Taliban and Government Imperil Gains for Afghan Women, Advocates Say

Advocates say that women’s rights and security in Afghanistan are under mounting assault from all sides — the Taliban insurgency and the government alike — putting at risk 12 years of hard-won gains for women here.

The country’s Parliament is about to approve legislation that would strip away crucial legal protections. The insurgents have mounted a string of violent attacks on female officials. And advocates for women are deeply worried by the news that President Hamid Karzai has been negotiating secretly with the Taliban, who enforced hard-line, fundamentalist restrictions on women during their years in power.

And the advocates see two potential disasters looming for Afghan women this year. One would be the failure to complete a long-term security agreement with the United States, which could lead to the departure of American and other international forces and aid agencies, by far the strongest proponents for women here.

The other is the election in April to choose Mr. Karzai’s successor. The slates of many of the 11 candidates for president are dominated by warlords and fundamentalists who share the Taliban’s view that women should never be allowed out of their homes.

“Women are not on the agenda now,” said Huma Safi, an activist with Equality for Peace and Democracy, an advocacy group. “Every time we turn around, they’re passing another law against women.”

The killings of four female police officers since July and the abductions of and assassination attempts against female members of Parliament and their families in Ghazni Province last year have aroused concerns that the Taliban are singling out women for violence and intimidation, though all government officials, male or female, can expect to become targets. The moves in Parliament, on the other hand, seem like attacks from out of nowhere, advocates say, with the potential to do much broader harm.

One of the proposed laws would have repealed a requirement that one-quarter of the seats on provincial councils be reserved for women. After intense lobbying, activists managed to get the bill amended to partly preserve the quota, at 20 percent instead of 25; it has been passed and now awaits the president’s signature. “The sworn enemies of women almost got the quota eliminated,” said Soraya Sobhrang, the representative for women on the national Human Rights Commission. They “have the power to pave the way for whatever law they want.”

Another proposal would make it easier for a father to arrange child marriages, giving fathers guardianship rights over children that trump those of mothers and the courts. A third would prohibit the nation’s courts from hearing testimony of one family member against another, a rule that would make it almost impossible to prosecute domestic violence and abuse cases. Both measures are seen as likely to pass, though the president could refuse to sign them. Manizha Naderi, the head of Women for Afghan Women, a group that runs a network of shelters and counseling centers for abused women and children, said the law on testimony “virtually provides impunity” to abusers within the family. Women at the shelters that her group and others run “include victims whose in-laws, husbands, fathers and sons have broken their arms and legs, chopped off lips, tongues and noses, pulled out fingernails, sold them, stabbed them and left them for dead,” Ms. Naderi said. The proposed law would prohibit even the victims in cases like those from testifying.

In the section on Afghanistan in its worldwide report for 2013, Human Rights Watch said, “With international interest in Afghanistan rapidly waning, opponents of women’s rights seized the opportunity to begin rolling back the progress made since the end of Taliban rule.”

One of the biggest supporters of the bills is a member of Parliament from Herat, Qazi Nazir Ahmad Hanafi, who derides female activists as women of low morals who are un-Islamic. “Those who are against these laws are people who own shelters, which are run like brothels,” Mr. Hanafi said. “These women have not helped women in Afghanistan, they have destroyed families.” “This is an Islamic country and women will be treated and respected in accordance with the guidance of Islam, not some communist, secular conspiracy,” Mr. Hanafi said. Ms. Naderi said she was anxious over Mr. Karzai’s pursuit of a deal with the insurgents. “If the Taliban come back, they’re going to come back with a vengeance, and they’ll take it out on the women,” Ms. Naderi said. With 28 facilities helping abused women and children in 10 provinces, Women for Afghan Women would be especially vulnerable, she said, “Our staff will be the first on the Taliban’s list to set an example for others.”

Other activists were not quite that alarmed, at least not yet.

“We are worried, but we are not without hope,” said Hasina Safi, head of the Afghan Women’s Network, an umbrella group of activist organizations. “We are much bigger in our numbers now, we have established networks, and we are not as isolated as we were in the Taliban time.”

Activists from the women’s network and other groups have held a round of meetings with Western embassies over the past three weeks, and they received what Ms. Safi said were oral assurances that financial assistance to Afghan women’s groups would not be cut; nearly all such groups depend on money from international donors. In all, more than $100 million a year in aid to Afghanistan is earmarked for women’s issues, the United Nations estimates. Ms. Safi said the absence of women from Mr. Karzai’s talks with the Taliban was a major concern. There are women on the country’s High Peace Council, but Ms. Safi said they had been paid little heed, and the council itself is not closely involved in the talks.

Nader Nadery, director of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, said women had gained political strength by building alliances. “Afghan women’s groups have moved from being individual voices,” Mr. Nadery said. “They are now a very powerful collective voice, if not a full-fledged movement, and it will be difficult for any politician to ignore them completely.”

Ms. Sobhrang, the representative on the Human Rights Commission, said 30 activists had drafted a charter on women’s rights that they plan to debate at a larger forum of female activists next week, and then use to assess candidates in the election, predicting that they would endorse one or two. That could make an impact in the crowded field. At least one-third of registered Afghan voters are women, and their advocacy groups tend to have more money and organizing experience than many of the inexperienced presidential campaigns. Ms. Sobhrang called the gains women have made since the ouster of Taliban rule in 2002 “fragile but reversible,” a phrase often used by American military leaders in a broader context. “We still haven’t brought fundamental change to the lives of women in Afghanistan,” she said.

Four weeks ago, the country got its first female police chief, Col. Jamila Bayaz, who was given command of the sprawling District 1 headquarters in Kabul.

Colonel Bayaz, who is one of 2,000 women who have joined or rejoined the police force since 2002, said she was aware of the concerns about retaining the gains women have made. She began her career 32 years ago, when women were as numerous in the police force as they are now, an accomplishment interrupted by civil war and the ascent of the Taliban. She does not think that will happen again.

“I’m sure our international friends will not abandon us,” the colonel said.