Advocates call for US immigration reform to help support Afghan women

An overhaul of the U.S. immigration system could be key to aiding Afghan women find a new life, advocates said during an event Tuesday to mark International Women’s Day.  

“The war for Afghan women is not over,” said Ambassador Roya Rahmani, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United States, adding that she worried the international community’s attention span for the plight of Afghan women has expired “as the limelight from Afghanistan moves to the rest of the world.”

After the U.S. withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan last summer, women living under the Taliban takeover were told to stay home from work, fueling concerns that the regime would reverse progress on women’s rights. 

“In situations like this and around the world, women and children take the brunt of what happens. And once again, women are being forced back into the shadows and back into a life from time gone by,” said Cindy McCain, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture. 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) called for comprehensive reform to the U.S. immigration system that would address gaps in current law and provide for refugees from Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“It’s unfortunate that it has been such a partisan divide for such a long time,” Shaheen said.

Critics have said that visas are difficult for Afghan women to qualify for and come by – and that the processing time is backlogged and dangerously slow.

“It’s a bit haphazard right now with certain agencies and certain nonprofits, et cetera. I just think we need to reform the whole idea of this and make sure it works,” McCain said.

Rahmani, Afghanistan’s first female ambassador to the U.S., said that the U.S. in particular has “an ethical responsibility” to Afghan women because of how the country wielded promises to liberate Afghan women as “a justification for the intervention” of American troops.

The U.S. “should not be either looking at Afghanistan as a security issue, as a place you can experiment containment of terrorism, or a charity basket,” Rahmani said.

Hawa Haidari, a member of Afghanistan’s Female Tactical Platoon, outlined the difficulties for refugees navigating the complex immigration system and applying for asylum in the U.S. without ready access to legal help. 

Now living in Washington state, Haidari said that she and her four sisters are struggling to navigate that process in a new country and new language – taking English classes and working in restaurants and cafes. 

“It is not the kind of job that we want,” Haidari said. “It is still helping us to move forward and live in peace here. I hope we can pursue our education, build our career and do our dream job here in the next few year[s].”

Shaheen, the only woman serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, assured the audience that “senators on both sides of the aisle are continuing to talk about what we can do to support” Afghan women.

“We really need a hand to help us, not a handout,” Rahmani said, because one-time aid efforts create an insecure culture of reliance and don’t empower lasting structural change. “Rights cannot be also a handout like a bag of wheat. It is something that has to grow and brew from within.”

The women spoke as part of Politico’s “Women Rule” series.