwealth English), or shame killing is the murder of an individual, either an outsider or a member of a family, by someone seeking to protect what they see as the dignity and honor of t ...
s. Of the reported honor killings, 21% of them were committed by the victims' husbands, 7% of them were committed by their brothers, 4% of them were committed by their fathers, and the rest of them were committed by other relatives of the victims. In May 2017, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan concluded that the vast majority of the perpetrators of honor killings were not punished. On 12 July 2021, a woman in Faryab Province was beaten to death by Taliban militants and her house was set alight. In Balkh Province in August 2021, Taliban militants killed an Afghan woman because she was wearing tight clothing and because she was not being accompanied by a male relative.


Politics and workforce

A large number of Afghan women served as
members of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
until the Fall of Kabul in early 2021. Some of these included
Shukria Barakzai Shukria Barakzai ( ps, شکريه بارکزۍ) is an Afghan politician, journalist and a prominent Muslim feminist. She was the Ambassador of Afghanistan to Norway. She is a recipient of the International Editor of the Year Award. Early life ...
,
Fauzia Gailani Fauzia Gailani was elected to represent Herat Province in Afghanistan's Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of its National Legislature, in 2005. She won almost 16,885 votes, more than any other candidate in Herat. Prior to her election Fauzia, a mot ...
, Nilofar Ibrahimi, Fauzia Koofi, and Malalai Joya. Several women also took positions as
ministers Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...
, including
Suhaila Seddiqi Suhaila Siddiq (11 March 1949 – 4 December 2020), often referred to as 'General Suhaila', was an Afghan politician. She served as the Minister of Public Health from December 2001 to 2004. Prior to that, she worked as the Surgeon General in the ...
, Sima Samar, Husn Banu Ghazanfar, and
Suraya Dalil Suraya Dalil ( Uzbek/ prs, ثریا دلیل), (born 1970) is an Afghan physician and politician who served as Minister of Public Health from 2010 to 2014 and has been the country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations since November 2 ...
.
Habiba Sarabi Habiba (Arabic: حَبِيْبَه, ''ḥabībah''), alternatively Habibah and Habeeba , is a female given name of Arabic origin meaning ''beloved'', ''sweetheart'', or ''lover'', stemming from the male name Habib. Habiba or Habibah may refer to ...
became the first female governor in Afghanistan. She also served as Minister of Women's Affairs.
Azra Jafari Azra Jafari ( fa, عذرا جعفری) is an Afghanistani politician and women rights advocate who became the first female mayor in Afghanistan appointed by President Hamid Karzai in December 2008. She became the mayor of Nili, a town in Daykundi ...
became the first female mayor of
Nili NILI was a Jewish espionage network which assisted the United Kingdom in its fight against the Ottoman Empire in Palestine between 1915 and 1917, during World War I. NILI is an acronym which stands for the Hebrew phrase "Netzah Yisrael Lo Yeshak ...
, the capital of Daykundi Province. As of December 2018, Roya Rahmani is the first-ever female Afghan ambassador to the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. In September 2020, Afghanistan has secured a seat on the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women for the first time, an achievement that is seen as a “sign of progress for a country once notorious for the oppression of women”. The
Afghan National Security Forces The Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), also known as the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), were the military and internal security forces of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Structure The Afghan National Security Forc ...
(ANSF), which includes the Afghan National Police, have a growing number of female officers. One of the
Afghan National Army Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia * Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...
Brigadier general Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...
s is
Khatol Mohammadzai Khatool Mohammadzai ( ps, خاتول محمدزی; born c. 1966) is an Afghan brigadier general who served in the Afghan National Army. She was first commissioned in the military of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan during the 1980s, when ...
. In 2012, Niloofar Rahmani became the first female pilot in the
Afghan Air Force The Air Force of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Air Force and the Afghan Air Force, is the air force branch of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Royal Afghan Air Force was e ...
pilot training program to fly solo in a fixed-wing aircraft, following the footsteps of Colonel Latifa Nabizada, the first Afghan female pilot ever to fly a military helicopter. Other notable Afghan women include Naghma,
Aryana Sayeed Aryana Sayeed (Dari/Pashto: ) is an Afghan singer, songwriter and TV personality. She sings mostly in Dari but also has many songs in Pashto and some in Uzbek. She is one of Afghanistan's most famous musical artist, performing regularly in conc ...
,
Seeta Qasemi Seeta Qasemi also spelled as Seeta Qasemie ( fa, سيتا قاسمى) is an Afghanistan, Afghan singer-songwriter. She entered the Afghan music scene in 2008. She sings both in Pashto language, Pashto and Dari language, Dari and lives in German ...
, Yalda Hakim, Roya Mahboob,
Aziza Siddiqui Aziza Siddiqui ( ps, عزيزه صديقي; born c. 1983) was an Afghan activist.Mary Akrami Mary Akrami ( fa, ماری اکرمی; ) is the director of the Afghan Women Skills Development Center. She represented Afghan civil society at the 2001 Bonn Conference. In 2003 the Afghan Women Skills Development Center opened the first women’s ...
,
Suraya Pakzad Suraya Pakzad is an Afghan women's rights activist. In 1998 she founded ''Voice of Women'', which began by teaching girls how to read, and now provides women with shelter, counseling, and job training.Wazhma Frogh, Shukria Asil, Shafiqa Quraishi,
Maria Bashir Maria Bashir is a prosecutor based in Afghanistan, who is the only woman to ever hold such a position in the country . With more than fifteen years of experience with Afghan civil service - the Taliban, corrupt policemen, death threats, failed as ...
,
Maryam Durani Maryam Durani (مَریَم دورانی) (born 1987) is an Afghanistan, Afghan activist and women's advocate. In 2012 she received the International Women of Courage Award. Life and career Maryam Durani is the daughter of Haji Mohammad Eisa D ...
,
Malalai Bahaduri Malalai Bahaduri Malalai Bahaduri is a Second Lieutenant and senior instructor in the Afghan National Interdiction Unit (NIU). She worked as a telecommunications operator, but decided to join law enforcement in 2002, after Taliban rule of Afghanis ...
, and
Nasrin Oryakhil Nisrin Hader(2007) is an Afghan minister, gynecologist and obstetrician. She won awards for her work and in 2015 she was made a minister. Early life Oryakhil was born in 1964 in Kabul.tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...
s working from home. Since the fall of the Taliban, women have returned to work in Afghanistan. Some became entrepreneurs by starting businesses. For example, Meena Rahmani became the first woman in Afghanistan to open a
bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
center in Kabul. Many others are employed by companies and small businesses. Some engaged in
singing Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
,
acting Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode. Acting involves a broad r ...
, and
news broadcasting News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...
. In 2015, 17-year-old Negin Khpolwak became Afghanistan's first female
music conductor Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duti ...
. In 2014, women made up 16.1% of the labor force in Afghanistan. Because the nation has a struggling
economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
overwhelmed with massive unemployment, women often cannot find work where they receive sufficient pay. One area of the economy where women do play a significant role is in
agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
. Of the number of Afghans employed in the agriculture field or similar occupations, about 30 percent of them are women. In some areas in Afghanistan, women may spend as much time working on the land as men do, but still often earn three times less than men in wages. In terms of percentage, women rank high in the fields of medicine and media, and are slowly working their way into the field of justice. Because women are still highly encouraged to consult a female physician when they go to the hospital, nearly fifty percent of all Afghans in the medical profession are women. The number of women having professions in the media is also rising. It was reported in 2008 that nearly a dozen of
television stations A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
had all-female anchors as well as female producers. As women are given more opportunities in education and the workforce, more of them are turning towards careers in medicine, media, and justice. However, even the women that are given the opportunity to have careers have to struggle to balance their home life with their work life, as household tasks are seen as primarily female duties. Since the Afghan economy is weak, very few women can afford to hire domestic helpers, so they are forced to take care of all the household work primarily on their own. Those who choose to work must labour twice as hard because they are essentially holding two jobs. Airlines have welcomed Afghan women in various roles. The national airline, Ariana Afghan Airlines, said that 30 percent of its workforce were women as of 2020. Private airline
Kam Air Kam Air is the largest private Afghan airline. Founded in 2003, Kam Air has twelve aircraft and a workforce of over 1,200 people, operating scheduled domestic passenger services throughout Afghanistan and international services to destinations i ...
also had over a hundred women in employment. In February 2021, Kam Air operated the first flight with an all-female crew, including an Afghan pilot, in a domestic flight from Kabul to Herat.


Education

Education in Afghanistan has gradually improved in the last decade but much more has to be done to bring it to the international standard. The
literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...
for females is merely 24.2%. There are around 9 million students in the country. Of this, about 60% are males and 40% females. Over 174,000 students are enrolled in different
universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
around the country. About 21% of these are females. In the early twentieth century, education for women was extremely rare due to the lack of schools for girls. Occasionally girls were able to receive an education on the primary level but they never moved past the secondary level. During Zahir Shah's reign (1933–1973) education for women became a priority and young girls began being sent to schools. At these schools, girls were taught discipline, new technologies, ideas, and socialization in society.
Kabul University Kabul University (KU; prs, دانشگاه کابل, translit= Dāneshgāh-e-Kābul; ps, د کابل پوهنتون, translit=Da Kābul Pohantūn) is one of the major and oldest institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. It is in the 3rd ...
was opened to girls in 1947 and by 1973 there were an estimated 150,000 girls in schools across Afghanistan. Unfortunately, marriage at a young age added to the high drop out rate but more and more girls were entering professions that were once viewed as only being for men. Women were being given new opportunities to earn better lives for both themselves and their families. However, after the civil war and the takeover by the Taliban, women were stripped of these opportunities and sent back to lives where they were to stay at home and be controlled by their husbands and fathers. During the Taliban regime, many women who had previously been teachers began secretly giving an education to young girls (as well as some boys) in their neighborhoods, teaching from ten to sixty children at a time. The homes of these women became community homes for students, and were entirely financed and managed by women. News about these secret schools spread through word of mouth from woman to woman. Each day young girls would hide all their school supplies, such as books, notebooks and pencils, underneath their burqas to go to school. At these schools, young females were taught basic literary skills, numeracy skills, and various other subjects such as biology, chemistry, English, Quranic Studies, cooking, sewing, and knitting. Many women involved in teaching were caught by the Taliban and persecuted, jailed, and tortured. The Taliban are still opposed to education for Afghan boys and girls. They are burning down schools, killing students and teachers by all kinds of means, including
chemical warfare Chemical warfare (CW) involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare, biological warfare and radiological warfare, which together make up CBRN, the military acronym ...
. For example, in June 2012, fifteen suspects were detained by Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS) "in connection with the serial anti-school attacks in northern Afghanistan." The NDS believes that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence was behind the idea. During the same period, Pakistan has been refusing to deliver Afghan bound school text books. In 2015, the
Kabul University Kabul University (KU; prs, دانشگاه کابل, translit= Dāneshgāh-e-Kābul; ps, د کابل پوهنتون, translit=Da Kābul Pohantūn) is one of the major and oldest institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. It is in the 3rd ...
began the first master's degree course in gender and women's studies in Afghanistan. Afghan women obtain education in Kazakhstan within the Kazakh-Afghan state educational programme sponsored by the Republic of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan attaches great importance to empowering women and strengthening stability in Afghanistan. In September 2018, Kazakhstan reached an agreement with the European Union that the EU would contribute two million euros to train and educate Afghan women in Kazakhstan. In October 2019, Kazakhstan, the EU and the UNDP launched an education programme to train and educate several dozen Afghan women in Kazakh universities over the next five years. As of 2019, almost 900 graduates of Kazakhstan's programme serve in top positions in the Afghan president's office, government ministries, the border guards and police, while others work as respected doctors, engineers and journalists.


Sports

In the last decade, Afghan women have participated in futsal, football, basketball, skiing and various other sports. In 2015, Afghanistan held its first marathon; among those who ran the entire marathon was one woman, Zainab, age 25, who thus became the first Afghan woman to run in a marathon within her own country. In 2004, three years after the fall of the Taliban regime, Afghanistan sent women athletes to the Olympics for the first time. Since then, only four women have competed in the Olympics under the Afghan flag.


Marriage and parenting

Marriages in Afghanistan are usually in accordance with
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
and the
culture of Afghanistan The culture of Afghanistan has persisted for over three millennia, tracing record to at least the time of the Achaemenid Empire in 500 BCE, and encompasses the cultural diversity of the nation. Afghanistan's culture is historically strongly c ...
. The legal age for marriage in Afghanistan is 16. Afghans marry each other based on
religious sect A sect is a subgroup of a religion, religious, politics, political, or philosophy, philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now ...
,
ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
, and tribal association. It is rare to see a marriage between a
Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
and a
Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
Hazara. The nation is a
patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...
society where it is commonly believed that elder men are entitled to make decisions for their families. A man can divorce his wife without the need for her agreement, whereas the opposite is not the case. The country has a high
total fertility rate The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if: # she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime # she were t ...
, at 5.33 children born/woman as of 2015. Contraception use is low: 21.2% of women, as of 2010/11.
Arranged marriage Arranged marriage is a type of marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly by family members such as the parents. In some cultures a professional matchmaker may be us ...
s and forced marriages are reported in Afghanistan. After a marriage is arranged, the two families sign a contract which both parties are socially and culturally obligated to honor. Among low-income families, it is common for the groom to pay a bride price to the bride's family. The price is negotiated only among the parents. The bride price is viewed as compensation for the money that the bride's family has had to spend on her care and upbringing. In almost 50% of cases, the bride is younger than 18 and in 15% of marriages, the bride is younger than 15. Sometimes women resort to
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
to escape these marriages. In certain areas, females are sometimes bartered in a method of dispute resolution which is called a baad. Proponents of baad claim that it helps prevent enmity and violence between families, although the females themselves are sometimes subjected to a considerable amount of violence both before and after their marriages into families through baad. The practice of baad is technically illegal in Afghanistan. Under the Afghan law, "if a woman seeks a divorce then she has to have the approval of her husband and needs witnesses who can testify in court that the divorce is justified." The first occurrence in which a woman divorced a man in Afghanistan was the divorce which was initiated by Rora Asim Khan, who divorced her husband in 1927.Rora Asim Khan (Aurora Nilsson): Anders Forsberg och Peter Hjukström: Flykten från harem, Nykopia, Stockholm 1998. . This event was considered unique at the time when it occurred, but it was an exception, because Rora Asim Khan was a foreign citizen, who obtained her divorce with the assistance of the German embassy. While it is legal for male citizens to marry foreign non-Muslims, it is illegal for female citizens to do so, and Afghan law considers all Afghan citizens
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
s. Up until 17 September 2020, Afghan law dictated that only the father's name should be recorded on identification cards. President Ashraf Ghani signed into law an amendment which was long sought by
women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
campaigners since a campaign which garnered high-profile support from celebrities and members of parliament was launched three years ago under the hashtag #WhereIsMyName.


Gallery

File:Ladies of the royal harem enjoying an Afghan meal. Kabul Wellcome L0028379.jpg, Ladies of the royal harem enjoying an Afghan meal. File:Afghan ladies in their Purdah dress (Chador). Wellcome L0020787.jpg, Afghan ladies in their Purdah dress (Chador). File:CH-NB - Afghanistan, Shibar Pass (Shebar Pass, Kowtal-e Shebar)- Menschen - Annemarie Schwarzenbach - SLA-Schwarzenbach-A-5-20-203.jpg, left,
Turkmen Turkmen, Türkmen, Turkoman, or Turkman may refer to: Peoples Historical ethnonym * Turkoman (ethnonym), ethnonym used for the Oghuz Turks during the Middle Ages Ethnic groups * Turkmen in Anatolia and the Levant (Seljuk and Ottoman-Turkish desc ...
women
weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal th ...
on a loom in Afghanistan, c. 1939; women have traditionally performed weaving work in the country. File:Afghan women in 1920s.jpg, Afghan women in 1920s File:Women of Afghanistan-1920s.jpg, Women of Afghanistan-1920s File:1950s Afghanistan - Biology class, Kabul University.jpg, 1950s Afghanistan - Biology class, Kabul University. File:Rukhshana in the 60s, uncredited.jpg, Rukhshana in the 1960s, uncredited. Stamp of Afghanistan - 1961 - Colnect 670468 - Girl Scout.jpeg, Postage stamp of Afghanistan showing a
girl scout Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...
(1961) Françoise Foliot - Afghanistan 129.jpg, Tribal Afghan women in traditional attire, 1975 2010 Mother's Day in Afghanistan.jpg, Mother's Day event in Afghanistan File:Drawing Water.jpg, A young woman drawing water Burqa women waiting, Herat, Afghanistan.jpg, A group of burqa-wearing women in
Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safēd ...
Old woman, Herat, Afghanistan.jpg, Old woman in Herat Afghan_Girl_(4272097943).jpg, An Afghan girl in
Oruzgan Province Uruzgan (Dari), also spelled as Urozgan or Oruzgan, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. Uruzgan is located in the center of the country. The population is 436,079, and the province is mostly a tribal society. Tarinkot serves as th ...
Orphanage_Day_(4198673692).jpg, Girls enjoying a meal in
Chaghcharan Chaghcharān (Dari-Persian: ), also called Firozkoh (Dari-Persian: ), is a town and district in central Afghanistan, which serves as the capital of Ghor Province. It is located on the southern side of the Hari River, at an altitude of 2,230 m abov ...
on Orphanage Day Woman with Burqa (4324680171) (2).jpg, A woman wearing a Burqa near
Balkh ), named for its green-tiled ''Gonbad'' ( prs, گُنبَد, dome), in July 2001 , pushpin_map=Afghanistan#Bactria#West Asia , pushpin_relief=yes , pushpin_label_position=bottom , pushpin_mapsize=300 , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Afghanistan ...
Afghan children smile at GIs -b.jpg, A girl from
Kandahar Province Kandahār ( ps, ; Kandahār, prs, ; ''Qandahār'') is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southern part of the country, sharing a border with Pakistan, to the south. It is surrounded by Helmand in the west, Uruzgan ...
Flickr - DVIDSHUB - Female Treatment Team conducts Village Medical Outreach Program in Doan Sufla (Image 1 of 23).jpg, An Afghan girl receiving treatment from an American medic in Oruzgan Province Village Life (4208785310).jpg, A mother with her children in a village near Charghcharan Female AUP training in Khost province 130225-A-PO167-231.jpg, Female police officers in training, Khost Province, 2013 Kabul International Airport Bazaar Provides Needed Income for Women Vendors (5204314198).jpg, Female vendors at a small bazaar selling items to U.S. Air Force personnel, 2010


See also

* Gender roles in Afghanistan * Access for Afghan Women Act *
Prostitution in Afghanistan Prostitution is illegal in Afghanistan, with punishments ranging from 5 to 15 years of imprisonment. The country is deeply religious and one of the most conservative countries in the world, where sex outside marriage is not only against the law ...
* Women in agriculture in Afghanistan *
Women in the Parliament of Afghanistan Women were able to be members in the Parliament of Afghanistan from the United States invasion of Afghanistan until the Fall of Kabul in 2021. Since then those who were elected have gone into hiding, many fleeing the country entirely. Many of them ...
* Humira Saqib Organisations: * Women for Afghan Women *
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) (Persian:جمعیت انقلابی زنان افغانستان, ''Jamiʿat-e Enqelābi-ye Zanān-e Afghānestān'', Pashto:د افغانستان د ښڅو انقلابی جمعیت) ...
*
Afghan Women's Network The Afghan Women's Network (AWN) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which was created in 1996 by Afghan women following the World Conference on Women in Beijing and works to "empower women and ensure their equal participation in Afghan socie ...
*
Afghan Women's Council The Afghan Women's Council (AWC) (also known as the ''Women's Council'') was a women's organization. In Afghanistan. It was a non-profit organization that strived to help Afghan women and children by improving their living condition as well as raisi ...
*
Afghan Women's Business Federation The Afghan Women's Business Federation is an organization for the promotion of the welfare and rights of women workers in Afghanistan with 55 active Associations and Unions. It was established on October 2, 2005, when USAID The United States Ag ...
* Afghanistan women's national football team * Afghanistan national women's cricket team *
Rukhshana Media ''Rukhshana Media'' () is an women in Afghanistan, Afghan women's media organisation created in November 2020 in memory of Rukhshana, a young woman stoning, stoned to death in 2015 in Ghor Province for having fled with a lover after a forced marr ...
General: *
Human rights in Afghanistan Human rights in Afghanistan have been violated by the Taliban administration since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in August 2021. The government has prevented most teenage girls from returning to secondary school education, and blocked women in Af ...
*
Human rights in Muslim-majority countries Human rights in Muslim-majority countries have been a subject of controversy for many decades. International non-governmental organizations (INGOs) such as Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) consistently find human rights viola ...
*
Human rights in the Quran In its Arabic text, the Quran is considered the primary source of authority by Muslims. The Quran is a relatively short book of 77,797 words that are divided into one hundred and fourteen chapters (Suras). A hundred and thirteen of the chapters ...
* Women in Islam * Women in Asia


References


External links


U.S. Congressional Research Service, "Afghan Women and Girls: Status and Congressional Action: September 11, 2020 – August 12, 2021"
* , 10 April 2019,
TOLOnews TOLOnews (Pashto/Persian: ) is Afghanistan's first 24/7 news television channel, owned by MOBY Group, launched in August, 2010. Its sister channels are TOLO TV and Lemar TV in Afghanistan. The channel is available on terrestrial across Afghanist ...
. * , 14 March 2019, France 24 English. * , 25 February 2019,
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
. * , 8 February 2019, France 24 English. * , 12 December 2017,
Zee News Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation. The channel has been involved in several controversies and has ...
.
A Place At The Table: Safeguarding Women's Rights in AfghanistanWomen, Afghan Law, and ShariaAfghan Khaal or Facial tattoo for women in afghanistan (Khaal)Women in Afghanistan worry peace accord with Taliban extremists could cost them hard-won rightsAfghanistan's First Female Mayor 'Terrified' of What's to Come With the Taliban
{{Asia topic, Women in, titlestyle = background:#FFCBDB
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
Society of Afghanistan Foreign aid to Afghanistan