darity groups with poorer women. These networks
and groups became mechanisms for women’s em-
powerment. Amongst these women are: Suraya
Parlika, a leading member of the National Union of
Women of Afghanistan; Seddighe Balkhi, the head
of the Islamic Center for Political and Cultural
Activities of Afghan Women; Shafigha Habibi,
a leading member of the Women’s Association of
Afghanistan; and Shafiqa Moaber, the director of
the Women’s Vocational Training Center.
Their secret organizations laid the foundation for
the building of social capital, which was crucial for
the process of reconstruction. Following the fall
of the Taliban, they actively participated in rebuild-
ing their organizations, regrouping their members
and creating opportunities for women’s participa-
tion in the process of transition from war to peace.
Women journalists also became active. In Kabul
they set up the Cultural Journal of Afghanistan
Women(Rostami Povey 2003). In 2002–3 other
women’s daily, weekly, and monthly magazines
appeared. In Kabul, Shukkria Barekzai Dawi pub-
lished Aeeneh Zan (Women’s mirror); Lilema
Ahmadi published Rooz(Day); Mary Nabard pub-
lished Seerat (Nature); Hawa Norastani published
Ershad-al Neswan(Women’s guidance); Jamila
Mojahed published Malali; Fouzia Morady pub-
lished Zan va Ghanon(Women and law); and in
Jalalabad Arian Yon published Nahid(Globe).
Education was at the heart of women’s struggle.
In 1996 when Kabul was conquered by the Taliban,
Kabul University female professors went to
Bamiyan and set up a university until Bamiyan fell
into the hands of the Taliban forces in 1998
(Rashid 2000, 68–9).
Women lawyers also continued their activities
under extreme forms of oppression. Suraya Paikan
established the Afghan Women Lawyers and Prof-
essional Association in 1998 in Mazari-i-Sharif.
The organization had 400 active members. They
were forced to leave Afghanistan by the Taliban but
they continued their work in Peshawar and in 2001
they returned to Kabul. In 2003, despite resistance
to women’s legal and constitutional rights with the
re-emergence of extremist Islamists, 200 women
lawyers worked in Kabul as judges, prosecutors,
and teachers.
After the fall of the Taliban, Afghan women
emerged as a force not to be ignored. In 2000, 200
women participated in the 1,550-member Loya
Jirga, the traditional grand assembly. Mahbobeh
Hoghoghmal, a lawyer, was one of the 21 people
chosen by the United Nations out of 1,000 names
to decide how the Loya Jirga should convene and
afghanistan 41how the transitional government should be formed.
In 2001, three women delegates (Sima Wali, Sima
Samar, and Suhaila Seddiqi) participated in the UN-
sponsored Bonn negotiations to form an Afghan
interim government. They demanded the creation
of a ministry of women’s affairs and the appoint-
ment of Sima Samar as deputy prime minister and
Suhaila Seddiqi as the minister for public health.
However, in 2002, Sharì≠a Islamic law, under the
guise of the al-Amr bi-al-ma≠rùf wa-al-nahy ≠an al-
munkar (Ministry for the enforcement of virtue and
suppression of vice), which had terrorized the peo-
ple under the Taliban, was reinstated (Mehta and
Mamoor 2002, 21, Brodsky 2003, 270–2). Sima
Samar was forced out of her job for objecting to the
continued role of warlords in the government con-
firmed by the Loya Jirga (Steele 2002, Viner 2002).
Nevertheless, Afghan women continued their
struggle for the establishment of civil society to
contend with the patriarchal movements and insti-
tutions. Habiba Soraby replaced Sima Samar and
published the magazine Mermon(Women) in Pashto;
Sima Samar became the Director of the Human
Rights Commission, and Mahbobeh Hoghoghmal
became the adviser to Habiba Soraby.
Outside Afghanistan, Afghan women intensified
their activities. In 2001, Women for Afghan Women
(WAW) held their conference in New York under
the leadership of Sima Wali, Sara Amiryar, Fahima
Vorgetts, and Rita Amiri to promote women’s
rights issues (Mehta 2002).
In 2003, Liza Ghobar was appointed a member
of the Loya Jirga to work with Afghan women
refugees and the diaspora community in Iran, in
order to identify the needs of Afghan women to be
included in the new Afghan constitution.Bibliography
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Association of the Women of Afghanistan, New York
2003.
S. Mehta and H. Mamoor, Building community across
difference, in S. Mehta (ed.),Women for Afghan
women. Shattering myths and claiming the future, New
York 2002, 15–26.
A. Rashid, Taliban. Islam, oil and the new great game in
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E. Rostami Povey, Women in Afghanistan. Passive victims
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