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1 1 (August 12, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveeia0001 and id is 1 raw text is: C o g e s o a R e s e a r c S e rvU 0 Updated August 12, 2021 Afghan Women and Girls: Status and Congressional Action The status of Afghan women and girls has improved since 2001 by some metrics, but is increasingly precarious in light of Taliban military gains. Given the Taliban's views on women's rights, and entrenched cultural attitudes (particularly in rural areas), the status of Afghan women and girls has long been a topic of congressional concern and action. Concern among some Members of Congress has increased in light of the U.S. troop withdrawal, scheduled to be completed by August 2021. The Taliban have made significant advances since that withdrawal began in May 2021, leading some to warn of a Taliban return to power- either by military force or through a political settlement- that would likely compromise women's rights. Reports indicate that the group has reimposed restrictions on women in some areas taken since May 2021. Since 2001, Members of Congress have used a number of oversight and funding- related legislative measures to promote and safeguard the rights of Afghan women, and may consider the efficacy and sustainability of such approaches as the United States ends its military presence and as the Afghan conflict and political dynamic evolve. Background on the Status of Women Decades of war after 1978 and the repressive five-year rule of the Taliban (see below) severely undermined the rights and development of Afghan women, who had formally been granted equal rights under the 1964 constitution. Since the 2001 fall of the Taliban, Afghan women have made advancements in areas such as political representation and access to education, employment, and health care. However, Afghan women still lag behind Afghan men, as well as women globally, on many development indicators (see Table 1). Table 1. Selected Development Indicators Development Indicator Under Taliban (2000) Afghans Today (2018) Global Avg. (2018) Life expectancy at 57 (F) 66 (F) 75 (F) birth 55 (M) 63 (M) 70 (M) Maternal deaths per 1,450 638 211 1,000 births Births per woman 7.5 4.5 2.4 Mean years of 0.8 (F) 1.9 (F) N.A. schooling 3.7 (M) 6.0 (M) Est. GNI per capita $445 (F) $1,102 (F) $11,246 (F) (2011 PPP$) $I,167 (M) $2,355 (M) $20,168 (M) Source: Created by CRS. Data from U.N. Development Program, World Bank, World Health Organization. Notes: GNI= Gross National Income; PPP= purchasing power parity; N.A.= no data available. The Afghan government, with considerable U.S. and international support, has ensured some representation for women in government and has instituted some legal protections. The 2004 Afghan constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender and enshrines equal rights between men and women. It mandates that at least two women be elected to the lower house of parliament from each of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, creating a quota of 68 women out of 250 seats (about 27%); similarly, 17% of seats in the upper house of parliament are set aside for women. Additionally, the government has committed to achieving 30% representation of women in the civil service (around 27% as of 2019) and increasing the number of women in the Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) (just under 2%). Nevertheless, some recent surveys have suggested that traditional, restrictive views of gender roles and rights, including views consistent with the Taliban's former practices, remain broadly held, especially in rural areas and among younger men. Despite efforts to promote women's rights, discrimination, harassment, and violence against women reportedly remain endemic in government-controlled areas and even in government ministries. In 2009, then-President Hamid Karzai issued, as a decree, the Elimination of Violence Against Women law, which makes widespread practices such as forced marriage and honor killings unlawful. Parliamentarians blocked the law's ratification, describing it as against Islam. In December 2020, the United Nations reported that while the response by the justice sector to violence against women ... continues to improve, the system also fails women and girls in a number of respects, with less than half of documented cases of violence against women progressing to adjudication. The Taliban and Women's Rights During their rule between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban effectively forced Afghan women to disappear entirely from public view, according to writer Ahmed Rashid. Based on their particularly conservative interpretation of Islamic practice, the Taliban prohibited women from working, attending school after age eight, and appearing in public without a male blood relative and without wearing a burqa. Women accused of breaking these or other restrictions suffered severe corporal or capital punishment, often publicly. These practices attracted near-universal condemnation from the international community. The Taliban, who have held territory in parts of Afghanistan for years and by most measures now control or contest over half of the country's area, have not described in detail how they now view women's rights or what role women would play in a Taliban-governed society. Skeptics note that the pledge frequently made by contemporary Taliban leaders to safeguard the rights of women ittps://crsreports.congress.g(

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