Shree Purna Sinha
Political Science
July 2025
This paper is a critical analysis of how women rights in Afghanistan drastically declined after the Taliban came back to power in August 2021, at the cost of two decades of the gradual developments. Based on feminist political theory and postcolonial criticism, the research evaluates the legitimation of perpetrating gender inequality as a form of political domination by the authoritarian power of Taliban, institutionalization of patriarchal norms in the Taliban legal system and social-political life under the specious name of religion. The study of historical trends of neo-liberalisation through repression allows in contextualising the current crisis to be intertwined with a history of historical ebbs and flows of state ideologies and exogenous interference, as the use and manipulation of Afghan women as battlefield prop has been constant throughout the history. This analysis includes international law tools like CEDAW and the UDHR that reveal how the violations against women committed by the Taliban are widely open and unacceptable to the global community and how the tools of enforcement are weak. Moreover, the article also reiterates the persistence of strength and opposition of the Afghan women in the form of grassroot resistance and transnational solidarity structures; and evaluates the multidimensional and even paradoxical presence of international interference that depends on geopolitical interests and varies accordingly. Finally, the research highlights the need to continue theorizing, politicization and humanitarian focus on Afghanistan women that can constitute the voices and agency of the people in the international discussion of gender justice and human rights
316- 325
© Airo Journals 2021
