U.S. Policy and Gender Mainstreaming in Afghanistan

AutorAnna Plage
Páginas1-10

U.S. Policy and Gender Mainstreaming in Afghanistan

Anna Plage

Introduction

The scope of this essay relates the policies of the United States in Afghanistan with the gender practices of the U.S. Armed Forces. Firstly, the paper encompasses a general contextual placement of women in Afghani society, and argues that the United States government capitalized upon the human rights violations against women to help justify its 2001 invasion. After a brief overview of the gender approach of focalized aid programs in the country in the post-invasion era, the essay explores the practices of the United States Armed Forces at large. Basing argumentation on the work of Rojas, Kandiyoti, Caprioli and Douglass, Margesson and Kronenfeld, D‟Amico and finally Silva, this paper proposes that U.S. policy must adopt a holistic approach to gender mainstreaming, starting from within its own ranks, in order to effect a sustainable change on Afghani social constructions.

Women in Afghan Society

The plight of the Afghani woman is no new phenomenon. Although the country allowed limited involvement of women during most of the twentieth century, the arrival of the Taliban to power effectively ended any form of self-determination for the female population. During the reign of this oppressive regime, "women were banned from working outside the home and had limited access to health and education facilities. Only 3% of Afghan

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girls were enrolled in schools in 1999" (Rojas 2004: 4). Since the United States and its allies forcibly removed the regime from power in 2001, women have in theory regained the ground lost during two decades of oppression. In January of 2004, a new democratic constitution was adopted - emphasizing equality between men and women and creating a concrete space for female political participation (Kandiyoti 2007: 183). In practice, however, women in Afghanistan remain among the most vulnerable worldwide, and are faced with deep-rooted traditions and severe living conditions. "The United Nations Development Program states that maternal and infant mortality, health, sanitation, and education in Afghanistan, rank among the worst in the world. [...] almost 98% of women have no formal citizenship or identity papers" (Rojas 2004: 2). According to Amnesty International, "human rights abuses against women continue to occur with the "active support or passive complicity of state agencies, armed groups, families and communities‟" (in Kandiyoti 2007: 187).

The gendered discourse of the U.S. invasion

Morrison Taw and Grant Thomas argue that in the post-Cold War era, the international community has had the opportunity "to become more involved in efforts to bring relief, peace and stability to countries experiencing internal conflict" (in Caprioli & Douglass 2008: 47). This assertion has been evidenced through the actions of the United States, particularly in the years following the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Although the gender question in Afghanistan is complex, the United States, in its 2001 campaign to raise support for looming military operations in the country, capitalized upon the legitimization that a humanitarian approach could afford the campaign. Mary Hill Rojas proposes that the United States applied, for the

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first time in its history, the argument of "gender apartheid" as rationalization for actions taken against the country (2004: 17). As part of its political discourse, the United States presented the difficulties of Afghani women as a motive for justifying invasion of the country. "Reversing abuses of women‟s rights became an explicit item of policy, at least at the level of rhetoric" (Kandiyoti 2007: 169). While the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan profits from this discourse, the language used to describe "the meteoric rise in women‟s status in [...] Afghanistan subsequent to U.S. intervention [...] rest largely on anecdotal accounts with little empirical evidence provided" (Caprioli & Douglass 2008: 47). More likely is that, while potentially securing a democratic transition...

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