KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – Now that the U.S. has signed a deal with the Taliban to eventually leave Afghanistan, it will soon be up to Afghans on both sides of the conflict to decide what peace will look like.
The stakes are high.
The big question for many – and particularly those who remember the religiously repressive Taliban rule that ended with the U.S. invasion in 2001 – is whether the newly emboldened militants have changed their ideology. Women, especially in the cities, worry that their rights will be bargained away.
The Taliban say they have changed. Girls will be allowed to go to school, and women to work. Women can be judges but not the chief justice; they can participate in politics but not be president, they say.
The Taliban, however, will likely not back down on segregation of the sexes, said Hakim Mujahed, the Taliban’s representative at the United Nations during their five-year rule. They will not accept co-education nor will they accept women and men working together, he said.