Since the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan beginning in July 2021, the Taliban have swiftly seized control of the country (see also). The peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, overseen by the United States, proved largely unsuccessful, with the U.S. conceding to the Taliban’s demands while sidelining the Afghan government.
Emboldened by their continued success, lack of resistance by Afghan forces, and minimal international pressure, the Taliban have intensified their violence. For women, their victory holds alarming implications. In early July, Taliban leaders who took control over the provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar issued an order to local religious leaders to provide them with a list of girls over the age of 15 and widows under the age of 45 for “marriage” with Taliban fighters. Upon getting “married”, these women and girls will be taken to Waziristan in Pakistan to be (re)educated and converted to “authentic Islam.”
This order has caused terror among local women and their families, and many have fled and joined the ranks of internally displaced persons, adding to the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Afghanistan (see also and also). In the past three months alone, 900,000 people have been displaced.
Offering “wives” is a strategy to lure militants to join the Taliban. This is sexual enslavement, not “marriage.” Sexual slavery is a war crime and a crime against humanity Article 27 [.pdf] of the Geneva Convention states, “women must be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any other form of indecent assault.” In 2008, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1820 declaring that “rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity […].” It recognizes sexual violence as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, and instil fear in civilian members of the community.
This Taliban order is a stark warning of what lies ahead and a harsh reminder of their brutal regime (1996 to 2001), where women were subjected to persistent human rights violations, denied employment and education, forced to wear the burqa, and prohibited from leaving home without a male “guardian” or mahram. Despite their claims of having changed their position regarding women’s rights, the Taliban’s actions and their latest initiative to commit thousands of women to sexual slavery demonstrate otherwise.
Furthermore, the Taliban have signalled their intention to restrict girls’ education to the age of 12, ban women from employment, and reinstate the male guardian law. The hard-won gains of Afghan women over the past 20 years, particularly in education, employment and political participation are all but gone.
Women’s rights and feminist advocates in Afghanistan have risked their lives for their communities. They have stood firmly in support of universal human rights and spoken out against fundamentalism, oppression, and state corruption. Taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the past two decades, Afghan women promoted greater access to education, employment, health, respect for human rights, and conflict resolution dialogue.
Afghan women assumed leadership positions in Parliament and the judiciary; they became teachers, professors, journalists, and entrepreneurs; despite constant threats, they persevered in the hope for a better future. Relying on their deep knowledge and lived experience of their communities, they emphasised the importance of including civil society, particularly women and minorities, in peace negotiations. They called for the international community and national leaders to recognize that sustainable peace cannot be negotiated at gunpoint and insisted that peace negotiations include women.
Today this inspiring progress is under threat. In the last year, the world has witnessed the Taliban systematically targeting women and girls, including attacking girls’ schools, all while proclaiming a commitment to women’s rights, peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.
Following their agreement with the U.S. government, while sidelining and excluding the Afghan government, civil society, minorities and women representatives, the democratic advancement over the past 20 years has been derailed, as has progress on women’s rights. Grassroots women activists and civil society leaders in Afghanistan are currently hiding from the Taliban, who are actively hunting those who have publicly worked toward substantive equality and a free public sphere. Girls’ schools have been closed, and women have been turned away from universities and can no longer work. Taliban leaders have told women to stay home, as they cannot guarantee their safety among the rank and file Taliban fighters and militia who roam the streets, belying the Taliban narrative of “reformation.”
Reality starkly contrasts with the Taliban’s public relations campaign, with Afghans witnessing daily violence since at least March 2020, an acute rise in civilian casualties and a catastrophic increase in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Young women and girls are being subjected tosexual slavery by Taliban fighters through forced marriages. Protesters against Taliban rule are met with gunfire. While the focus is on evacuation of foreign personnel, Afghans attempting to flee are thwarted by foreign forces closing borders, restricting movement, and deporting refugees.
The U.N. must use all peaceful means to force the Taliban to comply with international human rights law. Guided by Resolution 1820, which underscores the importance of including women as equal participants in the peace process, and condemns all forms of gendered violence against civilians in armed conflict, I propose eight policy actions for the international community to foster sustainable peace:
- Call for an immediate general amnesty and end to violence to ensure the peace process can proceed in good faith.
- Ensure that women’s rights enshrined in Afghanistan’s Constitution, national legislation, and international law are respected.
- Insist that peace negotiations under the transitional government include the meaningful participation of Afghan women.
- Lifting sanctions against the Taliban must be conditional on their commitment to uphold women’s rights. The European Union and the United States, currently the largest donors to Afghanistan, must make aid conditional upon women’s rights and access to education and employment (see also).
- Use every means possible to ensure that the Taliban and the transitional authority allow international and humanitarian organizations to respond to the needs of over 3.5 million Afghan IDPs.
- Neighbouring and regional countries should keep their borders open to facilitate and temporarily house fleeing refugees, and other countries need to ensure open borders to coordinate and support safe evacuation and long-term rehousing plans.
- International solidarity demands the prioritization of the evacuation of Afghan women leaders and ensuring the protection of women's rights inside Afghanistan and amplifying the voices of Afghan women to support their vision for the future of Afghanistan.
- The Human Rights Council must form an independent investigation committee to fully and immediately investigate the human rights violations in Afghanistan by the Taliban, including the targeted killings of women’s rights and feminist advocates, journalists, members of civil society, and ethnic and social minorities.
Women in Afghanistan and across the region would welcome the U.N.’s and the international community’s efforts to ensure that women’s rights are respected; they would welcome that survivors of sexual violence have equal protection under the law, equal access to justice; they would welcome an end to impunity for acts of sexual violence, all as part of a comprehensive approach to seeking sustainable peace, justice and national reconciliation in Afghanistan.
About the author
Vrinda Narain is an Associate Professor at McGill University Faculty of Law. Her research and teaching focuses on constitutional law, social diversity, and feminist legal theory. She is the author of Reclaiming the Nation: Muslim Women and the Law in India (U of Toronto Press, 2008) and Gender and Community: Muslim Women’s Rights in India (U of Toronto Press, 2001), as well as many articles on Muslim women and the law.