Women for Afghan Women (WAW) fearfully responds to the US and NATO withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in September.
Women for Afghan Women (WAW) , the largest Afghan women’s rights organization in the world, remains deeply concerned about the fate of women and girls in Afghanistan after a full withdrawal of United States (US) and NATO armed forces from Afghanistan in September of 2021.
WAW urges the US government and its NATO allies to employ the full weight of their diplomatic, economic, and political power during the months leading up to the withdrawal to ensure the establishment of an inclusive and comprehensive political settlement, which will fully protect the Afghan constitution and the rights of all Afghan citizens enshrined therein.
The extraordinary progress of the past two decades was made possible by hundreds of thousands of lives lost and trillions of dollars invested in Afghanistan. To ensure these immeasurable gains and sacrifices are not lost to chaos and tyranny, the US and NATO must coordinate with one another and engage with Afghanistan’s neighbors to make sure that regional and international stakeholders are politically and financially committed to a peaceful and democratic political process in Afghanistan. This global and regional effort led by the US and NATO also must safeguard the government, civil society, and private sector in Afghanistan against a return to power by armed militias, whose only legacy has been terror and the dark ages of the 1990s, with the most heinous of human rights violations justified by obscene perversions of religious beliefs and cultural traditions.
While we welcome any effort to end military interventions and armed hostilities in Afghanistan, and whole-heartedly long for the day when all Afghans can finally live with peace and dignity, we firmly believe that a lasting peace must protect the rights of all citizens, particularly those of the Afghan women and girls who bore the brunt of the Taliban’s brutality and the last forty years of conflict in their homeland.
On behalf of the women and girls that we serve, we implore the US and its allies to ensure their troop disengagement from Afghanistan does not grant unelected armed militias and warlords more leverage, and leave behind the triumph of tyranny instead of the democratic values of liberty, prosperity, and justice for all—shared not only by our allies but by the overwhelming majority of Afghans.
Women for Afghan Women (WAW) is a grassroots, non-profit organization dedicated to securing and protecting the rights of disenfranchised Afghan women and girls in Afghanistan and New York, particularly their rights to develop their individual potential, to self-determination, and to be represented in all areas of life: political, social, cultural, and economic. WAW advocates for women’s rights and challenges the norms that underpin gender-based violence wherever opportunities arise to influence attitudes and bring about change.
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