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Washington, D.C. - In recent months, President Hamid Karzai has been trying to open up a channel of communication with the Taliban, the fanatics who ran Afghanistan in the period after the Soviets pulled out and NATO forces invaded. He does this every couple of years. Almost as often, the Taliban brags about its attempts to kill him. It’s a complicated relationship, to be sure, and he would do well to tread lightly. If he needs a reason why, he could talk almost any woman in his country.
Prior to NATO’s invasion of Afghanistan, women were treated like property. They were denied education and employment, and stoning, whipping, and beatings were accepted punishments for violating the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic law.
In the nine years since the Taliban was overthrown, Afghan women have made significant progress in their fight for rights. The country’s new Constitution promotes gender equality, offering protections for women who want to attend school or hold jobs. Some women have even become Ambassadors for the new Afghan government, and the Constitution explicitly mandates that 25 percent of parliamentary seats must be set aside for women members.
Unfortunately, however, not everyone in Afghanistan is happy with this progress. In parts of the country that are still dominated by the Taliban, women have not experienced the same expansion of freedom. And, even in areas that are not governed by the Taliban, many women still remain the targets of religious extremists who resent their desire to be educated or to move about the country without fear.
A good example of such a woman is Shamsia Husseini, a teenager who had her burqa ripped from her head and her face scarred with acid. The offense that promoted such an attack? Shamsia was walking to school with 14 of her friends.
Time magazine provides a similarly tragic example in a recent issue that focuses on what returning the Taliban to power in Afghanistan would mean to women. The magazine’s cover shows a girl, whom it identifies as an 18-year-old named “Aisha,” Aisha’s nose was cut off, and her black hair hides two other holes in her head where her ears once were. Aisha’s butchers were her in-laws, and they exacted this ruthless punishment when she attempted to escape from their control.
Stories like these make it is easy to see why many Afghan women fear where President Karzai’s negotiations with the Taliban will ultimately lead. Peace is surely a laudable goal, but it must not be attained at the expense of Shamsia, Aisha, and the safety of the millions of other women in Afghanistan.
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