Political reconciliation is nowhere in sight in Afghanistan. Serious dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban has not begun, and may take months to kick-start after Taliban’s overreach in Doha. Yet, anticipating the return of the Taliban, the gains of international intervention already appear to be in trouble.

What else can explain legislator Opposition in Afghanistan’s Lower House of Parliament to a bill which seeks to give legal protection to women against male exploitation. The draft bill was attacked by lawmakers as “un Islamic,” a foreign concept which has no standing in Sharia law.
Now that legislators have brought religion into the debate, the issue has become controversial and attempts are being made to water down many of the clauses.
President Hamid Karzai issued a landmark ordinance in 2009, called the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) to safeguard women’s rights.
The order criminalises child marriage, forced marriage, selling and buying of women for the purpose or under the pretext of marriage, ba’ad (giving away a woman or girl to settle a dispute), forced self-immolation and 17 other acts of violence against women, including rape and beating.
Though the implementation of the laws were not perfect, by and large they were being enforced by attorney general offices and courts across the country.
Women of Afghanistan are concerned that the relative freedom they had enjoyed in the post-Taliban decade is now under threat and may disappear altogether unless President Hamid Karzai himself takes the initiative to push their case.
Hamid Karzai may be personally committed to equal rights for women. But at the moment with the US and Nato forces preparing to leave by 2014 and the Taliban upping its ante, he has little time or inclination to act.
He is in the middle of building up political alliances, securing himself, his followers and the country from an uncertain future. Women want him to actively ensure that the bill is pushed through in the House and becomes a part of the legal system.
During the Taliban rule, women were ordered to be always covered in public and house windows were painted so they could not be seen inside. Since the overthrowal of the Taliban in 2001, women have won back rights such as voting, education and jobs. Although beatings, torture and forced marriages are common. The worry now is that post-2014, there may be a return to the old days.
Going by what is happening on the ground in Afghanistan, their anxieties are justified. In May 2013, when the bill was introduced in the House by Fawzia Koofi, a presidential hopeful, and a member of Parliament, it was bitterly attacked and sent to the joint commission for modification. Women’s groups claim that the attempt now is to water down the ordinance to such a degree as to become meaningless.
It was attacked not just by tribal leaders and patriarchal lawmakers but also by the country’s Human Rights Commission member Abdul Rahman Hotak, a former Talib, now with the government. “The people who have written that law do not know Afghanistan and Afghan society very well — perhaps they think Kabul is Afghanistan,” Mr Hotak said. He also said that the EVAW law was “violating Islam” and has to be changed.
“This is a major setback on the promotion of women’s rights which is already beleaguered by the return of Taliban to the mainstream of national life. Please support our effort to amend or repeal the law,’’ Dr Massouda Jalal, a former minister, said in a appeal to the international community in June.
Dr Jalal and several activists believe that the best way to get President Karzai to push the bill is through international pressure.
The one recourse left to the women is to campaign vigorously with the international community to ensure that the $16 billion pledged to Afghanistan after 2014, at the Tokyo conference, should be withheld unless women are given their due. Money talks and big money talks even more. The effort to galvanise donors into action will gain momentum in the coming months.
Women activists are bitter with Mr Karzai. “The government will not support the women of Afghanistan. The decree was signed a few years ago because of US pressure,’’ an activist, speaking on condition of anonymity said.
She recalled that in early May when a group of feminists went to meet the President for the EVAW, Mr Karzai shrugged it off saying he had other more important issues to deal with at the moment.
However, what angered them more was that Mr Karzai’s alleged remarks were praised by tribal leaders from Helmand and Kandahar because his wife was never seen in public. Feminists felt this was totally uncalled for and showed that the President is now singing a different tune.
The author is a senior journalist based in Delhi