The public erasure of women

For Afghan women’s groups, the re-establishment of the Taliban regime in 2021 meant a carefully planned ban from the public sphere, including high schools, gyms, employment, and parks. At the end of 2022, the Taliban banned women from attending university. They have employed systematic oppression and multi-layered violations of women's human rights to institute gender apartheid.

The Taliban takeover was predictable. For decades, women’s rights activists have warned of the dangerous impact of 40 years of war, occupation, and fundamentalism in the country. For them, it was clear that the Taliban 2.0 would not be any different.

Since 2021, Afghanistan has seen an increase in suicide, forced child marriage, and arrest for political protests

Since 2021, Afghan women, girls and LGBTIQ+ people have faced growing insecurities and embodied violence. While out in public, they have been forced to cover their bodies entirely. Afghanistan's moral police have imposed upon them complete restriction of movement. Gendered insecurities extend to all areas of social and political life, with disastrous consequences for healthcare, children, and the economy. One in ten Afghan children under five years old is malnourished. Afghanistan has also seen an increase in suicide, forced child marriage, and arrest for political protests.

'Whitewashing' the Taliban: women excluded from negotiations

Following decades of war, the Taliban are now congratulating themselves for combatting the drug trade and restoring 'peace'. Yet Afghanistan remains plagued by economic, humanitarian and climate crises. Around 80% of citizens lack sufficient access to water and more than 12 million Afghan women depend on humanitarian assistance for survival.

The Taliban are congratulating themselves for combatting the drug trade and restoring 'peace'. Yet Afghanistan remains plagued by economic, humanitarian and climate crises

It is in this context that the third meeting between the UN and Taliban leadership took place on 30 June and 1 July 2024 in Doha, Qatar. Approximately 30 countries were in attendance. Among the Taliban's 'demands' was the release of $7 billion of Afghan central bank reserves, currently frozen in the US. The Taliban had for the first time agreed to attend a Doha meeting, but on one condition: if women would be present, they would not come. The UN accepted.

The political leaders behind the 2001 NATO-led invasion justified their actions under the pretext of 'saving' Afghan women and establishing a western-imposed 'liberal democracy'. But now the UN has accepted the Taliban as a legitimate partner without requesting its compliance with women’s rights, and excluding women activists from talks on nation building. As Farooq Yousaf and Bilquees Daud argue on this blog site, it felt nothing less than a betrayal of the values apparently so dear to the coalition.

Afghanistan is the only country in which the UN cannot employ women. Despite this, the UN has failed Afghan women by negotiating with the Taliban in Doha. The Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), the oldest women’s organisation advocating for Afghan women’s freedom, condemns these UN concessions as whitewashing of the Taliban's bloody past and present.

A blunt attack on Women, Peace and Security agenda principles

When it comes to women’s rights, the international community must go beyond mere rhetoric. The gender and racial apartheid in Afghanistan calls for normative tools that recognise the Taliban as they are: a violent, misogynist regime.

As Marzia Saramad argues on The Loop, the Taliban are unwilling and unable to work towards a peaceful, fair society. By pressing ahead with the Doha meeting despite Afghan women’s opposition, the UN and the international community legitimise Taliban oppression. Facing Taliban leaders across the table means ignoring women’s demands and accepting gender apartheid as a 'lesser evil'.

By complying with Taliban demands, the UN betrays the principles agreed in a UN resolution established a quarter of a century ago

In the context of transition from war to peace, everything remains connected. Therefore, Taliban leadership cannot address the country's inequality, precarity, or poverty without ensuring women’s access to public life, healthcare, and education, or without upholding their basic human rights. Moreover, the Taliban's focus on the private sector, banking and drug control has several harmful effects on women and girls, and Afghan people more broadly. First, it establishes the Taliban as the body dictating the negotiation agenda. Second, it recasts the focus not on human development and security, but on capitalistic views of development. Third, it bluntly ignores the problems of women in Afghanistan, focusing instead on women involved in the UN mission (UNAMA) who do not represent the multiple struggles of oppressed women in Afghanistan.

Pursuing this patriarchal and capitalistic development focus is no way to achieve peace in Afghanistan. Excluding women from the peace negotiation table directly contradicts the UN charter and undermines Women, Peace and Security agenda principles. By failing to take a stand against the Taliban, and by complying with their demands, the UN is marginalising Afghan women. This is a betrayal of the principles enshrined in UN Resolution 1325, which celebrates 25 years in 2025.

Continuing the resistance

For RAWA, the Doha meeting shows how the Taliban, with the support of UNAMA and Western powers, has succeeded in reaffirming its regime, despite its rampant attacks on human rights. However, to guarantee transition towards peaceful futures and inclusive governance in Afghanistan, it is crucial to engage young people, women, and marginalised communities – rather than warlords – in international debate. Women should have meaningful participation in the politics of peace and security. We must not, under any circumstances, legitimise gender apartheid. The Women, Peace and Security agenda has failed women in Afghanistan and other countries in the Global South. The agenda requires urgent and fundamental revision.

Nevertheless, Afghan women and girls resist. Even since 2021, they have been brave enough to take to the streets, and they refused to endorse the Doha meeting. Despite fearing for their lives, Afghan women still denounce global and local patriarchies. They have reaffirmed their commitment to fight fascism and fundamentalism.

Demonstrators warn that the Taliban is weaponising women's silence and fear. So, the women of Afghanistan keep on fighting, to cure the pain.

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