POLITICS – Representation? Participation? There’s No Place for Women

The participation of women in active political life is a right that Afghan women have fought for over long years of struggle. Despite numerous challenges, until August 2021, women were present in Afghan institutions. Before August 2021, women constituted 27% of the members of the Lower House of Parliament, 22% in the Upper House, and 30% in the public administration, holding key roles in the government, independent commissions, and the judiciary.

The presence of women in these institutions did not automatically mean that these women belonged to democratic formations; many were affiliated with fundamentalist groups, various warlords, and even the Taliban (just like the male component of the government and parliament during the 20 years of occupation by US/NATO forces). Nonetheless, on August 31, 2021, the interim Deputy Foreign Minister announced that no woman would hold senior leadership positions in a Taliban government. Women are now entirely excluded from political and public life in Afghanistan. There is not a single woman in public or political office, and only a limited number remain in public administration.

On September 18, 2021, the offices of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs were converted into offices of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, known for its notorious record of suppressing women’s rights. The abolition of legislative bodies and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs has removed women’s representation and their access to the decision-making process, effectively stripping them of their right to political participation.

Alongside the elimination of political representation, participation in political and social life is also harshly repressed. Women participated in the 2002 emergency assembly (Loya Jirga), played an active role in the 2003 constitutional Loya Jirga, and participated as voters and candidates in subsequent presidential and parliamentary elections. Women represented over 30 percent of voters between 2004 and 2019. Today, they are excluded from all forms of political and public life participation.

Since August 2021, women have led peaceful public demonstrations, demanding the right to education, work, participation in public life, and freedom of movement and expression. These protests have been harshly suppressed with intimidation, arrests, and arbitrary detentions. Experts from the UN Human Rights Council, in their June 2023 report, received numerous credible reports of Taliban officials brutally beating, arbitrarily arresting, and detaining female protesters, many of whom were later released on the condition that they cease their activism and remain silent about their treatment. Victims report experiencing gender-based violence, including sexual violence often akin to torture, at the hands of Taliban officials seeking information about the protest organizer.