Betrayed and Sold Out
On the Situation of Afghan Women
Lecture, reading, discussion Talks & Workshops Social/Urban Movements
The fate of the Afghan women has always been intertwined with the political interests of the country’s ruling powers. In the patriarchal, extremely misogynist tradition in Afghan society, they have long been regarded as possessions without any human rights who could be exploited, hurt, abused or killed with impunity. Simultaneously, external actors systematically instrumentalised them to provide military intervention with a veneer of humanitarian action without the generation of any lasting improvement to their life situations ever being a true goal.
Since their return to power in 2021, the Taliban again rolled back and undid practically all progress made in the country before. Since then, women have completely vanished from public life. The global public is no longer interested in their dramatic plight and the continued drastic violations of their human rights.
In dialogue with journalist Edda Dammüller, ethnologist and author Shikiba Babori probes for both the historic and current reasons for women’s situation in Afghanistan. She has been chronicling the development since 2022. What is the situation of women today?
cast
Shikiba Babori was born in Kabul and works as a journalist, ethnologist, and author. She has been regularly reporting on Afghanistan, with a special focus on the living realities and rights of women. As the founder of Afghan-German journalist network Kalima News, she has been campaigning for a strengthening of independent media and the education and training of journalists. She analyses the political instrumentation of Afghan women in her book “Die Afghaninnen: Spielball der Politik” (“Afghan Women: Playthings of International Policy”). Shikiba Babori counts among the most distinguished voices in the German-speaking countries regarding women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Edda Dammüller studied Recent and Eastern European History and Political Sciences. She has been working as a WDR radio journalist since 1993, hosting state-wide Westblick on WDR 5, among other shows. She has been a staff writer for WDR Zeitzeichen and feature author for “Neugier genügt”.
Moderation: Eva Creutz