Fears of Taliban’s return haunt Afghan women
The HinduThe fifth phase of meetings between Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S.’s special envoy for peace, and Taliban leaders concluded earlier this month. “We consider woman as the builders of a Muslim society and are committed to all rights of women that have been given to them by the sacred religion of Islam,” Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a Taliban leader, said during negotiations in Moscow earlier this year. The Taliban has also been very vocal against who it refers to as “so-called women’s rights activists”. “I do fear the Taliban coming back to power in Afghanistan, having already lived and escaped that hell once before,” she said. “If there is any agreement made that allows the Taliban to practise an informal justice system, it will really undermine the achievements of 18 years, which include a law on ending violence against women, laws on ending harassment, on increasing women in workplaces, laws that address women’s role in the elections, etc.,” Ms. Hamidi warned.