Western Gender Policies in Afghanistan: Failing Women and Provoking Men

Abstract

Gender identities and politics have always been entangled with geopolitics in Afghanistan. Since 2001, when North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces ousted the Taliban government, a great deal of research on gender issues and the status of women has been done in Afghanistan. There is, however, a lack of research on how Afghan men themselves view these efforts to promote gender equality and women’s rights. Based on my primary research in Kabul around Afghan masculinity, I found that the efforts of the international community to promote gender equality and improve the conditions of women in Afghanistan have not worked. On the contrary, they have provoked even educated Afghan men into taking up more defensive and conservative positions, instead of convincing them that women deserve equal rights. I demonstrate that gender training since October 2001 has been geopolitical, economic, and social, employing Western notions of gender equality to Afghanistan with scant regard for their relevance in an economy of scarce jobs. This cultural insensitivity exhibited by the international community has contributed to the general disdain for gender equality and women’s rights among most Afghan men in Kabul.

Key Words:

• Afghan masculinity
• Kabul
• geopolitics of gender
• Taliban
• NATO
• women’s rights
• oriental