By Afghani Barakzai
Special to The Washington Post
A full withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces from Afghanistan appears inevitable. Reading and watching news here in Washington, I can appreciate the intense focus on the military mission and on the men and women who have sacrificed to help my country. I worry, however, what will happen to Afghanistan after the U.S. military departs.
I have found little discussion of Afghanistan’s future or of what will become of U.S. civilian and military efforts to help us make our country a better place to live. Like many of my countrymen, I fear that Afghanistan will once again fall prey to civil and political discord, through either an expansion of the insurgency or a return to warlordism and widespread criminality. I also worry that the slow progress in women’s rights will falter and may even revert to the norms that existed before 2001.
Afghanistan observers are familiar with the litany of depressing facts and statistics that describe the lives and struggles of Afghan women: a 1-in-10 chance of dying during childbirth, chronic poverty, forced starvation for widows and their children, widespread domestic violence, lack of protection in tribal courts, and a staggering number of attempted suicides each year. Women in my country are still bought and sold in specialized markets.
With international help, we have achieved significant milestones during the past 10 years: More than 10,000 women are estimated to have started small businesses. Sixty-five women represent constituents in parliament. A few dozen women have even joined the military. Moreover, an estimated 2.4 million girls are receiving some degree of schooling; several hundred have made it into college. These steps are all critical — but equality remains far from inevitable.
Tragically, these modest gains and other advances are likely to be lost if the United States completely disengages from Afghanistan. Women’s rights will be among the first gains revoked as tribal courts reassert their power. Girls who are working toward college will be pulled out of school. Women’s businesses will be forced to close, first in the provinces and then in Kabul. Female political leadership will disappear.
Much can and needs to be done to promote civil, gender and human rights in Afghanistan. My country needs a strong central government that represents all Afghans. We need civic participation at the village level that promotes respect for the rule of law. We need strong leaders committed to and able to implement democratic practices and equal rights for women, promote universal education, and strengthen border control while stopping trade in drugs. Our government institutions must mature. To develop popular respect for national laws, we need strong courts and a justice system that promotes fair outcomes at the local level.
All of these things would help improve the security situation in Afghanistan, and our economy will grow as the country becomes more secure.
But to achieve any of this, we need continued support from the United States.
The international community has already helped us a great deal. Our constitution enshrines many of these universal, democratic values. I hope that as foreign forces withdraw, development groups will remain engaged. As U.S. and coalition military power decreases, a commensurate increase of “civilian power” is necessary to sustain the modest advances of the past decade.
Development programs such as those run by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Program could focus on recruiting aid from Afghans abroad. Such measures could help provide the skills and capacity that Afghanistan desperately needs, while speaking to women’s rights — and human rights — with a compelling Afghan voice.
In Afghanistan, most people I have encountered in research and in my daily life are thankful for U.S. and international efforts to modernize our country. We realize that the nature of foreign engagement will change. To evolve toward a society that respects the rights of women and all minority groups, we hope that the United States will increase support and incentives for programs geared toward civil and human rights and for those who can come from abroad and set positive examples while speaking with an Afghan voice.
During my time in the United States, I have seen the promise that a civil society can hold. I hope that when I return to Afghanistan, citizens of my country will be able to work with U.S. partners to reflect this promise on our own soil.
The writer is a Rumsfeld visiting fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. In Afghanistan, she manages the office and special projects at the Central Asia Development Group. The group, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, employs villagers to build and repair critical irrigation and municipal infrastructure in Afghanistan’s southern and eastern provinces.
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