Feminist Dissent

Introduction Afghan Women’s Resistance - Forty Years of Struggle Against Gender Apartheid

Janet Afary — 2024-03-25

The defeat of the U.S. client regime in Afghanistan and the seizure of power by the Taliban in August 2021 marked a real turning point. These events represented another major setback for the United States in the wake of a failed war in Iraq. Journalists rushed to compare the debacle in Kabul in 2021 to Saigon in 1975, as Afghans fearful of Taliban rule scrambled to get onto US planes. Many were left behind as the United States rushed to get its own forces and those of its allies out.

The August 2021 regime collapse in Afghanistan, although sudden in its final manifestation, was a long time coming. The United States realized it had been defeated at least by 2020, as the Trump administration agreed to a total US withdrawal in direct negotiations with the Taliban. The Biden administration continued this policy, which had two basic aspects: the United States would withdraw by the end of August 2021, and the Taliban would not attack US forces during the period of withdrawal. Both sides kept to the bargain; the Afghan people were not consulted at all, nor was the US-backed government of Ashraf Ghani, who was not even included in the negotiations.

There was an important difference from the situation in Saigon in 1975, however. The forces that defeated the United States in Vietnam included female combatants and officers. Moreover, the regime they installed to replace the US client state espoused a modernist, if authoritarian, ideology that extolled gender equality, land reform, and other forms of social and economic transformation.

In contrast, the return to power of the Taliban was instead a setback for women’s rights of epochal proportions, and for other social and political rights as well. They set about establishing an ultra-conservative fundamentalist regime of a type not seen since the Islamic State was driven out of Raqqa, Syria, in 2017. The Taliban have again established a theocracy, which openly supports long-standing hierarchies of gender, ethnicity, religion, and class, albeit with a somewhat modern form of organization, including a surveillance apparatus and modern weapons. With its denial of secondary education to girls, the new Taliban regime’s level of gender apartheid far exceeds those of Saudi Arabia and Iran. At this writing, not a single country, not even Saudi Arabia, has formally recognized the Taliban government.

The International Obligation to Counter Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan

Karima Bennoune — 2024-03-25

The following article was first published in the Columbia Law Journal and is reproduced with permission and an updated introduction.

Since they returned to power in August 2021, the Taliban are again imposing a regime of gender apartheid in Afghanistan in violation of international law, just as they did in the 1990s. Given that it is pervasively discriminatory, gender apartheid poses specific human rights problems requiring particular, heightened responses. A system of governance based on subordination of women institutionalizes sex discrimination across state political, legal, and cultural infrastructures. It necessitates different counter-strategies.

This article suggests conceptual architecture for analyzing and responding to this aspect of the current Afghan crisis. Specifically, the robust international legal framework that helped end racial apartheid should be urgently adapted to address gender apartheid and concert the responses of other states to it.

There are three principal arguments in favor of this approach. 1) It is essential for fulfilling states’ international legal commitments on sex discrimination across every document in the International Bill of Human Rights, as well as the specific target they affirmed in the Sustainable Development Goals to achieve gender equality by 2030. 2) Any other stance leads to an unacceptable imbalance in the manner in which international law addresses discrimination on the bases of sex and race. 3) This may be the only way to effectively tackle systematic Taliban abuses, as the organization is deeply committed to its violations of women’s rights and already sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council. Such an approach marshals the resources of the international community to constrain the Taliban, and is the best hope for ensuring the credibility, legitimacy and effectiveness of the international legal response.

Women's Struggles in Afganistan

Kobra Sultani — 2024-03-25

This article begins with the current situation of women in Afghanistan and their resistance against the complete takeover of power by the Taliban in August 2021. It reviews the ways in which prior Afghan governments, various imperialist occupations, wars between religious fundamentalist forces, sexism and prejudices within the Afghan Left and progressives have made it impossible to develop a coherent and persistent women's movement.

We Are All Afghanistan

Mahnaz Afkhami — 2024-03-25

On October 15, 2021, Women's Learning Partnership (WLP) convened an online, public conversation with former Minister for Women's Affairs in Afghanistan, Sima Samar, and former Governer of Bamyan Province, Habiba Sarabi, moderated by former UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid and WLP Founder and President Mahnaz Afkhami. Audience members were from around the world, including directors of WLP’s partner organizations in Asia, Central Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. A question and answer session, moderated by WLP Executive Director, Allison Horowski, followed the conversation.

Narrating Self, Depicting the Other

Delaram Hosseinioun — 2024-03-25

The American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler believes that 'our capacity to reﬂect upon ourselves, to tell the truth about ourselves, is correspondingly limited by what the discourse, the regime, cannot allow into speakability' (Giving an Account of Oneself). This review analyses how Shamissa Hassani (b.1988), the first female graffiti artist of Afghanistan, and Keyvan Shovir (b. 1985), the first postrevolutionary graffiti artist of Iran, manifest Butler’s view of giving an account of oneself. I argue that Hassani and Shovir have used their arts as a means of speakability and self-reflection in the restricted discourses of their home countries. I conclude that art manifests the possibility of self-revelation and reclaiming one’s voice beyond the restricted social discourses or diaspora.

Afghan Refugee Women in Iran

Ziba Jalali Naini — 2024-03-25

This article looks at how Afghan migrant women to Iran gained greater self-awareness and experienced many changes in their traditional gender roles. This qualitative study was conducted through in-depth interviews with Afghan working women in Tehran. The women had a median age of 39 (between 23 to 55) and had been living in Iran anywhere between one to twenty-five years. Most of the responders migrated to Iran after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 1995. A few were more recent migrants who arrived after the Taliban took over in August 2021. The article addresses the ways in which Afghan women have attained self-awareness and the multiplicity of factors which have facilitated or impeded this process. We will see that these women have gone far beyond the immediate restrictions and impediments that were imposed by their traditional families, as well as the strict gender division of labour in their community.

Afghanistan and Its Challenge to Feminism

Frieda Afary — 2024-03-25

This article examines Afghan women's resistance against the return to power of the Taliban since August 2021. It also critically evaluates the different attitudes that global feminists have expressed about the plight of the Afghan people and the much needed solidarity with Afghan women.

Memoir: A Saga of Love under the Hail of Fire

Soraya Baha — 2024-03-25

This short story is excerpted from a memoir entitled Raha Dar Bad (Los Angeles: Ketab Corp., 2012), written by Soraya Baha. Ms. Baha was the sister-in-law of Mohammad Najibullah (1947–1996) who served as president of Afghanistan from 1986–1992. Najibullah became head of the secret police when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan in the December 1979. He was infamous for his brutality and ruthlessness. He became president of the country when the Soviet forces withdrew in 1989, and his widely despised government was considered a puppet regime of the Soviets. Ms. Baha was against the Soviet occupation, as well as the dictatorship of Najibullah. She ran away with her husband and their two children, Khaled, and Roya, and joined the war front in northern Afghanistan (Panjshir), where the famous partisan commander Ahmad-Shah Masoud had stationed his mujahedin forces. Masoud was fighting the Russians and led the largest war front in the mountains and valleys of Panjshir. Soraya Baha stayed there for some time in a small cabin with her two children. She later wrote her memoir and included this experience. The excerpted story below is based on true events that the author personally witnessed while in Panjshir.

Short Story: Yaqoot

Homeira Qaderi — 2024-03-25

Yaqoot, the narrator, recalls the story of her life when in her youth she gave up her love for Rahim, a young mujahid because her father wanted to marry her off to the son of a communist friend of his. During the civil war with the Taliban, she lost her husband. When we meet her in the story, Yaqoot has a son who is engaged to be married. On a hot summer day, Yaqoot accidentally runs into Rahim who has survived the civil strife. Rahim, too, has lost his wife. Together they go visit a shrine. Yaqoot gradually comes to honor her once abandoned and now rekindled love after the long hiatus and decides to marry Rahim. This time, Yaqoot’s son stands in the way. Her son can’t believe that his middle-aged mother is considering remarrying—a taboo in Afghan culture.

Films about Afghan Women

Kimia Kamoei — 2024-03-25

Film Reviews of Sonita (2015; Dir: Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami); A Thousand Girls Like Me (2018; Dir: Sahra Mousawi-Mani); Hava, Maryam, Ayesha (2020; Dir: Sahraa Karimi)

Chronology of Women’s Protests Inside Afghanistan Since the Taliban Took Over Kabul

Frieda Afary — 2024-03-25

Compiled and edited by Frieda Afary, Amir Sadat Khonsari, Kimia Kamoei

Fear is their Weapon, Courage is Yours

Feminist Dissent Collective — 2024-03-25

Reprinted from:https://feministdissent.org/blog-posts/fear-is-their-weapon/

FEMINIST DISSENT stands in solidarity with Afghan women and with all those fighting fundamentalism.

Feminist Dissent views with horror and dismay the betrayal of the people of Afghanistan and all those fighting fundamentalist movements everywhere. Before and since the August 15th 2021 takeover of the country by Taliban, we have watched news of protest marches and heard Afghan women speak out. We are in awe of their steadfast courage in the face of brute force.

Statement of Support and Solidarity with Afghan Women

Independent Iranian Women's Organizations — 2024-03-25

We, a coalition of independent Iranian women's organizations, express our solidarity with the women of Afghanistan in the fight against the reinstated Taliban, and deeply commiserate with them on the suffering that has been inflicted upon them. Iranian and Afghan women have a common experience in dealing with political Islam, oppression, repression, and lawlessness imposed by misogynistic and reactionary governments. In these critical times we are determined to raise our voices against the reactionary, fundamentalist, and anti-woman forces in this dangerous situation. Together with the women of Afghanistan, we strongly condemn all human rights violations against women in the name of law, religion, faith, and tradition.