Culture change has been slow and difficult but the will to make life better for Afghan women was there. Now a big question mark hangs over their future.
A family taking refuge in a makeshift camp for displaced people near Kabul.
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New Zealand has an ethical obligation to acknowledge its role in creating the crisis in Afghanistan and to increase its refugee intake to save as many as possible.
Cpl Ricky Fuller/Australian Department of Defence/AAP
Lazy platitudes about Australian moral and military exceptionalism were put to the test in Afghanistan, and found wanting.
A woman attending a protest to raise awareness regarding the situation in Afghanistan outside the European Union headquarters in Brussels on Aug. 18, 2021.
(AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
The Taliban’s recent conquest of Kabul signifies their seizure of power. This threatens the rights of girls, women and sexual minorities to freedom from harm and access to opportunities.
The author was in this crowd, finally boarding a plane to leave Kabul.
Photo: Hanif Sufizada
Hanif Sufizada got caught in Kabul as the Taliban took over. A scholar and resident of the US who works at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Sufizada describes his experience trying to leave.
It may be attractive to think that promoting democracy in occupied foreign countries is an appropriate moral and effective path for restoring security and stability. But it’s not accurate.
Any attempt to restore an Islamic emirate is likely to cost the Tablian international recognition, legitimacy and aid. This will weaken its prospect of consolidating its hold internally.
On Aug. 16, 2021, thousands of Afghans trapped by the sudden Taliban takeover rushed the Kabul airport tarmac.
AP Photo/Shekib Rahmani
Gordon Adams, American University School of International Service
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US Afghanistan pullout is not a repeat of failures in other recent wars. “This is not Saigon,” he said. A seasoned foreign policy expert disagrees.
Thousands of Afghans rushed to Kabul’s airport trying to flee the country as the Taliban seized power.
Wakil Kohsar / AFP via Getty Images
Canada is offering to resettle 20,000 Afghan refugees, including women’s leaders and journalists. Why has Australia so far been unwilling to make the same declaration?
People attempt to climb into Kabul airport in the hope of fleeing Afghanistan.
EPA
Ben Wallace, the UK defence minister was visibly upset about the fate of people left behind to face the Taliban.
Forced from their homes by fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces, thousands of families seek refuge in a Kabul park.
Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
When the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001, Afghans had endured 22 years of war. The Taliban were on the rise. Little has changed after an additional 20 years of war and suffering.