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Are Afghan Women Being Overlooked Under Peace Deal?

Carla Babb

   Members of Congress and members of the Trump administration sparred
   Thursday over the fate of women in Afghanistan under the U.S.-Taliban
   peace deal and amid a recent drawdown of U.S. troop numbers in
   Afghanistan.

   Rep. Stephen Lynch, the chairman of the Subcommittee on National
   Security, said during a hearing on women, peace and security that the
   Trump administration was letting the U.S. commitment to women and girls
   in Afghanistan "slip." The Massachusetts Democrat criticized any U.S.
   assumptions that the Taliban would ever provide proper respect for
   females in the country as "the height of naivete or the willful
   abandonment of these women."

   "The peace deal negotiated between the United States and the Taliban
   earlier this year does nothing to protect the rights of Afghan women
   and girls, threatening to reverse nearly 20 years of progress helping
   them to become successful participants of Afghan political and civic
   life," Lynch said.

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