In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

On Sunday, the world watched while the Taliban executed a young couple who had eloped by stoning them to death. The couple said they’d eloped because the young woman was promised in an arranged marriage to a relative of her lover, and she did not want to marry him. Nader Nadery, a senior commissioner on the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said in the New York Times, “We’ve seen a big increase in intimidation of women and more strict rules on women.” A recent Time Magazine cover story about a young woman maimed by the Taliban and recent opinion-editorials published by Human Rights Watch’s Rachel Reid and Tom Malinowski, have also served as reminders of the precarious status and future of Afghan women. Following the overthrow of the misogynistic Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the situation for women seemed to enter a promising era. A Ministry of Women was established, and a new constitution guaranteed women 25-percent representation in the legislature. But progress has been stymied in Afghanistan.
Women represent half of Afghanistan’s society, yet 85 percent of them have no formal education and only one percent of girls in rural communities attend school; nearly 79 percent of women are illiterate. Maternal mortality rates in Afghanistan remain among the world’s highest. On average, Afghan women give birth to seven children and one out of every 62 women dies during childbirth – in some regions the number is as high as one in 16. With a Taliban resurgence, women today are being threatened, attacked, and forced out of jobs and schools, especially in the southeast.

In the meantime, dedicated organizations continue to actively work to promote women’s development and institutionalize women’s rights in Afghan society. In the midst of debate over security and political solutions for an exit from Afghanistan, what can be done to ensure that these positive efforts toward Afghan women’s development continue? Join RAND Corporation’s senior international policy analyst Olga Oliker and Katherine Brown, Truman National Security Project fellow, former communications advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, and former Asia Foundation staff member, on Monday, August 23 for a discussion at the Commonwealth Club on the status and future of Afghan women, and what we can do to help in the short and long-term. Register for the event.