A frank conversation about Afghan women

University of Virginia’s professor Helena Zeweri talks about US withdrawal, the Afghan diaspora, and challenges the idea that muslim women need saving

The eyes of the world have focused on Afghanistan since August 15, when the Taliban took over Kabul and the former president, Ashraf Ghani, fled the country. Since then, thousands of people have scrambled to escape, fearing a return to the harsh realities of the 1990s, when the Taliban forbade women to work or go to school. It all happened in the context of the US troops withdrawal, raising questions about the role the United States played in the country, and what the future of Afghans, especially Afghan women, will look like. 

EmpowHer talked to Helena Zeweri, a founding member of the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association and assistant professor of Global Studies at the University of Virginia, where she teaches courses on global migration, humanitarianism, and colonialism. Currently based in Virginia, Zeweri identifies as a diasporic Afghan American and has been working alongside the Afghan community in the US since 2008. 

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[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length]

Helena, thanks a lot for taking the time—I can only imagine how exhausting this week has been. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself and your work? 

My family members were displaced from Afghanistan in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and they ended up in New York, specifically Queens, which is where I grew up in a close-knit Afghan community. I have incredible memories of being a part of this closely bound community. 

The Afghan American Artists and Writers Association (AAAWA) seeks to amplify the multiplicity of voices within the Afghan diaspora. Our collective began through the pioneering work of Afghan diasporic writers and poets. Our organization wanted to just show that being Afghan means so many different things--we saw our identities being boxed into definitive scripts.

What do you think was the overall feeling in the Afghan and Afghan-American community about the US withdrawal?  

The decision to withdraw a military presence in the country is not inherently a bad one. However, it is the nature of the exit from the country that many people are completely shaken by. How could a country that has spent 20 years in the supposed name of nation-building, who then created the economic and political conditions for the Taliban to regain a significant foothold, leave in such a hasty and completely disorganized way, so as to leave millions behind fearing for their lives and futures? 

The evacuation of Afghan civilians has been an utter disaster. Diaspora groups in the US and other countries have witnessed first hand what a complete failure this has been. We are literally working around the clock to get people’s visas expedited—doing the things lawyers and government bureaucrats are supposed to be doing. 

Are there any misconceptions going around that particularly frustrate you? 

Well, the misconceptions have been going around for hundreds of years across multiple imperial powers—beginning with British conceptions of Afghans as savage barbarians who require ‘taming’. The US media specifically has fallen into repurposing those tropes in all kinds of ways. For example, we’ve seen discussion of Afghan women as in need of being saved. While in this moment [sic], the US and NATO’s presence is critically important, women do not need the US and NATO to give them flourishing lives and the opportunity to thrive. Afghan women and men throughout the country have worked together toward these goals, but this never gets covered by the media. While they need critical help at the moment, this help should be geared toward creating the conditions under which displaced Afghans and Afghan nationals can thrive and flourish.

Can you talk a bit more about why the idea of “saving Afghan women” should be challenged?  

The general public is left with the belief that women in this part of the world are simply passive victims of repressive regimes. My question becomes what happens after the immediate humanitarian crisis? Do the same Western feminists who talk about rescuing Afghan women today, feel comfortable when Afghan women speak out against injustice in the new countries where they end up? My question becomes, is liberal feminism really interested in Afghan women once these women start resisting injustice, and calling out imperial violence? Is their relationship with Afghan women one of true solidarity or one of pity? Do they expect women to continue to inhabit the role of the passive, silent recipient of humanitarian aid?

It is important to understand that when the US talks about ‘saving Afghan women,’ it is a way for the US to erase its own role in all of this. It ends up negating the violence of the War on Terror, and through the ongoing financial and political linkages the US and other state actors have maintained vis-à-vis the Taliban. According to Brown University’s Costs of War initiative, as a result of the last 20 year war which was justified under the pretense of ‘saving Afghan women’, over 70,000 Afghan civilians have died many of whom were women and approximately 6 million Afghans have been displaced as a result of the fallout.

It is also important to recognize how the Taliban’s violence is materially and historically linked to decades of imperial intervention, by both the Soviet Union, the US, Pakistan, and increasingly China and Russia. We need to be able to show that the violence Afghan women face today and have been resisting for decades has been conditioned by the political chess games of these interventions.

What do you think about the overall coverage since the Taliban takeover?

I think a key assumption of media coverage of Afghanistan are the following: Afghans do not know what they are doing and are responsible for the botched evacuation process. And the idea that this is the Taliban 2.0. This framing assumes that the Taliban have found ways to recreate themselves or that their power this time around is not as invested in things like gender-based violence or the systematic oppression of ethnic minorities, like the Hazara community. This is not the case from reports I am hearing from family and friends. The Taliban’s very essence is rooted in the logic of dehumanization, subjugation, economic exploitation, and human depravity.

Having said that, it’s important to point out that the media coverage has done well in the sense that it has featured more voices from the Afghan diaspora and Afghanistan than usual. 

Darul Aman Palace; Photo taken by architect, Rafi Samizay.

Darul Aman Palace; Photo taken by architect, Rafi Samizay.

It seems that the advancement of Afghan women’s rights in the last 20 years is one of the country’s biggest successes. How can we avoid a Euro or Ameri-centric approach to Afghan women’s Empowerment?

We need to stop treating Afghan women as a geographically insulated blob of people who are just dealing with their own issues that are completely disconnected from our own. It’s possible for women’s issues in different parts of the world to be qualitatively different, yet historically connected.

I think key to overcoming this double bind is to first unsettle the idea that the Taliban’s takeover marks a clear break with the regime that was in power two weeks ago. Under the Ghani regime, women’s rights were not in a good place. Women were actively fighting and protesting around gender equality for decades.

What is the one thing you think all people in the United States should understand?  

Afghans like all communities are multi-dimensional complex human beings who have dreams, aspirations, and want to live fulfilling lives. They don’t need to be ‘resilient’ or ‘perfect’ in order to be eligible to get that opportunity. That goes for all displaced peoples. There is nothing essentially good or bad about Afghan people.

Any displaced community knows how things work, so to speak. They understand how bureaucracies work, they understand how the ‘system of inequality’ in which they live and which they must confront works—whether it’s the Taliban or the global refugee system, which is centered around how to keep people out rather than take them in. I say that to point out that Afghans are not helpless victims who need to be saved so that they can then be re-dominated by their saviors. Afghans need help right now, that is true. But what they need help with is to create the fundamental conditions that are necessary to go on and live a flourishing, and fulfilling life.

What are your hopes for the future? 

That the Afghan people will continue to resist and push for revolutionary change. I hope that one day we in the diaspora will be able to have a flourishing physical connection with our ancestral homeland. 

How do you think people in the United States can support Afghans? 

1) Helping the current evacuation – we can no longer extend the evacuation deadline but there are private NGOs that may still operate and so ensuring they have the funds they need to continue evacuations would be good. If you live in a country whose government is considering staying, continue to push for that.

2) For those Afghans who are in transit countries, we should do all we can to advocate for the expediting of their visas and for them to be registered with UNHCR if need be. We should also ask our governments to expand asylum eligibility requirements.

3) For those Afghans who have arrived to the US, there is a ton of need for resources, basic living supplies, as well as foster parents for recently arrived unaccompanied minors. Please follow some of these orgs [sic] for more information on that. Legal assistance with those who have arrived in the US would also be good.

4) And for those who will inevitably be left behind, civil society needs to step in and see if there is the political will to continue to help those people. We cannot leave those people behind and force them to cross land boundaries through human smugglers.

I would say that a good place to start is to start following some key coalitions and organizations, including @afghansforabettertomorrow; @adeprogress; @afghanamericancoalition; @aaawa_art; @afghansinsolidarity; @afghanamericanfnd; @swanalosangeles; @wiseafghanistan.

There are tons of congressional action items that people can get involved in.