'This Is Not The Way': Afghan Women Push Back On U.S.-Taliban Peace Talks

In recent weeks, thousands of women and young people in Afghanistan and Afghans living abroad have been protesting and speaking out against peace talks taking place between the U.S. and the Taliban.

Activists say that the views of the Taliban — whose harsh rule from 1996 to 2001 was notorious for repression of women — do not reflect the views and needs of Afghan people. They fear a Taliban return to power will undermine the progress that the country has worked to build since the regime fell nearly two decades ago.

In February, a group called Afghan Women for Peace, along with the office of Afghanistan's First Lady Rula Ghani and other groups, organized a jirga, or tribal council, that brought together over 3,500 Afghan women from the country's 34 provinces to air their views, concerns and suggestions for the peace process, which so far has largely excluded women — as well as the Afghan government itself. In their province-by-province statements, posted on Twitter, the women have emphasized the need for education, justice, economic opportunity and representation on Afghanistan's negotiating team.

Another group, called Time4RealPeace— which includes Afghan women and youth, civil society groups and activists — staged a protest last week at the U.S. Embassy in London and released an open letter, urging that "this peace process reaffirms and protects our constitutional rights, interests and democracy."

The letter was signed by more than 600 Afghan women and 30 international figures, including Nobel peace laureates, authors Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman and Khaled Hosseini and activists including Gloria Steinem and Eve Ensler.

What was life like for women who lived under Taliban rule?

Women couldn't go out of their homes without a male guardian, couldn't work, couldn't go to school, were subjected to these tyrannical, extremist rules.

You say that Afghanistan has made huge strides over the last couple of decades. How so?

It's hard for Americans to see what's been done, but there's been a lot of progress.

When my family left during Afghanistan's civil war in 1992, Kabul was being bombed by thousands of rockets. I visited Afghanistan again in 2011, and it was an emotional experience. What was very clear is that Afghan society has changed. - Read More

'This Is Not The Way': Afghan Women Push Back On U.S.-Taliban Peace Talks