Freedom on the Frontlines: Afghan Women and the Fallacy of Liberation by Lina AbiRafeh

 Afghan women were at the forefront of global agendas in late 2001, fueled by a mix of media coverage, humanitarian intervention and military operations. Calls for "liberating" Afghan women were widespread. Women's roles in Afghanistan have long been politically divisive, marked by struggles between modernization and tradition. Women, politics, and the state have always been intertwined in Afghanistan, and conflicts have been fueled by attempts to challenge or change women's status.

It may appear that we have come full circle twenty years later, in late 2021, when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban once more. Women's rights in Afghanistan have been stripped away, and any gains--however tenuous--now appear lost. Today, the country navigates both a humanitarian and a human rights crisis. This book measures the rhetoric of liberation and the physical and ideological occupations of Afghanistan over the twenty-year period from 2001 through 2021 through the voices, perspectives, and experiences of those who are implicated in this reality--Afghan women.

Lina AbiRafeh, PhD is a global women's rights expert with decades of experience worldwide. She is an advisor and former aid worker with a long track record in creating positive change for women in over 20 countries around the world. She speaks and publishes frequently on her experiences. She lives in New York.

Year: 2022

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