Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Afghan WOMEN AND GOVERNANCE: Main gender inclusion barriers

The Afghan woman has remained the perpetual victim of Afghanistan’s failing statehood, which is a resultant effect of the social, economic and religious construct of the Afghan society. Broadly, the Afghan woman is continually at a lesser par and treated unequally when compared to her region counterparts in some other nations. The issue of gender equality and women’s right in Afghanistan is one that has been recurrently kicked back and disregarded by the government. More often than not culture is usually the justification wielded for the denial of women’s right and the perpetuation of gender inequality in the country. Some of these harmful cultural practices pervasively promotes the crimes against the Afghan women and they include, domestic violence, child brides or forced marriages, rape denial of inheritance and many other cases of abuse against women. In today’s Afghanistan, the power relations between men and women still undermines women’s role in politics, their socioeconomic and diplomatic values due to the cultural consideration of women as only relevant to the social side of life, and the cultural composition of the society that perpetuates these gender roles. Notwithstanding, the role of women in governance in Afghanistan has continued to attract the international community and has been at the centre of the discourse for decades, especially since the
Establishment of the new government based on Bonn Agreement in Afghanistan. The current century has been heralded by increased international awareness and legislation on women’s right and working modules and resolutions in place issued by the UN and other international multi-lateral organizations, which Afghanistan is a member of and has officially adopted. Notwithstanding, the modules and resolutions aimed at enforcing and implementing a practical manifestation within the Afghan state have had little effect. While the estimated population of the country is estimated about 29.7 million that 14.4 million is male and 13.8 million is female that is about 51.1 percent is male and 48.9 percent is male.  – the Afghan women have been significantly underrepresented. 
Considering the female population the role of women in participation, politics and leadership is very low; about a fifth of government employees are women, but less than a tenth are employed in decision making positions. Of the 400,812 civil servants in the year 2015, 78.1 percent are male and 21.9 percent are female.
The situation of women participation governance and decision making is alarming. Although, the Afghan government has made some progress in women inclusion, but the traditional socio-cultural structural barriers in the Afghan society have strongly resisted against the women inclusion and have hindered the pace of women inclusion severely. As a result, Afghanistan is just at the beginning of the long journey of gender equality and it only can meet the gender inclusion goals with a strong political commitment and cultural perception change in the society.