Afghan Women Fear Nonstatus, Irrelevant Future

Beyond the Veil| Afghan women are unsettled over negotiations with the Taliban, writes the Washington Post. Both NGOs women and those living all over the country fear that they are negotiating fodder as President Hamid Karzai hammers out a forward peace plan with the Taliban.

Gender activists say they’re met with the same silence the experienced in 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.” via Washington Post