Madre's Emergency Response: Afghanistan

About

Afghanistan’s collapse and the takeover by the Taliban must not signal the end of US responsibility. After two decades of failed and destructive warmaking, a US response must be rooted in reparation and accountability for the people of Afghanistan.

Women and girls are paying the price of decades of failed US policy. From the earliest days of the US war in Afghanistan, women’s rights justifications were conscripted to rally support. Instead, the US trained and funded armed groups in Afghanistan that have committed atrocities, including terrible violence against women. In its efforts to defeat the Taliban, the US allied itself with warlords, many of whom came to hold prominent government positions and continued to violate rights with impunity. Ultimately, the US spent almost 1,000 times more money on its military intervention than on women’s rights efforts.

MADRE’s local partners are grassroots women’s rights organizers and human rights defenders, many who have been targeted and threatened by warlords and Taliban fighters. Now, in many of the provinces where the Taliban reigns, women are being killed, girls prevented from going to school, women barred from work, and women’s organizations have shuttered or gone underground. Our partners are urgently mobilizing now to meet the huge and escalating need. They are bringing food and milk to women and families who have fled the fighting, and they are rapidly coordinating to protect and evacuate women targeted by Taliban threats.

About the Host

MADRE is an international women's human rights organization that works towards a world in which all people enjoy the fullest range of individual and collective human rights; in which resources are shared equitably and sustainably; in which women participate effectively in all aspects of society; and in which people have a meaningful say in decisions that affect their lives. MADRE uses human rights to advance social justice. We partner with women in communities worldwide to meet urgent, local needs and create long-term solutions to the problems that women face. Our program areas are: peace building; women's health and combating violence against women; and economic and environmental justice.