Afghan Journal

Saving women’s rights in a post-war Afghanistan

                                                        By Andrew Hammond

There have been worrying signs in Kabul over the past week  that political and social gains made by women since the Taliban  were removed from power in 2001 are at best tenuous.

 ”Normalising” the country’s profile after the extremes of  five years of Taliban rule has been one main justifications for  continuing the Western military mission in Afghanistan, and of  Hamid Karzai’s government.

Karzai’s interim cabinet after 2001 included a female  vice-president and there were three female ministers after his
election in 2004.  Next month’s parliamentary polls maintain a  quota to ensure at least 25 percent of Walesi Jirga seats are  filled by women.