Summary Brief - Voices of Hope Realities of Afghan Women

VOICES OF HOPE
Realities of Afghan Women
25 MAY 2022
ONLINE ROUNDTABLE
SUMMARY BRIEF

What has changed
since August 2021?
Afghanistan is experiencing a humanitarian
crisis:
food insecurity and malnutrition
high living costs and unemployment
resulting in national poverty
large numbers of refugees and internally
displaced people.
pon initiative by its Afghan
Global Citizen fellows, the
Ban Ki-moon Centre hosted a
virtual roundtable entitled
“Voices of Hope: Realities of
Afghan Women” on 25 May
U2022.
The goal of the event was to highlight the
activism of Afghan women on the ground as
well as the diaspora and create a platform to
discuss the international community’s
challenges and recommendations for increased
solidarity and effective action.
International Gender Champions Her Excellency
Manizha Bakhtari, Ambassador of Afghanistan
to Vienna, and BKMC CEO Monika Fröhler
spotlighted Afghan women as resilient and
active agents of change fighting for sustainable
peace. Both iterated the risks to civil society
leaders, activists, and reporters, especially
women, and their shrinking involvement in
public life due to the Taliban’s fundamentalist
hardliner policies. Their resistance is moving
more and more off the streets and onto social
media and smaller underground movements.
This crisis and oppression of human rights are
particularly hitting women and girls:
increase of violence against women
child marriage
postponement of secondary school for
Afghan girls
exclusion of women from decision-making
and executive roles
restricted and segregated movement
poor access to healthcare services
strict Islamic laws in all areas of public and
private life
Women’s movements like the Afghan Women's
Unity and Solidarity Team formed after the
Taliban takeover in the summer of last year, but
their protests have been regularly put down
and the leaders arrested and/or abducted.
Knowing the risks, these brave women do not
give in and continue defending their rights and
occupying the streets. They do not let their
voices be silenced.
Especially in the areas of politics, education,
culture, work and activism – and this should
give us hope.
1

With their knowledge and independence
gained over the last 20 years, Afghan women
are increasingly trying to transform the system
they are living in and resisting the Taliban’s
oppression. They also deeply question the
international community’s silence and
condemn global misbelief in a new and more
liberal Taliban regime.
Increased solidarity - from the diaspora and
local civil society, from both women AND men -
is needed to strengthen the opposition
movement fighting for democracy, human
rights and peace.
Despite the awareness of the country’s and
especially local women’s dire situation, the
international community still fails to meet the
real necessities. The following challenges and
limitations have been identified by our
speakers:
1- Lack of proper coordination,
monitoring and evaluation mechanisms
for international engagement with the
Taliban (condition-based/accountability
method with emphasis on women's and
girls’ education, protection and political
participation)
2- Lack of clear policies within the donor
landscape to match commitments with
real financing, especially financing for
grassroots feminist initiatives on the
ground
3- Lack of sustainability and economic
opportunity in program design to avoid
aid dependency and short-term
interventions
4- Lack of gender mainstreaming in the
development of humanitarian assistance
programs and evaluation
5- Lack of protection mechanisms for
Afghan women’s movements and
activists
6- Absence of targeted funding streams
to support women’s organizations in
Afghanistan
7- Absence of unity and coherence in the
networks of Afghan human rights activists
in the country and abroad
8- High administrative costs during grant
allocation processes for humanitarian
programs as well as taxation from the
Taliban for local NGOs
9- Lack of male solidarity and funding for
women’s led organizations supporting
the most vulnerable in Afghanistan
10- Lack of united monitoring system
within the donor community, ensuring
equitable distributions to women and
minorities
11- Lack of centralized government in the
country and fractured Taliban group
12- Lack of countries’ individual
assessments and strategies (instead, still
following US policies)
13- Continued misbelief that the Taliban
have become more liberal and want to
uphold women’s rights
2

The audience was actively engaged in the
discussion and shared further insights into the
current state of Afghanistan on the ground.
Read one of the participants’ demands here.
Speakers
Hooria Sardar
Global Citizen Fellow and Women's rights activist
H.E. Manizha Bakhtari
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Dr Zahra Muhammadi
Dentist and women's rights activist
“The spirit of Afghan women
will never die”
H.E. Manizha Bakhtari
Marufa Shinware
Executive Director at Immigrant Culture and Art
Association
Monika Froehler
CEO, Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens
All in all, the international community must
stop normalizing the devastating situation in
Afghanistan and the de-facto rule of the
Taliban. We should not stop having
conversations about human rights abuses and
the humanitarian crisis in the country, focusing
especially on women and girls. International
feminist organizations should forge stronger
alliances with the Afghan diaspora in support of
those still fighting on the ground. More
targeted action is needed to create one unified
movement because Afghan women keep
risking their lives by protesting for their basic
human rights.
3