The head-to-toe burqas that made women a faceless symbol of the Taliban's violently repressive rule are no longer required here. Yet many Afghan women say they still feel voiceless eight years into a war-torn democracy, and they point to government plans to forge peace with the Taliban as a prime example.
Gender activists say they have been pressing the ruling administration for a part in any deal-making with Taliban fighters and leaders, which is scheduled to be finalized at a summit in April. Instead, they said, they have been met with a silence that they see as a dispiriting reminder of the limits of progress Afghan women have made since 2001.
"We have not been approached by the government -- they never do," said Samira Hamidi, country director of the Afghan Women's Network, an umbrella group. "The belief is that women are not important,'' she said, describing a mind-set that she said "has not been changed in the past eight years."
The Taliban's repressive treatment of women helped galvanize international opposition in the 1990s, and by some measures democracy has completely changed Afghan women's lives. Their worry now is not about a Taliban takeover, Hamidi said, but that male leaders, behind closed doors and desperate for peace, might not compel Taliban leaders to accept, however grudgingly, that women's roles have altered.
Those concerns share roots with the misgivings voiced by many observers, including some U.S. officials, about Afghan efforts to forge a settlement with the Taliban, whose leaders promote an Islamist ideology that seems wholly at odds with rights the Afghan constitution guarantees.
In today's Afghanistan, females make up one-quarter of parliament, fill one-third of the nation's classrooms and even compete on "Afghan Idol."
But violence against them remains "endemic," according to the State Department. The percentage of female civil servants is steadily falling. Just one of 25 cabinet members is a woman, and female lawmakers say their opinions are often ignored.
(Read the full story at http://washingtonpost.com/faith - Image from www.rockpa.org)