The Taliban Continue to Tighten Their Grip on Afghan Women and Girls

The Taliban Continue to Tighten Their Grip on Afghan Women and Girls

Thursday, December 8, 2022

By: Belquis Ahmadi;  Scott Worden

Since the Taliban’s August 2021 takeover of Afghanistan, they have ratcheted up restrictions on women and girls as the group consolidates power. These restrictions include limitations on employment, education, public interactions and other fundamental rights such as access to justice. These restrictions have only tightened over time with increasingly draconian enforcement — the latest being public floggings that harken back to the Taliban’s 1990s rule. Amid the U.N.’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, USIP has compiled a comprehensive archive of Taliban decrees and public statements on the treatment of women and girls. While leaders and activists around the globe strategize and develop plans to address gender-based violence in their respective countries, Afghanistan stands out as a worst-case example, with two decades of hard-won progress rapidly unwinding.

Type: Analysis

GenderHuman Rights

We Have Strategies to Address Gender-Based Violence — It’s Time to Implement Them

We Have Strategies to Address Gender-Based Violence — It’s Time to Implement Them

Monday, December 5, 2022

By: Negar Ashtari Abay, Ph.D.

Gender-based violence against women and girls is the most pervasive breach of human rights worldwide and a tactical weapon that is fueling violent conflict. In just the last year, we have witnessed an increase in targeted attacks on women leaders, push back against women’s rights, shrinking of civil society space, virulent online harassment, and conflict-related sexual violence all in conjunction with the strengthening of authoritarianism and state aggression. This unparalleled trend is evident in many countries, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iran, Myanmar and Russian-occupied Ukraine.

Type: Analysis

GenderConflict Analysis & PreventionHuman Rights

Want more accountability for the Taliban? Give more money for human rights monitoring.

Want more accountability for the Taliban? Give more money for human rights monitoring.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

By: Belquis Ahmadi;  Scott Worden

Ahead of the U.N. General Assembly last week, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett released his first report grading the Taliban’s treatment of Afghans’ rights. It was an F. In the past year, the Taliban have engaged in a full-scale assault on Afghan’s human rights, denying women access to public life, dismantling human rights institutions, corrupting independent judicial processes, and engaging in extralegal measures to maintain control or to exact revenge for opposition to their rule. That is one of the main reasons — along with their continued support of al-Qaida and a refusal to form a more inclusive government — that Afghanistan has no representation at the U.N.

Type: Analysis

Human RightsJustice, Security & Rule of Law

Four Ways to Include Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Atrocity Prevention

Four Ways to Include Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Atrocity Prevention

Thursday, September 29, 2022

By: Lauren Baillie;  Kathleen Kuehnast, Ph.D.;  Mikaylah Ladue

Conflict-related sexual violence is not only an indicator of rising atrocity risk — it can also constitute an atrocity crime itself. And while the U.S. government has implemented conflict-related sexual violence response efforts, concurrent international efforts on the issue offer a solid foundation for the United States to go beyond responding to these crimes and toward prevention.

Type: Analysis

Conflict Analysis & PreventionGenderHuman Rights

To Build a Unified Resistance and Democratic Myanmar, Discrimination Must End

To Build a Unified Resistance and Democratic Myanmar, Discrimination Must End

Thursday, September 8, 2022

By: Billy Ford;  Aung Ko Ko

Early on the morning of Myanmar’s February 2021 coup, Mya Aye, a prominent Muslim activist, was one of the first arrested by the new junta regime. Since then, thousands more have been imprisoned or killed by the regime, including dozens of Muslims, like prominent student leader Wai Moe Naing, and other marginalized minorities who have fought against the military junta alongside other ethnic and religious groups. Although the resistance shares a common enemy in the brutal junta, it has yet to fully embrace a vision for a more inclusive country that overcomes Myanmar’s legacy of ethnic and religious discrimination. To broaden its base of support domestically and internationally, resistance leaders should commit to address structural discrimination against minorities in Myanmar.

Type: Analysis

Democracy & GovernanceHuman Rights

Event Extra: Taliban Rule Takes Profound Toll on Afghan Women and Minorities

Event Extra: Taliban Rule Takes Profound Toll on Afghan Women and Minorities

Thursday, August 18, 2022

By: Adam Gallagher

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. Despite pledges of moderation and reform from some Taliban factions, over the last year they have reinstated many of the harshest policies from their 1990s emirate, pushing women out of public life and brooking no dissent. For many Afghans — especially women, girls and ethnic and religious minorities — the threat of violence looms over daily life. U.S. Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls and Human Rights Rina Amiri discusses how Afghans' lives have changes over the last year, what brave Afghan women are doing to protest the rollback of their rights, and how the United States and international community can help.

Type: Podcast

Human Rights

A Year into Taliban Rule, Afghans Face Spiraling Economic, Humanitarian Crises

A Year into Taliban Rule, Afghans Face Spiraling Economic, Humanitarian Crises

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

By: Dhabie Brown;  Yasmin Faruki;  Ashley Igwe;  Allyson Neville;  Becky Roby

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan last year — followed by economic sanctions and other restrictions from the international community — precipitated a dire humanitarian crisis. Afghan women and children, particularly girls, have been hit the hardest. After two decades of hard-won gains, Afghan women have seen their rights evaporate before their eyes and young girls’ dreams for their futures have been squashed. Meanwhile, the country’s economic crisis has left nearly the entire population in hunger, with limited access to health care and other basic needs.

Type: Analysis

EconomicsHuman Rights

Five Ways to Make the U.S. Atrocity Prevention Strategy Work

Five Ways to Make the U.S. Atrocity Prevention Strategy Work

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

By: Lauren Baillie;  Andrea Gittleman

From Ukraine to Ethiopia to Burma and beyond, people around the world suffer mass atrocities and the immense harm these crimes inflict on victims and survivors. Yet, the United States had no articulated strategy to prevent these atrocities — until now. In July, the Biden administration announced the “U.S. Strategy to Anticipate, Prevent, and Respond to Atrocities,” marking a hopeful moment. However, hard work remains to operationalize the strategy, including in maintaining the political will to realize an effective prevention agenda.

Type: Analysis

Human RightsJustice, Security & Rule of Law

The Role of Accessibility and Funding in Disability-Inclusive Peacebuilding

The Role of Accessibility and Funding in Disability-Inclusive Peacebuilding

Friday, July 29, 2022

By: Elizabeth Murray;  Rashad Nimr

Persons with disabilities are often left out of peace processes despite comprising an estimated 15 percent of the world’s population. Among those most acutely affected by violence and armed conflict, persons with disabilities who are living in — or attempting to leave — conflict zones face numerous threats to their physical and mental wellbeing, which can aggravate pre-existing disability or lead to secondary disability. Armed conflict and violence also increase the number of newly acquired disabilities, and many of those individuals face the same barriers and challenges as persons with existing disabilities — but without the previous lived experience.

Type: Analysis

Human RightsPeace Processes