How the World Learned to Live with the Exclusion of Afghan Women — The Diplomat

Five years ago, when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, the world watched in shock as images emerged of desperate Afghans trying to escape a country whose future had suddenly changed. For Afghan women and girls, however, the fall of Afghanistan was the beginning of a systematic effort to remove them from public life and rob an entire generation of their future. Today, girls have been banned from secondary schools and universities; women have been pushed out of workplaces; and restrictions on movement, expression, and participation in society have expanded. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are prohibited from accessing secondary and higher education. More than 2 million adolescent girls have been denied their right to continue learning. But five years later, the most troubling question is how the world learned to live with the Taliban’s policies toward women and girls. Since August 2021, the language surrounding Afghanistan has changed. After the Taliban takeover, the world demanded the restoration of the rights of Afghan women and girls. Five years later, much of the conversation has shifted toward how to engage with the Taliban while raising concerns about women’s rights. The U.N. and other international community actors have adopted a policy of “principled engagement,” arguing that dialogue is needed to address Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis…