No woman shall be left behind!

An Appeal for Afghan Women.

September 02, 2021

On 19 August 2021, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has been declared after the Talibans quickly overthrown the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan established in 2004. For almost twenty years, this democratic regime has ensured a moderate interpretation of Islamic Law (sharia) allowing for the protection of rights and freedoms. For women, the Republic meant the recognition of equality before the law (art. 22 Const. 2004), which entailed the right to vote and to be elected, to work, to receive health treatments and to practice sports as well as the explicit recognition of their right to be educated (art. 44). Data shows that under the Republic the number of educated women exponentially increased even going beyond the levels observed before the 1996 Taliban regime (data from the Afghan Women’s Network). Women have also contributed to their country’s development as politicians, journalists, activists. They conquered their place in the public sphere and their emancipation in private life.

Now, with the establishment of the Islamic Emirate, no one knows what can happen. Those who profited of emancipation are for sure in danger, as are the rights of all the other Afghan women. Although the mullah have set a communication strategy meant to distinguish the Emirate from the previous Taliban regime, they already clarified that rights will be conceived in the framework of the sharia. As it is well known, this is an opaque declaration because the Islamic Law is mostly based on interpretation. Under a conservative interpretation, the Taliban have already jeopardized women’s rights in their previous regime, preventing women’s education, imposing them a (male) legal tutor controlling their life from birth to grave, commodifying them in all possible aspects, allowing for corporal punishments. The duty to wear a burqa in public, finally, physically instantiated the state of denial of women’s existence as independent individuals.

At present, debates should be organized about the consequences of the ‘exportation of democracy’ strategy adopted in 2001 and about the way the state-building has been managed henceforth considering how fast republican institutions have dissolved in front of the Talibans’ forces, but these will be mere theoretical speculations. They can be fruitful for avoiding future mistakes, maybe, but they will not help the women who fought Talibans in the past, the girls born free and whose rights are now at risk, the newborns who probably will never know freedoms and rights. For all those women and girls debates are not suitable options. Actions shall be immediately taken to support them and save their lives. It is not a speculative risk. We already know that Taliban are trying to prosecute those who have more evidently collaborated with western forces. They have already imposed gender seclusion in schools. Episodes of violence against women are increasingly reported. A scenario of mass violation of rights from the humanitarian crisis of refugees, as the images from Kabul’s airport and from the camps of the internally displaced people are already showing, can be expected.

As the chairing group of the Research Group ‘Gender and Constitutions’ (GC) of the International Association of Constitutional Law, we think that the academic community shall act. Beside supporting decision-makers so that humanitarian corridors are opened and refugees’ lives will be saved, but shall imagine other strategies for saving lives. One of these, on the example of the ‘academic at risk’ program several universities have already implemented, can be the announcement of humanitarian scholarships or visiting researcher or professor programs dedicated to Afghan women so that they will escape from a future of refugee and free themselves through education. We have to act promptly, we shall disseminate the calls as soon as possible, we shall grant visas until borders are permeable. We do not know when Talibans will show their real face and hide Afghan women under a black veil again. The moment for taking action is now. No woman shall be left behind!

The GC aims at acting as a mediator between the universities announcing humanitarian scholarships and Afghan girls through every possible channel. Contacts with the NGOs still operating in the country are going to be established. Colleagues wishing to cooperate can contact the GC (genderandconstitutions@gmail.com).