Afghan Women and Girl's Survival Fund

On September 14, MADRE and Afghans for a Better Tomorrow held an online conversation marking 25 years since Congress authorized the use of military force that launched the US war in Afghanistan and the global war on terror. The discussion connected that anniversary with five years of renewed Taliban rule and the delayed release of the Afghanistan War Commission’s report, which is intended to document the key US foreign policy decisions made between 2001 and 2021 and the impacts of those decisions.

Speakers emphasized that any credible accounting of the war must center Afghans—especially Afghan women human rights defenders, whose expertise has too often been sidelined. Although women’s rights were used to justify the war to the public, Afghan women were repeatedly excluded from decisions shaping their country’s future, and local gender expertise was not prioritized in security, development, and state-building programs. MADRE called for the Commission’s report to examine these gendered policy failures and accurately document their immediate consequences for the political participation and security of women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ people, as well as the long-term consequences for the economies and security of Afghanistan, the SWANA region, and the United States as the war on terror expanded. 

Five years after the Taliban’s return to power, women human rights defenders remain at the forefront of efforts to resist the normalization of the regime’s campaign of gender apartheid. They continue demanding justice despite escalating restrictions inside Afghanistan, shrinking humanitarian assistance, travel bans that limit their advocacy in international and regional forums, domestic policing against Muslim and migrant communities, and the explicit targeting of human rights defenders. Their leadership has helped keep international attention focused on the Taliban’s abuses and the need for accountability.

Your support helps MADRE continue standing with Afghan women human rights defenders in Afghanistan and the United States as they challenge Taliban rule, demand accountability for the harms of US policy, ensure that Afghan women have a decisive voice in shaping their country’s future, and help shape a future of US foreign policy that advances human rights, inclusive security, and gender justice.