The War on Terror and Its Unintended Consequences

Dedication

To all the strong women in the world working to overthrow the global patriarchal system!

Abstract

The War on Terror was used as an excuse to justify colonial ideologies in the name of civilisation and modernisation. Colonial powers destroyed many regimes, countries, ideologies configuring them as barbaric and framing their demise under the nationalist, communists, or Islamic systems. The war on terror gave more global geo-economic interest than considering Afghan or Iraqi people’s rights, freedom, or liberation. The war was more about economic gains rather than saving or protecting the women in faraway lands. Afghan women for long have been excluded from being visible in the public or take part in socio-economic or political spheres of life. After the invasion of Afghanistan by the U.S government and its European allies, the women had a bit of a chance to emerge as a political and social force, allowing them to participate (symbolically) in civic and political podiums. However, forming a fraudulent regime (run by warlords and Mafia), an unjust judiciary system and the liberal/colonial projects of the western powers dreaming of saving and democratising a nation further failed to protect the Afghan women and their rights. Instead, it reinforced the institutionalisation of patriarchy and perpetrated systematic violence against the women and contributed to rise of the fundamental ideologies and groups in the region.

Introduction

After the 11th of September 2001, the Bush administration focused on Afghanistan and the “war on terror”, with the Taliban, suspected of providing protection to Osama bin Laden and permitting al-Qaeda to train the terrorists in camps in Afghanistan along the border of Pakistan.

In his statement referring to the world and Americans, few days after the terrorist attacks, the President Bush declared war on anyone helping or harbouring terrorists’ that [would] be punished – and punished severely’ (Bush, 2001). The British Prime Minister Tony Blair also argued that, the international community must secure peace and stability around the globe and hold those who have organised, aided, and assisted the terrorists or their organisations (Bush, 2001; Blair, 2001).

The main objective of the Bush and Blair administration and their allies was to declare war on terror, and the primary concern was to destroy the terrorist networks actively, operating within the afghan soil. The Bush administration went miles and miles to prove the conflict as a humanitarian intervention and rescue mission of Afghan women from oppression and prejudice. He used every method to achieve support of the Americans to convince the world that these women in blue burqas were ‘White Man’s Burden” and they required to be saved. Immediately, the pledge of Afghan women arose to dominate the international policies, agendas, and the media as the politicians from every corner of the political spectrum came together to denounce the Taliban’s mistreatment and oppression of women.

One of the essential parts of this narrative was that, the Taliban’s treatment of women was something new that the Afghan women were never encountered before. Relatively progressive period in Afghan women’s history was shown through the media outlasts and in newspapers by effectively contrasting the Taliban regimes restrictions on the position of the women in the society to gender equality acts, which were embedded and enshrined within the Afghan Constitution of 1964; as well as the position of women before the rise of Taliban into power in 1996. For example, The State Department (2002) stated that, there is high number of women in education and they worked in the pre-Taliban era. However, this comparison created ambiguous comprehension of the situation of Afghan women and contributed to prolonging of their problems.

Bush administration and the mainstream media did not provide the public with analysis of the historical and political contexts of the terrorist attacks, nor they provided any information related to the rise of al Qaida’s from a small fundamental group to a colossal terrorist organisation, with offices and arms all over the world. The only argument Bush administration insisted on and ultimately shifted public’s knowledge and opinion was the oppression of Afghan women by a terrorist group associated and partnered with the al Qaida network. Even the first lady Laura Bush became an integral part of the media campaign focusing on women’s rights and liberation in Afghanistan and seeking help and assistance from the feminists’ organisations such as Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) and celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey. In her speech to the nation on the 17th of November 2001, she said: “The severe repression and brutality against women in Afghanistan is not a matter of legitimate religious practice. Muslims around the world have condemned the brutal degradation of women and children by the Taliban regime. The terrorists and the Taliban have imposed poverty, poor health, and illiteracy on women in Afghanistan with worse treatment of women in most of the Islamic world, where the women make important contributions in their societies.” She also emphasised the fact that, “Only the terrorists and the Taliban forbid education to women. Only the terrorists and the Taliban threaten to pull out women’s fingernails for wearing nail polish” (Bush, 2001).

Talpade et al. (2008) in her book stated “Feminism and Wars: confronting U.S. imperialism”, further argued that, the U.S. government have used not only feminism but also, gender, class, sexuality, race, religion, nationalism, imperialism, communism to legitimise wars. She also argued that, in order to understand ‘feminism and war’, we need to analyse the relationship between racist, heterosexist and masculinised practices and ideologies by the American government, who tries to establish political and economic hegemony. She insisted that, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and threat of war against Iran is nothing new, but rather these wars are the continuation of the previous wars. These wars and their disproportionate affect the lives of women, the racialised supremacy of males and the helplessness of women, needs and require a complex anti-imperialist feminist approach (Talpade et al., 2008).

However, here we see Laura Bush calling feminists organisations to stand together and save their brown sisters in a faraway land trapped in a brutal and barbaric system; “All of us have an obligation to speak out”, lacking the understanding of the impact of outside force and military intervention, which is in fact completely contradicts the core values of feminism. She and her husband’s administration insisted that, it was not only necessary, but it was also America’s duty to intervene and free Afghan women from this brutal oppression. Although many reports and findings highlighting that, Afghan women were neglected before the Taliban took over the power and after their invasion and how the international communities failed to protect and provide them the fundamental rights and suitable assistance.

For example, during the civil war of the 90s, a significant number of human rights organisations, including the United Nations and Amnesty International, reported the suffering of Afghan women, mainly because of the civil war and Mujahadeen’s atrocities. Amnesty International published a report titled “Women in Afghanistan: A Human Rights Catastrophe”, in which they discussed that, ‘lives of hundreds of thousands of Afghan women and children had been traumatised in the human rights violations which shattered Afghanistan during the civil war (1995b: 2; RAWA, 1995). In addition to that, Amnesty also found that, militia groups had raped, beaten and ‘massacred powerless women in their homes’ (Amnesty International, 1995b: 2). Rape and violence were used as a weapon of war, intimidating the vanquished people, rewarding soldiers, or sending a message to the opposition groups, tribes, and their victims’ families (1995b: 5-6; 1995b: 8-10). Despite these reports, the Bush administration, and the media campaign against the war on terror continued to demonstrate the Taliban period as peculiar and outdated in an otherwise advanced period of history.

Almost twenty years of war and occupation in the name of women’s rights Afghan women’s situation have seriously declined further and their status have been disproportionately affected by the decades of economic and political instability. Despite billions of dollars, thousands of lives lost, and scores of promises from the Women Rights Organisations and western feminists, the intervention has not made the lives of the Afghan women significantly better. According to the Time magazine report in December 2018, Afghanistan is still the worst place in the world to be a woman (Bohn, 2018).

There were many critiques of the War on Terror under the banners of Women Rights and misuse of Feminism. Some Feminists such as Saadia Toor claimed that, the misuse of women rights for the justification of Imperialists Wars and colonialism is nothing new. Today, this imperialist feminism has re-emerged in a new shape, but its function remains much the same. Since the beginning of the 19th and early 20th century, these wars as well as colonialism were supported by the western feminists “who spoke in the name of a ‘global sisterhood of women’ and claimed to ‘save’ their brown sisters from the shackles of tradition and barbarity” (Toor, 2012).

The situation for Afghan women still seems deem and shady, especially after the withdrawal agreement between the Taliban and the U.S, who took up arms against each other, but now shaking hands and signing peace deals by ignoring the sufferings and sacrifices of Afghan. As U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan takes an overt turn, so does the fear of the country’s return to the age of uncertainty, chaos, and Taliban’s rules and regulations regarding women’s place in Afghan society. Human Rights Watch (2020) shows that,, more than 400 women have been targeted since February 2020. Apparently, most of them at the hands of Taliban and their supporters. Two of those women were judges, assassinated on their way to work (Harding, 2021).

The voices advocating for the intervention and demonstrating loyalty to their duty to protect women’s rights in faraway lands now are advising Afghan women and the government that the women rights issues are mainly the Afghan people’s problem (Biden, 2021) and it is not white man’s burden anymore. Women still face many challenges, security threats, lack of education and poor employment opportunities. They have limited access to health care and the ability to participate meaningfully in civic or political spheres of life.

In this thesis, I explore the relationship between the justification of the U.S. invasion and the war in Afghanistan and its affiliation with the imperialistic framework of (Imperial) feminists, who have facilitated their governments to camouflage violence and brutality of colonialists, sugar-coating it as a form of social mission and emancipation. I argue that, the U.S expanded women’s rights under the banner of (imperial) feminism, humanitarian intervention and liberal/colonial projects partially for the democratisation of the nation, causing alarming level of socio-political tribulations; eventually leading to the demise of the U.S foreign policies in Afghanistan and the return of insurgency groups, imposing their harsh social policies not only on women but also on the entire population. Examining the U.S. foreign policy made me question about the force of the intervention and invasion, and if it really contributed towards the emancipation of women in Afghanistan. I will also look at the Afghan women’s lives before and after the war on terror.

This paper will also look at the institutionalisation of patriarchy, which perpetuated constitutional and structural violence against the women and minority groups, preventing marginalised individuals from meeting their basic rights; here, I argue that, the U.S. had responsibility in sponsoring patriarchy, and indorsed men to have full access to resources and power. The Afghan government and its institutions are one of the main actors perpetrating violence and oppression against the women. The system has diminutive value for women’s lives and can easily watch a woman die to maintain power. The system, alongside the traditional and religious fallacies, stops the women from performing as their own agents, and instead, and it drives them to the brink of self-destruction, so they can even take their own lives to avoid abuse and violence (Kumar, 2017). Consequently, when discussing the fate of Afghan women, it is impossible not to address the systematic oppression of women by the patriarchal system. Women empowerment struggles requires acknowledging and addressing gender-based violence as in form of institutional oppression, which prevents women from engaging in the public sphere. Therefore, it was very important for the U.S. government to understand holistically the status of women in Afghan society and consider their, class, religion (Shia, Sunni, Ismaili and so on), ethnicity, tribal connection, education level and family status into consideration, before trying to impose their own democratic values on them. The established institutions by the U.S and other international communities did not promote gender equality in practice, rather created more complications for the Afghan women especially in rural areas (Cordaid, 2021).

Alongside the above-mentioned points, I will also investigate U.S. development programmes attempting to empower the women and how the so-called humanitarian intervention stands as a symbol of the patriarchal nature of international politics, which directly or indirectly facilitated violence against women. I will also discuss why the Afghan government, the U.S. and their foreign allies try to portray the Taliban and their politics as the root causes of violence against the women in Afghanistan, overlooking other traits of this tragedy. Finally, I will stand my point on the idea of why remarkably imposed democracy is inherently undemocratic and why artificially and externally enforced gender equality struggles that fails in conservative civilizations, such as Afghanistan.

Methodology

Before continuing, it is vital to deliver a summary of the methods that I used to discover how Afghan women were represented in the justifications of war against terror, also known as Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). I started my investigation by looking at the speeches and interviews made by President George W. Bush after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I tried to evaluate the ways that he explained and characterised the situation in Afghanistan and the lives of Afghan women. Also, I looked at the reports and statements, constructed by other politicians and senior officials. I explored how the media was portraying the Afghan women and how the images were reproduced by other parts of the political establishment, mainly considering the role of Feminists Majority Foundation (FMF) and women rights activists, politicians from around the globe and those back home in Afghanistan such as the work of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA, 2005).

I investigated mainly the theoretical evidences, to deliver a broad understanding of the subject matter. A considerable amount of attention was given to the literature and the reports of Amnesty International and various organisations to create this theoretical framework of the current body of knowledge regarding the research question.

I am approaching my analysis from a feminist perspective, which I hope will benefit our insight into the understanding how “women rights activism’’ and feminism can be exploited to support and maintain patriarchy and how the ideas of domination, imperialism and occupation of foreign lands in the name of humanitarian intervention or social missions can be challenged. After discussing the limitations of my research, I will try to review the scholarly literature applicable to the analysis of Afghan women’s representation in the U.S., foreign policy and the feminist’s symbolic illustration for the accomplishment of the neo-liberalistic policies, domestically and internationally.

Limitation

Every reading and every theory are open to more than one interpretation. The scholars, writers, and critiques can encode the text with the implication of rhetorical strategies, but they cannot determine how the audiences decrypt or understand them. One of the limitations of this research was that, I had no access to the desired first-hand materials or primary data such as interviews or stories narrated by Afghan women themselves, to compare it with the existing literature. I always had to utilise the secondary data to obtain the required information. In Afghanistan, independent media using English or local languages are mainly supported and funded by the foreigners and through philanthropic contributions. Investigative reporters and those journalists reporting the actual situation on the ground are regularly attacked and threatened either by the Afghan government, the Taliban or those not wanting the journalists or the researchers to deliver transparent reports (D’onnell, 2018). Patricia Gossman, a senior researcher of the Human Rights Watch organisation, noted that: “many journalists shy away from reporting on the most important issues in Afghanistan’’ (D’onnell, 2018). Not having access to transparent information undermines the quality of the conducted research, which mainly relies only on secondary data collection.

The secondary data collection has its own disadvantages. Most often, they are not as authentic as when collected directly from the source. Some of the secondary data sources are outdated and it is hard to find the updated version especially in the case of Afghanistan, where the primary data collection according to the World Bank can be an overwhelming and dangerous task (Rooms et al., 2017).

Literature Review

Complex dialogues arise surrounding the "liberation" and "emancipation" of Muslim women in the Islamic world and in around the globe. It has a profoundly intense political history, and this narrative has been renovated and reformed several times to persuade and secure public support for the Western military intervention in the Middle East and Afghanistan. However, when we critically examine U.S. foreign policy and its military intervention, subsequently using women's rights as a justification for the war on terror, we conclude that, it contributed to the worsening of the condition of women not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also in other region.

Forty years of political instability affected Afghan women's rights, and it has become a significantly important matter of domestic and international political dialogue. Women's rights became an indicator of numerous political ideologies, holding power within the country through years of conflict.

The United States, after the invasion in 2001 predicated, to establish democracy and human rights in the country to save those helpless Afghan women in burqas; however, the democratisation policies had adverse outcomes rather than what was the dream of the Bush administration before dropping bombs and troops on the ground. Meanwhile, after seeing the Afghan women's images, all over the media and on the covers of the magazines and the policymakers’ agendas, many politicians, as well as feminists’ scholars, have raised their concerns. Bush administration utilised every technique to convince the world that, these helpless brown women were "White Man's Burden" and needed to be saved under any circumstances, even if they had to kill them to liberate them.

Mohanty and Bruce Pratt, in their book, Feminism and War: Confronting U.S. Imperialism, highlighting those tactics in which the USA and its European allies have gendered, racialised and sexualised war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The book points to the economic policies to consolidate, and advance profit to enhance capitalism. Huibin Amelia Chew, in her essay 'What is left? After 'imperial feminists' hijacking', discusses a relationship between imperialism and gender, and she insists that "it is not about macho talk but rather economic sexism and sexual exploitation, and it is merely about death and not survival" (p,75). Imperialism is all about inequality affecting "disadvantaged nations" and the lives of many marginalised minorities and middle-class people at home. The book is a collection of essays divided into four sections: Feminist Geopolitics of War, Feminist Mobilizing Critiques of War, Women's Struggles and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Feminists Organising Against Imperialism and War (Talpade, 2008).

In order to democratise Afghan society the U.S. government developing programs, to advance their interest in the country and the region as it is rich in oils, mineral gasses and opium. There were two approaches utilised by American Orientalists; one philological wining their hearts and minds by serving the needs of the new empire which was in dire need of ‘modernisation’ and the other was through social scientific research of the area. After all, the United States has saved many nations from their barbaric culture, religion, tyrannic regimes or because they were too communist or too socialist; and because the U.S. is super talented in dividing the world into ‘them’ and ‘us’ (Kumar, 2012).

Shehnaz Khan writes in, 'Afghan women: the limit of colonial rescue', that the imperialists feminists also have tried everything in their power to "liberate" Afghan women without challenging the imperial policies that kept those women and their societies in "perpetual subordination" (Khan, 2008). Jennifer Fluri, who also writes about the war in Afghanistan, argues that the war had very little to do in confronting (Islamic) patriarchy. Like Fluri, Khan explained that, the women of Afghanistan are not saved by white men from Afghan men or their patriarchal traditions and have not reached equality; instead, they are pushed further into economic chaos, exploitation through sex work and poverty. An essential factor of analysis by Khan is that she uses the term "colonial feminism." She argued that, Western values and democracy have been used to justify the war on terror.

These essays are powerful in analysing the oppression of women in the USA as well and its close relations with the larger geopolitical context of U.S. imperialism. Chew, for example, argued that, the liberation of brown women served as a justification for war, and it created dilemmas for feminists' politics which were enough to recognise the systematic institutionalisation of patriarchy at home and abroad (p, 75). For example, Leilani Dowell points out in her essay, 'violence against women: the U.S. war on women', that the U.S. military remains one of the most hostile places for women, where sexual harassment and rape are perpetrated by male soldiers. In 2004, there were around 112 complaints of sexual harassment of service women in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait (Dowell, 2008; p219). Many Feminists writers argued that, the imperial feminists have neglected the suffering and oppression of women at home and instead portrayed it as a non-western and no-white problem (Farris, 2017).

Sara Farris, in her book 'In the Name of Women's Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism' (2017), argued that, the right-wing parties in the U.S. and Europe use feminism and women rights to improve their anti-immigration, anti-Muslim, xenophobic programs and under the logo of gender equality, humanitarian assistance and economic empowerment. Farris draws a connection between racism and feminism, and how some western feminists were constantly instrumentalised for various political and economic tenacities, and how white men have commandeered the emancipation of women to validate their Islamophobic right-wing nationalistic agendas (Ferris, 2017, p. 8–9). She also claimed that, while in their native lands, brown men are continually empowered and supported to implement patriarchal traditions continually, and oppression against women and gender inequality is institutionalised to achieve their political objectives. In the west, the same Muslim men are portraited as sexual threats and enemies of human rights, gender equality, global peace, and Muslim women walking free in London or Paris are still regarded as oppressed, vulnerable, submissive, and complicit in the struggle that they endure. Farris further argued that, the west systematically stigmatises Muslim migrants' men in their host countries under the name of women rights and liberation. (Farris, 2017)

She also claims that, some western, mainly white feminists and world leaders have diverted attention from the many forms of inequality, violence and abuses happening in the west. Instead, they have portraited it as non-western women and Muslim nations problems only, or as trouble concerning European women portraying them as victims of non-western non-white men barbarism (Farris, 2017). She disputed that, the "imperial feminists" are often ignorant towards violence, poverty, and discrimination women of colour face at home and abroad. In other words, social and political emancipation of women of colour will only be available, if they abandon their own identity and agree to the identity, which the western politicians and the white radical feminists consider as applicable. Likewise, numerous European countries have commanded that if Muslims and Muslim women eliminate their religious/cultural practices, they can only mix into their privileged western societies. According to Farris, feminism evolves in many shapes and forms because "women are not a monolith, and the female experience is dissimilar", especially when we are aware that, gender interrelates contrarily with race, class, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion, nationality and so forth (Farris, 2017).

In both the texts, authors have emphasised that, gender and sexuality are by-products of colonial and racial encounters and lies at the core definition of colonial privilege and its boundaries. They have emphasised that, the U.S. and its international allies have used women rights and feminism to justify their materialistic, neo-liberal and imperialistic wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. What are missing in both the texts are the voices of Afghan feminists. Neither of the texts has a section dedicated to a native Afghan woman, who could narrate Afghan women's situation on the ground, or the voices of rural women; for example, how and in what ways the invasion affected their lives. Did it achieve the liberation it promised? Can they ride a bike as some women empowerment programs was teaching women how to ride a bike and women even took part in tournaments in Bamiyan (Cahall, 2015)? In the upcoming chapters we will examine if the ‘emancipation mission’ achieved its objectives or not?

Chapter one

Afghanistan's War context and history

USSR, Mujahedeen, the Cold War, and the role of the U.S. in the region

Afghanistan is located at a central point between the Middle East and Central Asia. It is an important location along the Silk Road, and for centuries, various tribes, dynasties and people were the inhabitants of this land. The country has witnessed many military battlefields, from Alexander the great to Arab Muslims and Genghis Khan. Contemporary Afghanistan was founded in 1747, serving as a buffer state between the British and Russian empires until gaining independence in 1919. There was always a consistent tension in the country between modernization and tribalism. The Anglo-Afghan wars had given a boost to some nationalist sentiments, especially among urban elites. However, Afghan monarchs often struggled with the religious elite for leadership and power' (Zeiger 2008). King Zaher Shah ruled Afghanistan from 1933-73, until his Prime Minister, Daoud Khan, performed a non-military coup, becoming Afghanistan's first President, experimenting with various democratisation policies, which ended with another countercoup in 1978, this time by the communist party the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) (Barfield, 2012).

While Afghanistan stayed out of the cold war business and had successfully played the U.S. and the Soviet Union in its favour to receive enormous financial and infrastructural aid from both the sides, the Soviets saw an opportunity to offer more political and economic assistance and compound their regional impact (Rubin, 2002). They entered Afghanistan in the late 70s, where the country has become a battlefield for the struggle of power between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. PDPA attempted to implement Stalin type of doctrine after coming to power, passing a series of social reforms, which gained minimal support from the urban regions as the capital had isolated itself from the rural parts of the country. In reply to those social reforms trying to educate and liberate the women ended in the formation of resistance movements organized by fundamentalist Islamic groups, such as 'mujahideen' (holy warriors). Mullahs and religious leaders took up arms against the Soviet-backed government forcing girls to go to school, stopping women's sales and levirate marriages (Barfield, 2012). The separation between rural citizens and urban settlers is extremely visible as its rooted in everyday experiences. There is and always will be two Afghanistan. The first one is the (shahr) the city, and the second is the (atraf), the provinces. The urban society is in constant change, enjoying the transformation under different rulers and regimes, while the provinces and villages consisting of isolated people are often left out from the advantages of the shahri (city based) lifestyle (Barfield, 2012). Therefore, it was tremendously difficult for the fathers in villages to accept their daughters to attend schools and to choose their own husbands (Roy, 1990). While Afghanistan was struggling between transformation, and modernisations, and the growth in fundamentalist’s ideologies, the U.S took advantage of the situation and started a severe financial blow to protect guerrilla fighters in the region and subside Soviet influence in the region. The U.S., terrified by the consequences of the Soviet invasion considering it as a threat to its hegemonic status, under Carter started working closely with the Pakistani dictator Zia ul-Haqq to provide arms, training, and funding to the so-called freedom fighters, mujaheddin. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, multiple nationalist and religious groups were active in the region, broadly viewed as modest. Nevertheless, the U.S. poured seventy-five per cent of aid in channelling the most extremist groups, such as Hezb-i-Islami, with ruthless Gulbuddin Hekmatyar as its head, considering him as one of the fanatic fighters (Hirschkind and Mahmood 2002; Barfield, 2012). Many commentators argue that region’s political problems and much of Pakistan’s policy towards Afghanistan, is because of the Durrand Line, including its support for the Taliban, which was motivated by its fear of an independent Pashtunistan (Rashid, 2001: 72-89; 2002: 183-195).

A former CIA director Robert Gates (1996) noted that, financial and military support for Mujahedeen began in June 1979 before the Soviet invasion. However, Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, in an interview stated that, the CIA aid to the mujahideen took place during the 80s after the invasion of Afghanistan. The day soviets entered Afghanistan; Carter wrote to the President: We now can give the USSR its Vietnam war. After succeeding in Afghanistan, the U.S. government start supporting revolutionary groups with full knowledge of their violent and repressive policies in various countries, including Congo, and Chile (Barfield, 2012). One of those violent groups was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, receiving large sums of aid from the U.S., even though his followers would throw acid on the faces of women, who refused to wear the Islamic veil. Between 1992 and 1996, the so-called Northern Alliance, referring to multiple groups of Mujahedeen, perpetuated massacres, rapes, terrorising civilians and robbing them blind. However, ignoring their atrocities, the U.S., with the help of Pakistani intelligence, trained and armed mujahideen fighters from Afghanistan and camps set up at the border of Pakistan. Of course, the U.S. knew of the nature of Mujahedeen's social policies, if any existed, but they were more interested in Moscow, not Afghans, regardless of their gender (Roy, 1990). The situation for Afghan women instantaneously started to degenerate. Attacks on Afghan women began in 1989, when mujahideen leaders based in Pakistan distributed orders to assassinate any woman, who worked for the humanitarian organisations or disobeys to wear Islamic hijab, which covers their entire body (Goodwin and Neuwirth, 2001: A19).

Surprisingly the U.S. did not pay much attention to the situation of Afghan women then, as much as they paid attention to similar treatment of women by the Taliban after September attacks. In 1992 the so-called President of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, Burhanuddin Rabbani, suspended the 1964 Constitution and published religious statements preventing women from holding government positions(Goodwin and Neuwirth,2001: A19) severely curtailing women's rights throughout the country. Ironically after the invasion of Afghanistan by the U.S. in 2001, the same people who took up arms to fight against women's rights in the 90s suddenly become feminists under the new U.S. established government in Kabul (Delphy, 2004).

Assisting Mujahedeen, and the Talibs in the camps in Pakistan, introduced the world to Osama bin Laden. One of the recruiters, belonging to wealthy Saudi family, who had strong ties with the madrassas and camps in Pakistan, which enabled him to form al Qaeda organisation in the early 1990s. The U.S. provided large quantities of arms such as C-4 plastic, missiles, and extensive satellite inspecting information on the location of the Soviets (Coll, 1992: A1). With almost 3billion investment, in war, Soviet Union was at last defeated in 1989. They began their withdrawal from Afghanistan, leaving the country with over 2 million Afghans death, half a million maimed, and millions displaced seeking shelter in neighbouring countries including Pakistan and Iran (Rubin, 2002). According to Rich (2014), six million refugees had fled into Iran, and another five million into Pakistan's refugee camps and within these camps, Afghan refugees were introduced to Salafism, a fundamentalist ideology of Saudi Salafism gaining popularity in the Gulf region. The combination of this severely conservative form of Islam, deprivation from education plus disadvantaged upbringing give birth to a new group of fundamentalists known as the Taliban (meaning student).

After the collapse of communism and the closure of the Soviet Union's chapter, the United States paid significant attention to the region and started to distance itself from the disarray he created, leaving the country to struggle in a state of anarchism and disorder. The United States and the new formed Soviet Union suspended their military and economic aid leaving the country in dire need of humanitarian assistance (Rubin, 2002). The U.S. and USSR closed their embassies in Kabul alongside the Cold War chapter without delivering the promised assistances towards development, or a regime, which could bring peace not only to Afghan nation but the entire.

Afghanistan which was known as the of the land of the heroes of Cold War, were now the inhabitants of a Post-Cold War failed state (Maley, 2009).

The U.S. paid no attention to Afghanistan until bin Laden declared war and carried the horrific September 11th terrorist attacks, reversing the U.S. attention back to its foreign and military policy towards the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Islam, Taliban, and the treatment of women

The horrific consequence of the Soviet-Afghan war was visible by the emergence of an Islamic group Taliban. They took control of Afghanistan after vicious two years of struggle in 1996. Once in power, the Taliban started practising a conservative form of sunny Islam in their communities and throughout Afghanistan. The various Mujaheddin groups that had held power in the past had already started practising Islam in Afghan society. However, the Taliban took it to an entirely new level.

Taliban implemented various policies regarding women. Women were forbidden to work outside their homes. They could not attend schools and were forced to wear burqas; denied travelling alone, without a mahram (male relative), and they had to avoid contact with stranger men at any cost (Marsden, 1998; p. 88). If these rules were transgressed, the religious police would meet punishments like public beating, humiliation and sometimes even death. However, despite being aware of the atrocities committed by the Taliban regime, the United States forged to create a relationship with them to establish a pipeline of oil and natural gas resources in the Caspian Sea. This decision showcased the American government's willingness to work with Islamist groups when it was profitable and economically convenient, as we witnessed in previous chapter (Kumar, 2012; Rashid, 2000: 171–82). Because of these economic benefits and the desire not to alienate the Taliban, the U.S. remained mute when the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996 and began their assault on women. The U.S. cooperated with Islamists who shared the same economic visions as them and were enemies with those who did not. Securing access to resources and markets, requires dialectic connection between force and negotiation, between occupation and the world monopolies, between aggressive colonialism and a more liberal imperialism (Talpade,2008). In the present, as in the past, colonial force and liberalising world capitalists’ markets have both similarly favoured the powerful and the rich, regardless of their position in the political spectrum (Talpade, 2008).

After the 11th of September, the United States found itself in a new so-called asymmetrical warfare that treated stateless groups such as the Taliban and al Qaida as threats to the national interests of the United States in the region. To develop a defensive strategy United Nations had to come up with military and diplomatic policies protecting their interests abroad. (Rubin, 2002). The post-cold war era was characterized by many as a clash of civilizations, differences between various cultures and civilisations. The narration seemed more reasonable because of the United States hostile foreign policies in the 90s, those developed during the war on terror such as the Rendition programs and the Guantanamo bay and Abu Gharib scandals and the treatment Muslims back, created a stream of enemies and haters towards the western values and their advanced civilizations.

Journalist Judith Miller for example in an article in Foreign Affairs (1993) advice the U.S. policymakers to not try to distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' Islamist, because there was a consensus among all Islamists to defeat the West and build an Islamic state at home the 'end justifies the means' Miller states. (Miller, 1993).

However, some scholars, including Leila Ahmed and Asma Barlas, argue that nor Muslims or Islam are inherently misogynistic or violent. They point to the passages and the Koran that suggest equality between men and women (Kumar, 2012). Ballast argues that sexist interpretation of the Koran is the product of a society that needed religious authority to justify gender inequality. Same as some terrorist organizations use passages of the Quran to serve their political aims. Much the same way as American fundamentalists have used Christianity to attack women's rights. They also argue that, many religious scripts across the globe are to some extend sexist, singling out Islam for a sexist practice in mainstream media and public discourse is not a historical oversight but a systematic attempt to construct 'our' values and religion as being open-minded in contrast with 'theirs' (Kumar, 2012).

Highlighting the suffering of women under the Taliban from their familiarities the previous regimes not only produce limited understanding of Afghanistan’s historical context, but also characterises a society which ignores series of social, economic, and cultural differences within the country itself. Ahmed Rashid argued, the ‘plight of Afghan women and Afghan society began well before the Taliban arrived’ (Rashid, 2002, p.107). However, through examination of the democratisation efforts and emancipation programs managed by the U.S. shows that the U.S. the Afghan Government and Imperial feminists overlooked egregious violations against women in Afghanistan. Rather than addressing the underlying reasons of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the Bush administration bluntly blamed Taliban, overlooking the many problems that were already well-entrenched in society before the rise of the Taliban into power. Also, the concentration was merely on women in Kabul, completely ignoring the suffering of the rural women neglected when in leading the discussions of war, security, or women’s rights.

1.3. Women’s place in Afghan society. Addressing institutionalized violence and oppression against women.

Men and women's experiences during violence or military intervention are often shaped by gender and intersected by socioeconomic class, location, and ethnicity (Giles and Hyndman, 2004). Multiple types of research are required to understand the multidimensional approaches to research on gender, conflict, and security. It is essential to identify women and men's complicated and shifting identities in conflict zones (Hand, 2004). For example, the notion of saving the helpless Afghan women or marginalizes women as political and social agents, solidifies men's role as a perpetrator and saviour (Fluri, 2008). Thirty years of war and conflict riddled the discourses of 'saving' afghan women from Afghanistan's patriarchal social structure.

In this section of the essay, I will investigate the main challenges Afghan women encounter when participating in round table discussions regarding security issues and gender. Most apparent reasons are the lack of a secure environment. The security of Afghan women is interconnected with the concept of masculinity and patriarchy and doing gender, to understand this connection, we need to study the lives of ordinary Afghan men and women and their roles in society, and the effect of conflict and insecurity in their daily lives.

A feminist approach is helpful when seeking to address gender or its power relations and understand its impact on women. However, Deep-rooted gender roles where men take responsibility and decisions in the public sphere while women maintain control of the domestic environment have contributed to the exclusion of women from decision making and conflict resolution agendas. When it comes to national level participation, women complain about facing multiple criticism and discrimination. Their position on the round table discussions is highly symbolic, limiting their participation further (Habib, 2017).

In post-conflict societies, women are deeply affected by security issues or the absence of it. Aolain (2013) argued that, those women are entirely excluded from decision-making regarding the security of their environment or their own lives. It is a gender exclusion, and unfortunately not uncommon, particularly in societies such as Afghanistan, where patriarchy takes decisions on behalf of women. The state and men in the society tells women what they they can or cannot do, how they should think, and behave and wish. Same method applies when it comes to security. Men in the society or in Afghanistan case in the west decide whose security matter the most, who is important and how it should be achieved (Hirschmann, 1996). The absence of adequate political and legal institutions or lack of operation adds to the exclusion of women from participation in security discourse.

Afghanistan often refers as a "patriarchal belt" (Moghadam 2002, p.20). In such societies, female illiteracy, and lack of access to education are extraordinarily high; participation in the workforce is restrained, and men are expected to take responsibility in the family and in the community. Women are subordinated and reduced to a form of commodity, a property belonging to men. For example, in Pashtunwali, a very masculinist society considers this practice their code of conduct and is enshrined in their communities' legislation (Moghadam 2002). Women are under strict control not only by their families or male relatives but also by their governments under the domestic laws. Gender segregation is part of this system, embedded in the culture and societal norms. A community's identity constructs gender norms, and they are more often outcomes of social, economic, and political changes, however some are static and absolute. In Afghanistan, the community, group, and family identity dominate over the individual identity. In some instances, individual identity is often non-existent, especially in rural areas (Povey, 2007).

As mentioned before family structure is one of the factors eliminating women’s participation in decision-making tables and programs, making it difficult for women to be their own agents. Some are kept captive due to security reasons and not being allowed to leave the house, as women are guardians of culture and custodians of family’s honour. For some families, women need to be accompanied by a mahram (male relative) whilst leaving the house (Ibd, 102).

Most women are willingly or unwillingly highly dependent on males, relatives, and husbands, as they lack control over assets, resources, or working outside of the home; however, considering the current economic climate, there are relatively few opportunities available for both genders (Statista, 2020).

Also, the undervaluation of women skills highly impacts their ability to participate in community decision-making and undertake leadership roles. Lack of education, knowledge, and access to the correct information portrays Afghan women as powerless objects outside and inside their homes and in the world's eyes.

UN declaration on violence against women 1993 defines violence as any act of ''violence that ends or is likely to result in physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering. Including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty that occurs in public or private life'' (UN, 2020). However, not many women are aware of their essential human lives. Many have accepted violence as part of the Afghan culture, as it is rooted in the country's customs, attitudes, and practices.

In afghan society, there is unacceptable silence regarding discrimination and violence against women. Many women's acceptance of masculinity culture and violence further enhances this silence, showcasing it as a form of consent. There is an urgent need in research and understanding on ways to deconstruct masculinity to improve the participation of women in decision-making processes. Afghan Governments and international communities' top priority should have been the improvement of laws and to provide legal protection as many lack awareness of their right and rely on traditional, family suggested methods of healing when it comes to domestic violence or other gender-based violence (Povey, 2007).

The Afghan judiciary law has a patriarchal social structure, which goes deep in Afghanistan, tracking back-to-back to pre-Islamic civilization. To restructure patriarchy, in such society we need to study the root causes of gender inequality and look at men's roles in society; into gender power sharing dynamics and systematic violence against women as these attitudes have been passed down from generation to generation. Including women in political processes might lead to different approaches to national interests. However, failing to recognise women’s actual position in Afghan society, will lead only to shallow gains.

1.4. Lack of legal protection. Laws Facilitating Violence Against Women

One of the ways to look at gender and security in the war-torn country is by looking at the laws and codes which offers protection for women in conflicted zones. The rhetoric suggestion presented by the Bush administration that the Afghan women miseries begins and ends with the violent oppression of the Taliban plays a vital role in understanding women's oppression not on a surface but deeper level.

The neo-liberal empowerment programs are the product of this superficial understanding of women's oppression, which is deeply rooted in the institutions supporting violence and the cycle of oppression. In order to understand this problem on a deeper level, we need to analyse the experiences of Afghan women and debunk the myth that violence affects all women the same way. Only through effective and productive civic and political engagement, the women can acquire fundamental rights, challenge, and break the cycles of violence that have been institutionalised and perpetuated by a government and their international allies (Talpade, 2008).

The idea that the Afghan women's struggles started and will end with the demise of the Taliban belittles the strength and power of Afghan women and undermines their rights for the regeneration of their societies. The real challenge is the violence they face by the patriarchal systems which the U.S. helped to institutionalize. Just because women were given a chair and a seat on the table is not enough to force change in this patriarchal system and society. Having a voice that is heard within this political sphere requires respect, which many women, especially those non-aligned with warlords or other political parties, do not have (Khan, 2008).

The mere presence of women with voices in power disrupts the patriarchal system, mainly when women are functioning positively. Women rights are enshrined in the current Afghan constitution; however, these rights are fully paralyzed in exercise. One of the laws supported and funded by the U.S. was the Afghan Panel Code, which does not recognize rape as a crime (HRW, 2009); instead, it criminalizes extramarital sex, known as Zina, penalizing women for committing crimes of non-consensual sex. Suppose the act of Zina cannot be proven. In that case, the Penal Code considers it a Ta'zir crime (UNAMA & UNHCHR, 2013), which means that police and judges can prosecute individuals at their pleasure (UNAMA & UNHCHR, 2013). Laws as such are enshrined within the constitution of Afghanistan facilitating the degradation of Afghan women, either by charging her for committing moral crimes, such as running away from an abusive relationship or forced marriages or by forcing her to marry her rapist, as Zina is often used for the justification of extramarital sex (UNAMA & UNHCHR, 2013).

Laws as such are pushing women back into the home and under the control of male relatives. These laws allow the men to further control and abuse women's bodies as they like, as till today the private life remains unregulated. This illustrates that the U.S and its international allies purposely are funding and purchasing the loyalties of the corrupt afghan regimes, ignoring the suffering of women dreaming of a just and a transparent institution which was promised to them by their liberators.

Chapter Two

Feminism and Violence

2.1. Feminism and the Imperialistic wars. The symbolic use of Afghan Women in the war on terror

The relationship between War and Feminism is very complex. There are many conversations over the interests of feminists and what those interests are, when it comes to war and military intervention? War is examined in the context of economic globalisation in many ways to expand imperialism and reconstruct legal and cultural systems (Mohanty, 2008).

The anti-imperialism analysis in Feminism and War: confronting U.S. imperialism tries to highlight the ways the USA has gendered, racialised and practised imperialist wars through military and economic policies advancing only the profit-driven capitalist countries (Mohanty, 2008; P3). After the attack on Afghanistan in the name of 'humanitarian intervention and 'women emancipation', many feminists' scholars have questioned the connection between the liberation of women and military intervention (Mohanty, 2008). Zillah Eisenstein (Ibid; p 6) argues that, the U.S. imperial democracy militarises women for imperial goals. The United States created a rhetorical and ideological discussion important enough to dominate the less advanced societies (Mohanty, 2008).

In order to prove to the world that, War in Afghanistan was not about imperialism or capitalism, or against Afghan people, the Bush administration carefully created a plan to ensure the international community and Americans back home by considering the war as a humanitarian intervention and a rescue mission (Mohanty, 2008; Jumar, 2012).

For example, Bush promised that, alongside bombs he would drop, food, medicine, and to the impoverished Afghan people should appreciate the generosity of the American nation (Bush, 2001). He allocated $320m in aid to Afghanistan to comfort the effect of war and harsh winter. This act of generosity allowed him to portray war as an ethical business against the most notorious business partners, who were not ready to corporate and sign the business agreement, which they eventually did after twenty years. He also signed the act "Afghan Women and Children Relief act", which is a gesture to show the world that this war was not about protecting U.S. national interest; instead it is about helping the women and children in faraway lands. Bush alongside his wife Laura Bush, championed colonialism as a tool to introduce progress in underdeveloped societies, where they considered misery and ill-treatment of women as part of their backwardness but not as the consequence of their occupation or imperialistic policies (Cole, 2008; p119).

Besides making sure to portray the Afghans relying on the generosity of Americans, Bush also reproduced an idea of Afghan women, portraying them as lifeless prisoners, prevented from laughing, speaking, or riding a bicycle (Bush, 2001). America was beginning to realise that, dreams of the terrorists and the Taliban were a walking nightmare for Afghan women and their children (Bush, 2001).

By drawing attention to these pictures of Afghan women, which of course at that time was like the reality of Afghan women, but what Bush was using these suffering women to justify a military attack, which he knew would in no way bring smile, happiness or liberation. This mentality ignored the complexity of Afghan women's situation and undermined their struggle to face the enormous hardship of being a woman in a country like Afghanistan, which requires a lot of courage and bravery. Many feminist activists and scholars have tried to draw attention to the gendered statements allowing to justify a war, using the myth of protection, and positioning the U.S. as a hero fighting with the world to save Afghan women (Khan, 2008).

The attention to the cruelty women endured abroad was covering Bush's anti-feminism and anti-womanism at home (Delphy, 208). While he signed the acts to save women in other countries, he refused to sign a U.N. international treaty (1979) on the prohibition of oppression against women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women (Ibid, 120). The rescue narrative cannot solely be blamed on the Bush administration, like many other actors, including opportunistic afghans trying to use this notion to be part of the mission for various reasons, but mainly financial profit (Kumar, 2012). Increased militarisation of woman’s lives and the disfranchisement of economy within the global capitalist system only leaves us to question the first world’s concepts of just war and the so-called humanitarian assistance and development programs of the U.S. and other international aid initiatives.

2.2 Feminism in Afghanistan and Revolutionary Afghan Women Association

Even in the early 1990s, many Afghan women in urban centres participated in the workforce and public life. Afghanistan's Constitution was written in 1964, ensuring fundamental rights for the women, such as the universal right to vote and equal pay and access to education and health. Girls in the 50s in Kabul and other cities were attending schools. Half of the university students were women, and women made up 40 per cent of Afghanistan's doctors, 70 per cent of its teachers and 30 per cent of its civil servants. A small number of women even held critical political posts as members of Parliament and judges (Smeal, 2001). However, one needs to take these achievements as a pinch of salt. These achievements were relatable to only a small number of women in Afghanistan, mainly those mentioned above who resided in cities or belonged to elite families. Women in rural areas struggled for their fundamental rights and dreamed of their voices heard by their privileged sisters in cities and abroad. While the women in urban areas enjoyed a first-class lifestyle, education, high income, and access to healthcare, many ordinary women were still trapped in their homes, suffering from illiteracy, human rights abuses, and poverty.

Afghanistan has been occupied for more than three decades. First by the Soviets and the U.S. led international forces, and then by Mujahedeen, the so-called freedom fighters and last by the Taliban.

The status of women in Afghanistan depends on the political landscape of the country. Many regimes and groups have exploited the rights of Afghan women to gain their political objectives. On some occasions, they were improved, and in others, as in the case of the Mujahedeen and the Taliban, their rights have been abused dramatically. Until the late 70s, women's status in society was steady. Women had the right to vote, which they obtained in 1919; they were in employment and studied and taught in schools and universities. With the emergence of the civil war and the government forces plus the Taliban regimes, women's rights were enormously declined and abused.

However, the orientalist often portrays that the struggle and oppression of Afghan women only took place under the Taliban regime. The Washington Post published a story of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), describing the risks and danger of being a women rights activist in Afghanistan under the Taliban ruling (Schmidt, 2001). The magazine featured the attack on women's rights organisations as an attack since the beginning of the Taliban regime. However, RAWA was established in 1977. RAWA had multiple secret branches all over the country working with women and the refugees in Peshawar. They started underground schools a publication of a bilingual magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Woman's Message). A poster on their website says: 'Afghan Women Cannot be Enslaved". (RAWA, 2001). Albeit under the Taliban rule, RAWA was the only women-led organisation, making impacts on the international agendas. They worked closely with the Feminists Majority Foundation to persuade the oil companies from investing in a war in Afghanistan, insisting that, war will only deprive people of more misery and not eradicate the root causes of terrorism (RAWA, 2001).

However, Feminist Majority was not celebrating RAWA like anti-imperialists organisations; instead, they would prefer to promote campaigns selling burqa medallions and operations within the context of 'imperial feminism' to justify the war on terror to strengthen the supremacy of the U.S. in global politics. Also, the group celebrated the narratives of rescue missions by placing the Afghan women in a position of helplessness and dependency, waiting for their liberation.

2.3. Imperial feminists and failed empowerment programs

A far more indirect form of the promotion of the success of the occupation of Afghanistan was evident in Liz Mermin's documentary about the Kabul beauty school called The Beauty Academy of Kabul (2004). Merman learned and familiarised herself with the hairdressing industry in New York and took a trip to Kabul to document a session on the Beauty Academy. The documentary was a work of well-trained third-wave feminist and colonial politics representation. She writes, "The dangers of presuming to represent foreign cultures have been hammered deeply into my brain (I was almost an anthropologist), but I found the story irresistible. Our common vision of Afghan women – oppressed, hidden, tormented – is not entirely wrong, but it is narrow" (Mermin, "Director's Statement").

In the documentary, Debbie Turner is shown as a liberator of Afghan women through the art of makeup and hairdressing. On one occasion, Debbie tells the students: "It is your job as hairdressers, the trendiest and educated hairdressers in Afghanistan, to set the trend for new hairstyles. It is your responsibility. You are the first class. If you guys do not do it, how can Afghanistan change and get into a more modern type of look" How can Afghanistan change if you guys do not change?" Moreover, when some women disagree with Debbie about the importance of wearing makeup, she hollers, "You are stuck in a rut. You are stuck in a hole of the past that you cannot get out of, and my god before I leave here, you are getting out of the hole" (Mermin 2004). What can more be an accurate representation of feminist imperialism than Debbie?

This case study shows that externally forced democracy and incorrectly imposed international humanitarian intervention is inherently undemocratic and non-humanitarian. The noncomprehensive technique to empower few women does not work to improve all women's lives (Mohanty, 2008). Afghan women's condition symbolises a more significant error within the international intervention system, extending to both political and humanitarian assistance. For carrying effective empowerment programmes, development assistance requires grasping the complex nature of Afghan society, its historical and political background. Also, it is crucial to create a suitable engagement medium with communities, especially those in rural areas.

Chapter Three

The Aftermath of US-Led War

3.1 Afghan women post- Taliban era

Since 2001, there have been some moderate developments and improvements in women rights and empowerment; the foundation of discrimination, misogyny, and violence against women has not been deracinated. The laws for women are still fragile and shaky; strict tribal norms are still implemented in many rural areas, extreme religious values combined with growth in human rights violations are still in place-without the Taliban being in power. The post-Taliban reforms in 2004 provided the women with all sorts of theoretical rights and brought some changes which slightly affected their socio-economic condition and participation. With the collapsed education and health care system during the Taliban regime, the post-Taliban government created around 3,135 functional health care facilities. By 2018, around 80 per cent of Afghans could have access to medical facilities, again in theory, as the intensified Taliban violence made travelling uneasy (Allen and Brown, 2020).

It would be unfair, If I neglect the achievements of the past 20 years, especially now when those achievements are in jeopardy. According to the statistics, there are now around 21 women in the upper and 69 in the parliament's lower house (Allen and Brown, 2020). Afghanistan has three women ministers and 27 directors, around 142 judges, including provincial governors. However, Oxford reports that 80 per cent of the women are excluded from participating in decision-making processes (Oxford, 2020). Around 1,500 women are serving the Afghan National Security Forces (Allen & Brown, 2020).

Around 3.5 million girls are in schools, and about 100,000 women are attending universities and foreign language courses. As per the Aljazeera report, women's life expectancy grew from 56 years in 2001 to 66 in 2017 (Aljazera, 2021). Twenty-one per cent of Afghan civil servants is women, while Afghanistan had non during the Taliban era (Amnesty International, 2020).

Despite the slow and steady progress, Afghan women still face many obstacles in today's contemporary Afghanistan. Forced marriages are still high as 80 per cent, as the families fear kidnapping and rape, which is still considered as an act of shame rather than a crime in Afghan society, or to avoid expenditure on them. Girls and women have still considered men's property and are used as commodities and to repay debt or resolve a dispute. In some rural areas, the same old brutalities, such as whipping, stoning, and punishing for not wearing a burqa, are still in place (Amnesty International, 2020).

3.2. Afghan women and optimistic transitional period fallacy

Many governments and non-government organisations and NGOs', women rights activists' reports and findings continuously discuss women's achievements and gains after the fall of the Taliban regime. Many of these reports shift attention towards women's uplifting solely due to the presence of the U.S army and the 2001 'rescue mission' initiatives.

Many of these discussions around women rights in Afghanistan are looking at the matter as in the perspective of the rise and fall of the Taliban. Suggesting that the root causes of women's problems and the perpetuation of their situation was only due to the Taliban's presence in the arena (Council on Foreign Relations, 2021). This narrative was feeding the Afghan women and the world the idea that the fall of the Taliban will bring justice to afghan women, underestimating the presence of the corrupt Afghan government, failing to recognise the institutionalised oppression, gender inequality and also the patriarchal code of conduct embedded and enshrined in Afghan society, culture, and politics (Mohanty, 2008). Meanwhile, we cannot exclude the Taliban's influence on the condition of the women in Afghanistan, especially in rural areas; however, we should take the Taliban as a pinch of salt and consider the Taliban as part of the problem, not the problem of Afghan women or the current political setting in the region.

3.3 Unknown future of Afghan women after the U.S and the Taliban withdrawal agreement

There are some strong predictions that, the fate of Afghan women might change, especially for those from upper-class families, feminists holding various positions in the society and those who benefited the most from the post-2001 revenue (Allen & Brown, 2020). As the United States withdrawal program has been started and there is reduced military presence in Afghanistan, the peace discussions between the Afghan government and the Taliban have been started; many questions are being asked, and one of them is the fate of the Afghan women and their fundamental rights. The withdraw agreement leaves the future of Afghan women utterly reliant on the outcome of the intra- Taliban negotiations and the military development on the ground. On many occasions, the Taliban claimed to protect women's rights under the sharia (Islamic) law (Farmer, 2019). However, refusing to specify how?

However, only an attainable and doable long-term process of securing women's rights and a satisfactory just system will allow the Afghan women to prosper and gain their emancipation. As we have examined in the previous chapters, the ill fate of afghan women did not started with the rise of the Taliban into the power and it will not end with their demise.

Chapter four

What is next?

Conflict transformation and shaking hands with the Taliban

The U.S. changed their rhetoric agendas in Afghanistan multiple times. Once they wanted to defend ‘’democracy’’ from the threats of communism, then they wanted to save the same ‘’democracy’’ from the danger of terrorism. Ironically, none of these cases were the real agenda of the U.S. foreign policy. Afghanistan is one example that showcases many missions of the U.S., including the Humanitarian Intervention and the Women Rights issues, to be the antithesis of its claimed objectives. After almost 20 years of war with the Taliban, Americans have decided to withdraw their forces from Afghanistan, once again abandoning the country, leaving the Afghan people to deal with the Taliban, international terrorist organisations, and their corrupt government on their own (Jacobson, 2021).

The cost of war in Afghanistan was around 2.26 trillion, according to the Cost of War Project report in 2020 (Aljazeera, 2021). Joe Biden, the newly elected president, had no intention of working with the corrupt Afghan government as his aims are not to protect Afghan women nor help afghans build their state, but rather talk about ‘’happy things’’ (Silva, 2021). The happy things was the strategic shift in politics, where there was a new emphasis which would allow the U.S. security officials to protect the supplies of the most vital resources in the region, especially oil and natural gases. For example, the Taliban have promised the protection of the U.S. plans regarding the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline Project. Taliban have long history of partnership with many U.S private firms including California-based Unocal Corporation, holding almost 54 per cent of the share. The company even invited Taliban senior delegations for discussion to Texas in 1997 (Eurasianet, 2021).

Access to these resources could guarantee an excellent profit for U.S. companies and their shareholders. U.S. oil companies have already access to 75 per cent of Kazakhstan’s oil, valued at more than $10 billion. Here comes Afghanistan being at the border of the Caspian Sea region, which has accessed to the second-largest assets of oil (Eurasianet, 2021). As war and peace has become monopolised and privatised and while things seem prosperous for the U.S. politicians and corporations, this leaves the Afghan people with nothing except continues fighting, misery and suffering.

Conclusion

In this thesis, I argue that, Western politicians are so submerged in their superiority complex that they fail to understand the realities of other societies and distinguish them from their comfort zones. They have implemented their colonial and imperial agendas without regard to the outcomes and their effect on the citizens of Afghanistan. Western culture considers highly civilised and superior. It is set as the foundation of our international political system; however, it serves the same elites and corporations who have enslaved, colonised, oppressed millions of people around the globe under the banner of humanitarian intervention, democratisation, women rights, and social reforms. In order to achieve their wicked, war-driven agenda in Afghanistan, western leaders incorporated feminism into the imperialistic and capitalistic rhetoric’s to assist Afghan women in their struggle for liberation and emancipation.

I also discuss the challenges and the struggles of Afghan rights activists, such as the RAWA organisation and how they were neglected, and their voices were used to justify war in Afghanistan. RAWA was one of the feminists’ organisations in Afghanistan that raised their voices against the occupation of Afghanistan by the western imperialist system. Like many western feminists such as Mohanty, Kumar, Sara Farris and others, RAWA were against military intervention, as it was not the solution to Afghan women’s problems. I also argue that, liberation of any society cannot be achieved by forcefully imposed democracy or women’s rights through military missions in Afghanistan.

Throughout the paper, I discuss about the U.S. responsibility in sponsoring and institutionalising patriarchy and the oppression of women by facilitating platforms for the former warlords implicitly and explicitly, the practice of violence against women being a part of the government. In Afghanistan, women’s oppression vapours from the intensely ingrained system of violence. It is the violence that keeps the women from having access to healthcare, education, and employment or actively participates in socio-economic spheres of life. I also argue that, because of the nature of Afghan society, it is hard for the women to participate in decision-making processes to raise their voices and be their agents. Despite the U.S. aid programs and their focus on economic and political empowerment of women, the internal reforms have failed to address gender inequality at a systemic level, leaving the gender-based violence at the hand of the Afghan government with the warlords and former human rights abusers at the top seats. Although, there are some noticeable differences of ideological kinship and agendas between the United States and the Taliban, both groups directly or indirectly sought to exclude women from the political sphere.

Afghanistan after the invasion was a post-conflict, Islamic, tribal, and patriarchal society, and a temporary change enforced by the outsiders seemed inept. The change had to emerge through the education of both men and women within the context of culture and religion.

When we look at the condition of women today in Afghanistan, it becomes apparent that, the U.S invasion was not entirely about the emancipation of Afghan women. Afghan women and American imperial feminists such as the Feminist Majority Foundation were useful pawns in the construction of the U.S hegemonic power in the region and its economic initiatives.

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