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laws in Islamic history, Syracuse, N.Y. 1996, 290–306.Elizabeth F. ThompsonAfghanistanThe Afghan women’s movement in the twentieth
century had a major impact on gender issues. In40 civil society
1964 Afghan women participated in the drafting of
the constitution and won the right to vote. In the
1960s and 1970s they had a strong presence in
many institutions: education, health, engineering,
the civil service, and parliament. However, the
struggle between the Soviet Union and the United
States to control the flow of regional oil and natu-
ral resources and their support for their chosen
warlords, combined with the growth of extremist
Islam and tribalism, led to war and violent conflicts
and eroded any chance of achievements of women
in urban centers being extended to rural or poor
women (Rashid 2000, 41–54, Mehta and Mamoor
2002).
Continuous war and violent conflict from the late
1970s led to the collapse of state and other institu-
tions. Civil society was devastated and social capi-
tal was eroded. Individuals and communities were
unable to achieve their objectives as the war culture
replaced all rules, norms, obligations, trust, and
reciprocity in social relations and social structures.
Millions were disabled or injured, or died. Millions
became refugees; the majority of them lived in Iran
and Pakistan, many of them with female heads of
household (Shah 2000, Shakib 2002).
Despite long years of war and violent conflict
women proved their strength by pulling themselves
from the depths of seclusion and oppression in
order to reach a free space of agency. They played a
pivotal role in constructing the future civil society
organizations through grassroots solidarity move-
ments both at home and in exile. Under the Taliban,
many women risked their lives by turning their
homes into an underground network of schools
for girls and young women. After the fall of the
Taliban, they realized the importance of their
underground organizations and activities. In 2001,
women activists in the Literacy Corps identified
2,000 girls and female students in Kabul alone who
were awarded certificates for the skills they had
acquired under the Taliban years in women’s secret
schools (Rostami Povey 2003).
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan (RAWA) played a particularly crucial
role by creating cohesion and solidarity in their
community. RAWA was established in 1977 to
struggle for democracy, women’s rights, and human
rights and published Payàm-e Zan(Woman’s mes-
sage), a quarterly political magazine. Meena Kesh-
war Kamal, the founding member of RAWA, was
assassinated in 1987. However, RAWA’s activities
continued in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and in the West
(Brodsky 2003, 80–1).
Many professional women remained in Afghan-
istan or returned there to form networks and soli-