As world leaders parade across the United Nations General Assembly stage this month, Afghan women and girls remain among the many vulnerable and violated communities whose situation requires these leaders’ urgent action, not simply their empty words. World leaders, particularly from the United States, should require Afghan women to be part of any negotiation with the Taliban.
The U.S. has been the single largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan since the 2021 Taliban takeover. Fortunately for the many American officials who — for 20 years — have regularly expressed their commitment to Afghan women’s rights, the emerging nexus of Afghanistan’s escalating security and humanitarian crises provide the U.S. with both ample opportunity and formidable leverage to honor their outstanding commitments to Afghanistan’s women.
Since their takeover just two years ago, the Taliban have steadily and systematically increased their exclusion of women and girls from public life. What began as prohibiting Afghan girls from secondary education has frighteningly escalated into Taliban-backed torching of their schools. What started as the barring of Afghan women from employment within specific occupations has rapidly expanded to a near-complete ban on women working outside the home. What began as the frenetic implementation of more than 20 restrictive Taliban edicts on girls’ education has disturbingly evolved into the widespread harassment and intimidation of educators, including the kidnapping of beloved girls’ education champion, Matiullah Wesa.