The Handshake That Betrayed a Nation

Shukria Barakzai’s unfinished fight for Afghanistan’s women three years after the disastrous US withdrawal

Shukria Barakzai

In 1999, Shukria Barakzai was publicly lashed 15 times by Taliban officials with a rubber whip. Her crime? Seeking medical care from a female physician. She was just 25 years old. A young mother, Barakzai knew then that she would dedicate her life to resisting the forces that sought to oppress Afghan women. She would spend the next quarter century fighting for their rights. 

Growing up in Kabul, Barakzai witnessed the transformation of Afghanistan from a relatively liberal society under King Zahir Shah to a battleground of ideologies during the Soviet invasion and subsequent civil war. The civil war was a time of unimaginable loss for her. It was during this period that she lost her first child—an event that, instead of breaking her, solidified her resolve to fight back. The Taliban wasted no time after seizing power. The Sunni Islamist nationalist group moved swiftly to erase the rights and visibility of women in Afghan society—and Barakzai immediately got to work. She began organizing underground schools for girls, defying the Taliban’s ban on female education. 

Following the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Barakzai emerged as a prominent voice in the newly liberated Afghanistan. She founded Women’s Mirror, or Aina-E-Zan in Persian, a publication dedicated to accurately reflecting Afghan women's voices, needs, and wants and advocating for their rights. Her work caught the attention of national leaders, and she was appointed as a member of the constitutional drafting committee, playing a crucial role in shaping the new Afghanistan. The constitution included provisions for an elected president and national assembly and guaranteed civil liberties such as freedom of expression, religious freedom, and the right to privacy. Due in large part to her efforts, it also included special provisions to encourage women's access to education and government.

Twice elected to the Afghan parliament, Barakzai became a women’s rights and reform champion. Her frank outspokenness put a target on her back, and in 2014, she narrowly survived a suicide attack. She told me, “I have always been on the Taliban’s most hated list.” But even as she recovered from this near-death experience, her commitment to her country and its people was unshaken. Appointed as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Norway, she continued advocating for her homeland from afar. 

In 2021, Barakzai watched in horror as history repeated itself. Just like after the Soviet withdrawal in 1996, when the US withdrew, the Taliban filled the vacuum left behind. It was a devastating blow to all she and her fellow reformers worked toward. While she was trapped in the Kabul airport, Taliban members raided her home, likely in an attempt to find, punish, and ultimately kill her for her resistance efforts. As the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban stormed the palace, Shukria found herself once again in the crosshairs. After eight long days, she was safely evacuated to the United Kingdom. But she knows she is not safe. Her children have been attacked while living in London, and she is constantly looking over her shoulder, fearing the worst. 

Today, she teaches young Afghan women about international relations online, offering the girls the education that the Taliban has stolen from them. Women found to be taking online courses or protesting against the oppression of women are routinely harassed, arrested, and tortured. Some of her students have confided in her that Taliban officials have resorted to punishing their male family members as a tactic of deterrence. If one family member steps a toe out of line—everyone they know and associate with can be held liable and brutally punished. When asked about the National Resistance Forces (NRF), which are fighting back against the Taliban as we speak, Barakzai says that no resistance is more powerful than women’s daily acts of defiance and strength. They are the ones who will carry Afghanistan into the future. She says that although many NRF fighters feel deeply responsible for the state of the country and are doing their best to depose the Taliban, “War by itself is never a solution. A meaningful, based on principle, political solution must be implemented.” 

She told me that a US withdrawal with dignity was possible until American government officials started treating the Taliban as a legitimate negotiating partner; she said, “Not involving Taliban under the guise of a ‘peace process’ was possible. Not giving them the floor, avoiding signing a contract with them in Doha, and refraining from attempting to engage in diplomacy with a terrorist organization was possible. It was maddening to see that despite the legitimate government being present in Afghanistan, US officials equally, sometimes even more so, treated the Taliban better than the Afghan people or the government of Afghanistan, which was officially their partner.” She says that it feels like the US government sacrificed everything she and others worked for—and women’s safety—in exchange for what essentially amounts to a quid pro quo. The Taliban doesn’t bother America, America won’t bother the Taliban. 

Frustrated but composed, she went on, “They shook hands with the Taliban and said, ‘As long as you don't bother us too much, you can do whatever you'd like here.’ The US was not responsible for my country's security. But that doesn’t mean they had the right to take our efforts and throw them in the ocean. Or to compromise women's rights just for the sake of their interests. Who gave them that right?” 

Somehow, she still has hope for her country’s future. She advocates for a non-military approach to bringing change in Afghanistan, emphasizing the need for strong diplomatic actions and international accountability. She proposes that the United Nations Security Council, which has so far ignored Afghan women’s pleas for support, establish an interim, non-political government in Afghanistan to stabilize the country and calls for the international community to hold the Taliban accountable under the Doha Agreement and for their systematic suppression of women’s rights. Barakzai also stresses the importance of recognizing and supporting the political and military opposition to the Taliban, including women’s groups. She is currently working to build a broad coalition to find common ground among different political actors, youth groups, women's rights organizations, and resistance forces to offer a political alternative to the Taliban. Should bodies like the United Nations finally step up to the plate, she wants to be ready. Alongside other women’s rights activists like Masih Alinejad from Iran, she is also part of the campaign advocating for gender apartheid to be codified into international law. Only then, she says, can the Taliban be held accountable for its crimes against women and girls in the International Criminal Court. 

In the country’s vulnerable state, China has set its sights on Afghanistan’s valuable mineral resources. The Taliban, eager to get their hands on more funding to fuel its propaganda machine, will sacrifice long-term, sustainable economic growth to further their agenda. Again, Afghanistan’s people are getting the short end of the stick at the hands of a foreign nation. Barakzai notes the Chinese government is patient, “China is very patient and cautious in determining its policies and strategies. They are based on plans of at least half a century. The presence of Chinese companies, goods, and workers who have easy access to Afghanistan's mines is proof of their occupation of Afghanistan.”

With the upcoming presidential election in November, Barakzai says Afghanistan’s future is on the ballot. Even with the war in Gaza drawing attention from the Taliban, the problem remains. The result of the election will have a direct impact on Afghanistan and have crucial foreign policy implications. She acknowledges that Afghanistan is a failure of the Biden administration that the President is afraid to address publicly, but also notes that the Taliban takeover is also a result of the Doha agreement that was signed under former President Trump.

Now, after three years and the lack of implementation of national and international commitments, she doesn’t think that the Democrats or Republicans can ignore the actions of the Taliban. The alliance of Russia, Iran, and China poses a growing threat to democracy worldwide—one that the next president will be forced to reckon with. Despite it all, Barakzai remains hopeful for the future of her country. Her hope energizes her and fuels her ongoing work while living in exile. As we wrapped up our conversation, she had one last thing to add, “My life has changed dramatically. I went from representing the people of Afghanistan as an ambassador to living in exile. Nowadays, in my country, they teach women how to bake bread. We used to attend courses that taught women how to lead—not just survive. From leading to baking. That is the story of women in Afghanistan. We cannot abandon them.”

This article was written by

Reid Newton

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