WOMEN AS THE WAY FORWARD: LESSONS FROM AFGHAN WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT JOURNEY
ISSUE BRIEF
Atlantic Council
SOUTH ASIA CENTER
ISSUE BRIEF
Women as the Way Forward:
Lessons from Afghan Women's Empowerment Journey MAY 2023
AMBASSADOR ROYA RAHMANI
DEAR READER,
The South Asia Center serves as the Atlantic Council’s focal point for work on greater South Asia as well as relations between these countries, the neighboring regions, Europe, and the United States. It seeks to foster partnerships with key institutions in the region to establish itself as a forum for dialogue between decision-makers in South Asia, the United States, and NATO. These deliberations cover internal and external security, governance, trade, economic development, education, and other issues. The Center remains committed to working with stakeholders from the region itself, in addition to partners and experts in the United States and Europe, to offer comprehensive analyses and recommendations for policymakers.
ATLANTIC COUNCIL
For forty-five bloody years, some group or another has been at war in Afghanistan. Like other Afghan women, my entire life has been shaped by one conflict after another. Born on the eve of the Saur Revolution, I lived through the Soviet invasion, the Civil War, and the Taliban’s 1990s rule. Until the intervention, each chapter that unfolded was heartbreak anew. The revival of democracy and freedom brought hope. The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 was even more painful and shocking than anything before because it shattered an era that had been characterized by so much progress. Amid all this turmoil, another battle has been taking place: the long and bitter struggle of Afghan women attempting to claim and retain their place in society. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been aware of my womanhood, my otherness. For just as long, I have felt an innate urge to ignore the limitations that were imposed by my gender. As a burka-clad teenage refugee in Pakistan, I was nearly expelled from the Wahhabite madrassa (religious school) I was forced to attend for asking questions about women in Islam that the teachers simply could not answer. Determined to not be constrained by ideas about gender that I firmly believed were misguided, I spent my whole life inserting myself into what I was told were male spaces. When studying computer science in the early 2000s, there were only a few women in my degree program. While leading the Regional Cooperation Directorate in Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I was often leading meetings where I was the only woman in the room.
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