The Erasure of Women and Girls

Over the past two years, women and girls in Afghanistan have faced severe repression under Taliban rule. It seems that with each passing month, the Taliban implement new bans stripping women of freedoms such as holding government jobs, barring them from traveling distances without a male chaperone, and dictating what women could wear. Girls are now banned from school after sixth grade (age 11), making Afghanistan the only country where girls are barred from schools based on gender.

According to the British newspaper The Guardian, as of March 2204, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced that the group would begin enforcing its interpretation of sharia law in Afghanistan, including reintroducing the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery.

And still, the world remains largely silent.

A Mission Quandary

Operation Snow Leopard (OSL) is a US-based 501c3 non-profit formed after coalition forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. It is an all-volunteer humanitarian organization comprised of military veterans, civilians, and Afghans. Members hail from eight countries, speak a dozen languages, and represent three major religions.

OSL’s relationship with Afghanistan’s former elected leaders began in August 2021 when an appeal was received to assist with the evacuation of several female MPs and Senators who had been threatened by the Taliban.

Up to this point, OSL had been focusing its evacuation efforts on former members of the Afghan military, women’s rights advocates, activists, journalists, doctors, filmmakers, etc. Most assumed that the elected officials had been prioritized for evacuation by the various governments that had played a role in establishing Afghanistan’s short-lived democracy. A cursory examination of records suggests that several billion dollars had been spent on establishing and maintaining Afghanistan’s Parliament. It was inconceivable that such a massive investment in the democratic process would not attract the attention of a sympathetic foreign government. However, it became readily apparent that these individuals had not been prioritized and were largely left to their own devices in arranging their escape from the country and a vindictive Taliban regime.

Some Parliamentarians successfully leveraged existing relationships with people/organizations in other countries to effectuate their resettlement. However, many were left in Afghanistan, and OSL’s efforts over the past two years and nine months have been a painful lesson in futility. Most do not meet the stringent requirements of requesting asylum simply because they choose to work for their government rather than choosing employment through a foreign coalition government. Doing so penalized them as they needed to meet the one-year work requirement with a foreign government to apply for special visas and leave Afghanistan.

To date, no nation or international institution has prioritized the resettlement of the Republic’s former lawmakers. At best, a few organizations continue to call for assistance. Still, the focus is only on resettlement for female MPs and not their male counterparts, many of whom fought valiantly for inclusivity and equal rights for women throughout their political careers.

Read the full article about Afghanistan’s forgotten parliamentarians by Karen Kraft at Global Washington.