Anger as Afghan women kept out of UN-led Doha talks with Taliban

Absence of female representation at conference prompts criticism and outrage

A file photo of Afghan women hold placards reading in Dari 'A Muslim can't go against women's education and work', during a protest as they demand their right to education and work in Mazar-e-Sharif, Show more

The UN-led meeting with the Taliban scheduled to take place in Qatar on June 30 has met with strong criticism from Afghan and international activists for excluding women.

The two-day conference will see the participation of special envoys from 25 countries hoping to engage the Taliban on issues including the economy, aid, narcotics and security.

The absence of women, however, will undermine any meaningful discussion, Afghan women activists have said.

“I don’t have words to express my frustration,” said Fawzia Koofi, a former Afghan parliamentarian and women’s rights activist. “Because the same institution that is supposed to protect world order, justice and dignity of human beings is betraying us this time.”

Since taking over Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have severely restricted women’s rights and freedoms including a ban on higher education, employment, public and political participation and even imposed control on movement.

“Yet again, they [the UN] are going along the same rhetoric that the Taliban have maintained and affirming the Taliban’s actions of excluding women as correct,” Ms Koofi added.

Her concerns were echoed by several Afghan women activists inside and outside the country.

“It’s terrifying,” said Fereshta Abbasi, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It's a clear violation of the UN’s Resolution 1325.”

She referred to the UN resolution that requires “women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security”.

“For three years, Afghan women have had their every right violated,” she said. “The women need to be part of this.”

Afghan women living under Taliban rule – in pictures

The absence of Afghan women from the conference had not gone unnoticed, with outrage from prominent leaders around the globe.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, who the Taliban shot as she travelled home from school at the age of 15, called the UN’s decision to exclude Afghan women “unacceptable”, in a statement issued on Wednesday.

“It sends all the wrong signals that the world leaders are willing to accommodate the Taliban’s demands and that the girls’ and women’s rights in Afghanistan are not a top priority,” she said.

“There can be no legitimate discussion about Afghanistan's future without women's full participation and leadership,” she said. The Taliban’s “systematic erasure of rights, dignity and livelihoods … amounts to gender apartheid”, she added.

An open letter by the 2024 Global Women Leaders Summit, signed by prominent female political leaders including Hillary Clinton, Julia Gillard and Sanna Marin, among others, called for “Afghan women’s active and direct inclusion” in the talks.

“The international community’s exclusion of Afghan women is outrageous; it will marginalise their voices and undermine their rights,” the letter read. “We must not open a pathway for the Taliban to gain broader legitimacy.”

Allowing the Taliban to dictate the terms of the Doha dialogue “legitimises their draconian abuses, which amount to gender apartheid”, the letter said.

It is the first such meeting that will include the participation of the Taliban, who refused to attend meetings in March this year and in May 2023.

It was reported that the Taliban set conditions for taking part in the Doha 3 conference, including no discussion of human rights issues.

While the Taliban did not confirm this, a statement on their website defended their demands for “conditional participation” in international meetings.

No Bennet

Afghan women activists have pointed out the UN’s own Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, will not be at the Doha meeting.

Mr Bennett recently presented his report to the UN’s Human Rights Council detailing “systematic violations of women’s and girls’ fundamental rights” in Afghanistan.

“The irony is that the UN is comfortable to engage with this notorious group, the Taliban, whose gender persecution and gender apartheid is confirmed by UN’s own special rapporteur,” said Samira Hamidi, an Afghan women’s rights activist.

The UN has not only ignored the voices of Afghan women and girls but has breached it is own principles, she said, adding this is not the first time that Afghan women have been sidelined in discussions concerning them.

“It is important to note that before the collapse [of the Afghan government], the situation was the same,” she said, urging international envoys and other participants to boycott the meeting.

A call for a boycott of the Doha meeting was issued on Monday by the Organisation for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS) a women-led research organisation from Afghanistan featuring voices from more than 100 Afghan women inside and outside the country.

“This UN concession to secure the participation of Taliban de facto authorities is a stark betrayal of Afghan women and of our shared values,” said Mariam Safi, executive director of DROPS, explaining the BoycottDoha3.

The campaign calls for women’s rights to be on the Doha agenda and for women and civil society to be at the table during the Doha meetings.

When women are excluded, “those processes become unsustainable and ultimately fail as we saw with the US-Taliban Doha talks and the Intra-Afghan peace negotiations,” she said, referring to the talks that led to the withdrawal of US forces and the eventual collapse of the Afghan government.

Little support

Though the Intra-Afghan talks had four Afghan women, their representation was inadequate and they received little support from the stakeholders involved and were constantly subjected to discrimination and criticism, Ms Safi said.

Ms Koofi, among the four women who were part of the pre-Taliban peace negotiations, also emphasised the need for women’s participation.

“We [the international community] fail to recognise the relevance between women's participation and how it impacts peace and security, let alone that this is a matter of fundamental human rights enshrined in the UN charter that they need to protect,” she said.

And even if it wasn’t part of the UN charter, Ms Koofi added, “women’s inclusion is crucial to security, economy and other issues” that the stakeholders at the Doha conference hope to achieve.

“Doha meetings will not be considered legitimate or credible by Afghan women’s groups and civil society organisations if women are not on the agenda, women are not at the table,” Ms Safi agreed.