“The Fight Would Be Easier if We Are United”

Last week, members of the Fletcher community gathered in ASEAN Auditorium in celebration of International Women’s Day, honoring those who’ve come before and recognizing the work that remains to be done in support of equal rights for women around the world.

“This is the day we remember those whose path we follow, those who made it possible for us to do the things that we’re doing today,” said Dean Kyte in her opening remarks. “We commit ourselves to the struggle, which sometimes feels like an endless struggle, for the rights and dignity of women around the world.”

Dean Kyte provided important context around the history of International Women’s Day and its continued relevance. The movement started in 1908, when women in New York took to the streets, looking for pay and better work conditions. International Women’s Day is an important day for action and activism, whether in the U.S., Mexico, or South Korea.

“Each of these early manifestations of International Women’s Day was actually revolutionary. In 2023, we sometimes are a little scared of that word,” said Dean Kyte. “But in 2023, we’ve seen handbrake turn reversals in women’s rights and their ability to access them, not just in Afghanistan, not just Iran, but in the United States, in the United Kingdom, across the European Union in many ways—it’s everywhere, and the endless struggle continues.”

To continue the conversation at The Fletcher School, and as part of Global Tufts Month, a university-wide celebration of Tufts’ engagement with global issues, Dr. Sima Samar gave an address, “The International is Personal: The Struggle for Women’s Rights, Human Dignity, and Social Justice.” A visiting scholar at risk at Fletcher, Dr. Samar served as Afghanistan’s first minister of women’s affairs, and she chaired Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission from 2002 to 2019.

In her address, Samar detailed the history of women’s rights in Afghanistan over the past sixty years. In the 1960s and 1970s, women were integrated into public life in the country. Following a coup d’état in 1978 and the USSR invasion, the pro USSR government tried to promote women’s rights, at once making literacy courses compulsory for every woman in the country and killing people who spoke out, whether against the compulsory literacy course or the regime at large. Then, in the midst of the Cold War, “Religion was used as a weapon of war in order to defeat the USSR,” said Samar.

The Western powers that had intervened in Afghanistan to stop the advancement of the USSR then abandoned Afghanistan and did not continue monitoring the human rights situation in the country. In 1994, the Taliban rose to power, and by 1996 the new government had enacted a slew of restriction on women’s movement, education, and participation in public life. Women were beaten, and there was mass killing of the country’s Hazara minority group. Following September 11, Samar was in Washington, and in conversation with the State Department, she stressed the U.S.’s responsibility in radicalizing the Afghan Mujahideen.

After the U.S. and NATO removed the Taliban from power, the global community promised support. The first Ministry of Women’s Affairs was established in December 2001, though Samar noted she didn’t have an office for the first two months. Together with international partners, they made remarkable achievements. More than three million girls returned to school, and women constituted 25% of parliament and university students. Women returned to business, sports, police, and the army.

When the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban reclaimed power, the new government replaced the Ministry of Women’s Affairs with the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. The Taliban systematically restricted women’s rights, and Afghanistan is the only country today without a constitution and a ban on education for girls.

“This gender apartheid of the Taliban is an act against humanity because it is not only the problem of Afghan women, and Afghan people, and Afghan families; it is a problem for humanity,” said Samar. “Human rights are not a western value; they are a human value, and implementable everywhere, including in Afghanistan. We all would agree on that, and the people and women in Afghanistan deserve to live with dignity and rights.” 

Samar also stressed that while the people in Ukraine deserve to be supported, Afghanistan requires attention too.

“Putting all the attention on Ukraine and ignoring the situation in Afghanistan will not help the situation in Ukraine,” she said. “The problem in Afghanistan will not stay within our borders. History repeated itself in Afghanistan, but I do not want to see it in other countries.” 

Following Samar’s lecture, Professor Kimberly Theidon, who directs the gender and intersectional analysis program, and Rohini Roy F23 moderated discussion on the role of social media, education, and how the international community can effectively offer support. Samar stressed that the international community should keep its promises, impose targeted sanctions, and refuse to recognize the Taliban’s government. Solutions, she said, will come from collective action.

“I think it’s really important that Afghan people are united and stand against this kind of dictatorship or people who impose their mentality on the rest of us,” she said.

Given the collective failures, both within Afghanistan and the international community, Samar emphasized that such cooperation can resolve the issue; the international community can rally and help the people of Afghanistan stand on their own feet.

“Nobody is going to give our rights as a gift,” said Samar. “To end the culture of impunity, we have to fight for it. That fight would be easier if we are united.”

“We have to live with dignity, which is not a big demand. It is in fact our right. Our existence is our right. Nobody can take that away from us.”

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