“No one hears our voices.”
Situational assessment and recommended actions based on the perspectives and experiences of Afghan women.
No one hears our voices: Afghanistan report
Afghan women share their hopes and fears
In their own words, Afghan women call for women’s rights, inclusion in public life, urgent economic relief, and for the international community to step up in solidarity with them.
Between December 2021 and February 2022, Women for Women International conducted phone surveys and interviews with current and former participants of our programmes across Afghanistan and Afghan women’s rights activists and organsations continuing their work within Afghanistan.
The objective of these conversations was to better understand their current experiences and primary challenges, identify any promising support mechanisms, and to listen to their self-articulated hopes for their future.
One overarching message emerged: the international community still has an important role to play in exercising its power and leverage to support Afghan women’s rights and alleviate the economic crisis affecting the country.
The international community must listen to our voices on women’s rights like education and our employment, and they should convince the Taliban to give women equal rights in society.
Explore the "No One Hears Our Voices" report
"No One Hears Our Voices": Report
"No One Hears Our Voices": Summary
Since the de facto government takeover in Afghanistan in August 2021, decision-makers, international media, governments, and international institutions are often talking ‘about’ women in Afghanistan without speaking directly with Afghan women themselves, asking them what they are experiencing or understanding what they need.
In contrast, this report makes recommendations that are directly derived from the voices and lived experiences of Afghan women and civil society across the following self-identified priority areas:
- Women’s Participation and Inclusion
- Economic and Humanitarian Crisis
- Sustaining the Afghan Women’s Rights Movement within Afghanistan and Beyond
- Explicit National Laws and Policies
- UN Commitment to Women’s Rights and Humanitarian Action
Many of the recommendations in this report call for women’s rights, participation, and inclusion in public life within Afghanistan.
But beyond acting on these specific recommendations, policymakers and advocates alike must embed participation and inclusion of Afghan women into our processes for developing recommendations and policies henceforth by directly engaging with Afghan civil society and asking and listening to Afghan women, themselves.
If the Taliban does not accept women's rights and do not allow women to get an education and work then the future of Afghanistan is dark and unclear, especially for women.
If they completely take our freedom, we cannot go to school. We cannot speak freely to ask for our rights. We cannot go to work to earn money and live our lives as women do in other countries.
Most of the people are suffering from hunger and do not have food to eat today, so how can they have hope for the future?
Learn more about our work in Afghanistan
Our Afghanistan Response
subtitle:
We’re thrilled to share that after pausing the programmes for security reasons in August 2021, we have now reopened our first training centre in Afghanistan. We have enrolled 350 Afghan women so far, across two training centres that were reopened in Nangahar province.
Please Don't Forget Afghanistan
subtitle:
Latifa Faqirzada worked for Women for Women International - Afghanistan for nearly four years. With the help of the UK government, she left Kabul in August 2021 during the final days of the US/UK troop withdrawal. She is currently residing in London and advocating for the women who remain in Afghanistan. This blog is her personal story.
Our Work in Afghanistan
subtitle:
Since 2002, Women for Women International - Afghanistan has reached more than 120,000 women through our work.