The Fragility of Women's Rights in Afghanistan

^{Photo by United Nations Photo on Flickr}

“But can we trust the Taliban on women’s rights?” has been a favorite question of journalists in recent years. The answer used to be “no”; the answer now is that it doesn’t matter much. The Taliban have swept back to power, and dealing with them is the reality, again, for Afghan women and girls.

It became a cliché over the last decade to say that Afghan women were facing an uncertain future, as the Taliban steadily expanded their territory. On August 16, some of the uncertainty ended — and was replaced with fear and despair — as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the Taliban, triumphant after taking most of the rest of the country, entered Kabul, the capital.

The Taliban tweet these days, which is new, but aside from that, they haven’t changed much. When they wanted to seem presentable to the international community during negotiations in Doha, their rhetoric about women’s rights shifted. They pledged to let girls study and women work — but usually with a vague...