What Will Happen to Women’s Rights in Afghanistan?

FAWZIA KOOFI, FORMER AFGHAN LAWMAKER: This morning, when I woke up and I saw everything is reversed to 20, 22 years back, I couldn’t believe that the whole 20 years was like a dream for many people in Afghanistan to see where we went back. It is shocking for many people how quickly and rapidly everything collapsed, and how military operations were undertaken to take over the power while we were negotiating. And if only negotiations were preferred and expedited, I’m sure people would have celebrated today the stability and peace. Unfortunately, many people are uncertain about what will happen next, especially the younger generation and the woman of Afghanistan, who are the product of the past 20 years.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Fawzia, so many Afghans have been born in the last 20 years. It’s a very, very young nation. Many do not remember or have any experience with Taliban rule. And many have put their fate in a better future. Certainly, women and girls have had a better future and a better opportunity. What are you hearing, if anything, from your female friends, from parents with young girls? Are people hiding out? Are they waiting to see? Do they fear the worst? Do they believe what the Taliban is saying publicly, that they will have their rights guaranteed? What are you hearing?

KOOFI: Well, the situation is very chaotic, Christiane. In a lawless society, where there is a vacuum of power, people have a right to be terrified and to be uncertain about the future. In my lifetime, I have seen many regime change through a military coup or military takeover, but certainly not my daughters and not the younger generation of Afghanistan. They have grown up with the world technology and a different — a different life, certainly, the life that I have not had when I was a child. So, for them to see everything went back to scratch, and they see the flag changed very quickly in the presidential palace was — it’s shocking. Yes, they were not — many people, especially the young girls and boys who went to school in the past 20 years, they went to university. They are financially self-sufficient, most of them. They don’t remember the Taliban or the civil war.