Nothing but politics

For years, women in Afghanistan demanded to be part of the peace process, organizing their own forums to chart an inclusive path to peace. Instead, the US, the Afghan government, and the Taliban refused to allow women's meaningful participation, and today's disastrous reality is a direct result.

By excluding women, the gatekeepers of the 'peace process' excluded the priorities and interests of the vast majority of the population. That's because, when war-torn communities are struggling to survive, it's invariably local women who step up to meet their needs, for food, water, safety, and more. By doing this lifesaving work, grassroots women's organizations build up an invaluable store of the people's trust. They establish wide, meaningful community-based networks, and if they were allowed at the peace table, women could better uplift people's needs and keep people informed about the negotiations. But, instead warring parties have been the only ones allowed around the table, resulting in a failed process. Another clear lesson is that Afghan women's rights were never a true priority for the United States, despite ongoing claims to the contrary. The US spent nearly 1,000 times more money on military intervention than on support for women's rights, and was frequently willing to trade women's rights away, whether in negotiations with the Taliban or with its allies in the government. In fact, US-backed alternatives to the Taliban often imposed similarly violent restrictions on women. From the very beginning, MADRE opposed US military intervention in Afghanistan. We never believed war would be a sustainable way to win rights for Afghan women or anyone else. Around the world, we saw how violent conflict exacerbated gender-based violence and destroyed the conditions needed for women's movements to thrive. Back then, however, anti-war voices, including those of anti-imperialist feminists, were drowned out by supporters of the invasion. The calls of Afghan feminists who knew war was not the answer were completely ignored.

Instead, the voices that were amplified in the war-mongering after 9/11 were those calling for the use of military force to ‘save Afghan women’ from their terrible men. People like First Lady Laura Bush lauded the US invasion as a moral war ‘for the rights and dignity of women.’ And far too many US feminists accepted her racist proposition. Theirs was the logic of what we now call white feminism and it needs to be transformed. War is no way to secure lasting rights for women. As we near the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, this must be a third enduring lesson for everyone who calls themselves a feminist.

Excerpted: ‘Three Lessons to Chart a Path Forward in Solidarity With Afghan Women’

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