The winter of 2022 was one of the worst periods of my life. I suspect it always will be.
I’d only been working in the Afghanistan evacuation/resettlement space for a few months, but when a colleague approached me for assistance in moving a group of high-profile women, I didn’t hesitate. I set them up with my network of partners, and we established an evacuation plan for the group.
I may never truly understand why, but my colleague didn’t follow specific security protocols, and the women were taken into custody by the Taliban less than 18 hours after they’d been moved into a safe house. (I spoke briefly about the experience here.)
The next few weeks passed by in a trauma blur. I’d wake up, go to my civilian job, take a nap, and then spend all night offering my support to the team negotiating for the women’s release. It’s the type of anguish that fundamentally changes your body and mind, as I spent every passing hour knowing that these brave and powerful women were now beholden to the whims of monsters.
Because that’s who the Talibs are—not freedom fighters, not a valid government entity, but monsters.
I was reminded of this period in my life after coming across this recent article in The Guardian. (Content warning: rape and torture.) The article discusses the recent gang-rape of a female Afghan activist in Taliban custody—a growing consequence for those brave souls who dare challenge the Taliban’s authority. According to this State Department report (based on a study conducted by the Hasht-e-Sobh news agency),
Out of the 90 women imprisoned in Jawzjan, Faryab, and Samangan, 16 of them reportedly became pregnant because of repeated rape and were forced to undergo abortions in local hospitals. The Taliban reportedly ordered these women’s pregnancies terminated during the third and fifth months. At least four women inmates in Samangan reportedly fell seriously ill as a direct consequence of repeated sexual assaults by Taliban members and were ultimately executed by the Taliban.
More and more women suffer this same fate under Taliban rule, which all but criminalizes the mere fact of being female.
It’s a reality that few Americans can genuinely connect with. Sure, we have our own reasons to fear law enforcement (which is not to offer the Taliban the same credibility as our national police force, but merely to draw a comparison), but it still seems unfathomable that a U.S. citizen could be taken into police custody, sexually assaulted, and videotaped during the act for subsequent dissemination.
Perhaps it’s this inability to relate which promotes a culture of passivity as it relates to the plight of Afghan women. As these women face “violence, discrimination, and intimidation” in what some might classify as a “gender apartheid,” the international community refuses to engage. Instead, we place the onus on the victims to fight for themselves.
And fight they do. (My 16-year-old chosen sister, Helai, recently published this piece about her own method of fighting the Taliban: teaching her Afghan sisters in the hopes they might one day bring peace to their nation.) Since August 2021, Afghan women have staged countless demonstrations calling on the Taliban to respect their most basic human rights.
Nevertheless, she persisted, indeed.
Yet there can be no confusion that as Afghan women continue to fight for their own survival, they remain forsaken by the international community. Disgracefully, Afghan women were recently prohibited from attending high-level meetings (the “Doha talks”) between Taliban and United Nations officials, offering further legitimacy to the demands of a known terrorist organization while signaling to Afghan women that they have no stake in their own futures. (Beth Bailey delves more into the exclusion of women from the Doha talks here.)
As a woman in America, there is nothing more maddening than a group of men meeting behind closed doors to make critical decisions about my welfare—and my stakes pale in comparison to those faced by our Afghan sisters. At this point, we are beyond complicit in the Taliban’s efforts to erase women from their national history, and so I’m compelled to ask: are we really better than the Taliban?
Lately, I’m not so sure.
Credit where it is due - T. Rump arranged the surrender in Afghanistan. President Biden executed it (badly, as it happens) and refuses to clean up the mess because... We have met the enemy and he/she is us. Anyone who voted for either T. Rump or Biden is complicit - get over it. I imagine that President Biden would be able to do better in a second term if he was not crippled by a divided Congress - elections have consequences.
Given the recent immunity decision there is no legal reason for President Biden to be timid regarding aid for our allies in Afghanistan. He could take measures by Executive Order if he desired without regard for legal consequences. The political calculus is not favorable, however, if a Demopublican is elected in November and is presented with a majority in both House and Senate - see concluding sentence above. Vote accordingly, keep up the pressure in the meantime.
End of rant, wave as you fly over.
The Question is Do What? That Train has left the station, long ago.