Afghan women push for voice in talks, fearing loss of rights

Afghanistan's women are demanding a seat at the table in negotiations over the country's future, determined to prevent the gains they have made since the 2001 fall of the Taliban from being bargained away.

But already, they are meeting resistance to having a strong voice in the talks.

Women's rights activists are not just concerned about the Taliban, who were notorious for their repression of women during their rule.

They are just as worried that religious conservatives, warlords and strongmen who dominate Afghanistan's U.S.-backed leadership and whose attitudes toward women often differ little from the Taliban will trade away their rights to reach a deal.

Pressure is on for a peace accord as the United States seeks to end its long military presence in Afghanistan.

For women, the stakes are high. The advances they have made are important for example, women are now members of parliament, and their rights are enshrined in the constitution, including the right to education.

But the gains are fragile and limited, and nearly 18 years after the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban, Afghan women still live under a crushing weight of discrimination.

What laws that do exist are little enforced, activists say, giving male relatives and tribal councils almost complete say over women's and girls' lives.

That leaves them vulnerable to violence, early marriage and exclusion from work and education.

The 2018 Women, Peace and Security Index rated Afghanistan as the second worst place in the world to be a woman, after Syria.

Strong participation in talks is "not a gift, it is our right," said Suraya Pakzad, an activist. "We, the women of Afghanistan, are suffering, fighting to bring peace in Afghanistan, to change Afghanistan."
"We will not allow anyone to push us, to force us to go back," she said. "We know how to raise our voices."
Most girls are married before 19 to men selected by their parents and in some villages, girls as young as 7 or 8 are regularly married off. Women who leave an abusive husband or marry a man of their choice risk being imprisoned for "morality crimes."
"I didn't even know what a wedding was," she said, speaking in a near whisper, her head lowered. "All night I was so scared, and the next day I cried and cried."
When she fled, her father sent her back, telling her "I only want you back home wrapped in the white shroud of the dead.'"