A generation of Afghani women are watching their gains shrink as the Taliban return to power.
Gender progress: Members of the Afghani all-girls robotics team make adjustments to the team robot in at the 2017 FIRST Global Challenge competitions in Washington. Will girls in Afghanistan be able to take up science, or even go to school, in the future? / AFP PHOTO/ PAUL J. RICHARDS
Representatives of the hard-line group met with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month and have recently been in Moscow, Tehran and Doha. And while they continue to travel freely their fighters have made rapid advances across the country, leaving a frightening toll of death and mayhem as US and Nato troops prepare for a full withdrawal by Aug 31.
There is so much at stake. A generation of Afghan women who have taken their place in society are now watching that space shrink before their eyes. They entered public life as lawmakers, local governors, doctors, lawyer, teachers and public administrators, working for two decades to help create a civil society and generate opportunities for those who come after them.
“My greatest fear is now they are marginalising women who have been working in these leadership positions, who have been a strong voice against the most powerful abusers but also working with them to change the situation on the ground.” The problem is, the longer it takes for the international community to act, the further the Taliban will push into civilian areas, using people’s homes as staging posts for attacks and forcing children to act as human shields to protect them from air strikes as they move around the hinterland, warns Ahmad Shuja Jamal, director of international affairs and regional cooperation at the Afghan National Security Council.
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