As the Taliban try to silence women, the international community must do more

Afghan women have suffered some of the most severe consequences from the U.S. decision to withdraw from the country, but their experiences are vastly overlooked in media narratives, existing data sources and research efforts.

The international community can’t adequately respond to the problems Afghan women face without an accurate picture of their scope and scale. In fact, by overlooking the stories of Afghan women, the international community is inadvertently exacerbating the Taliban’s efforts to systematically remove women from public life in Afghanistan.

But a new report from the Association of Wartime Allies (AWA), a member-based organization focused on saving the lives of Afghan and Iraqi applicants for Special Immigrant Visas (SIV), has taken a giant step in the right direction — one that we hope other organizations will follow. The AWA survey is one of the first to document the human rights abuses and gender-specific experiences of female SIV applicants left behind in Afghanistan.

Women are too often forgotten in policy discussions about Afghan evacuees because they form less than 10 percent of the at-risk Afghan community that gets most of the attention: those with Special Immigrant Visas. SIVs are a special visa program for Afghans and Iraqis who worked with the U.S. government during military operations there.

The SIV primary applicant population is predominantly male because visa eligibility skews toward those with military contracts. So, women comprised just 6.4 percent of the respondents to the AWA’s survey of Afghan SIV applicants. But AWA was still able to drill down, creating an important snapshot into the experiences of the few Afghan women that have SIV applications.            

What we learned is that these women — who would qualify to resettle in the United States, if they could evacuate — face a horrifying reality because of both the Taliban’s misogynistic cruelty and the international community’s failure to support them.

About 88 percent of the female survey respondents identified as primary breadwinners for their families. But 98 percent reported a loss of economic opportunity, 96 percent a loss of freedom of movement, and almost 95 percent loss of access to educational opportunities because of the Taliban’s gender policies. Already, the United Nations estimates that the Taliban’s gender apartheid has created an economic loss of up to $1 billion.

Almost half said their access to health care diminished. In many parts of Afghanistan, women can’t visit hospitals or clinics if they aren’t fully covered and accompanied by a male relative. Medicines and supplies are scarce, while rates of maternal and infant mortality, food insecurity, as well as diseases like polio, measles and COVID-19 are rising.

Horrifically, 87 percent of female respondents said they’ve experienced violence and one-third reported that they or a female member of their family have been sexually propositioned by a member of the Taliban. This is especially alarming as most women’s shelters have closed, access to justice has been severely restricted, reporting mechanisms have virtually disappeared; meanwhile forced and early marriages continue to spike.

The survey serves as a microcosm for the ruthless oppression faced by most Afghan women. While AWA spoke with SIV applicants — those with some of the best chances of eventual evacuation and resettlement — there are many other at-risk Afghans who supported coalition efforts and a peaceful future for all but whose pathways to safety remain even more limited. While some of these women have been granted priority refugee status (an application process that takes a year or more), most have not.

As educators, women’s rights advocates, political leaders, judges, policewomen, and beyond, many Afghan women courageously served in roles that were foundational to global stability. 

However, most still can’t leave Afghanistan because they’re stuck in a cruel circle: Although some qualify for visas, it’s nearly impossible for them to obtain them until they leave Afghanistan, and, in most cases, they can’t get out of the country without a visa. The situation is compounded by Taliban mandates that prohibit women from leaving their homes without a male guardian.

Those few who have managed to get out are mostly stuck in flux, facing monthslong and yearslong wait times in hopes of permanent resettlement.

The ongoing exclusion of at-risk women from U.S. and global evacuation and resettlement pathways is a glaring failure even as the world pays lip service to the ideals of the women, peace and security agenda.

Afghan women are fighting for their lives against both the brutality of the Taliban and the indifference of the international community. While we can’t change what has happened, we can commit to do far more to support them and their families.

Natalie Gonnella-Platts is director of Women’s Advancement at the George W. Bush Institute.

Teresa Casale is the executive director of Mina’s List, which has worked in Afghanistan since 2014 to advance women’s participation in political leadership and the peace process.