Women's Rights In Afghanistan

General James Mattis once said, “You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway.” In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to protect the communist regime. The United States and other nations responded by organizing an armed revolt. The United States, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan gave money and trained the Mujahideen, the leading anti-communist faction. When Soviet forces withdrew in 1989, it created a huge power vacuum. The Taliban took over Afghanistan after executing the president, Najibullah, in 1996. They established a strict new government based upon Sharia Law. They banned anything that they did not like, and women became slaves. Treatment of women in Afghanistan declined during the Taliban’s rule because women had more rights before the Taliban’s rule, women were subject to harsh punishments, and women had no basic freedoms.
Women received the right to vote in the 1920s, and in the 1960s, the Afghan constitution provided for equality for women. The State Department stated that, “In 1977, women comprised over 15% of Afghanistan's highest legislative body. It is estimated that by the early 1990s, 70% of schoolteachers, 50% of government workers and university students, and 40% of doctors in Kabul were women,” (The Taliban’s War on Women). The Taliban sought to take away a women’s right to work to have better control over them. Women clearly enjoyed more rights and freedoms under Najibullah’s