With the start of the Doha talks last year between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban aimed at ending 19 years of bloodshed, there were great expectations among Afghan women. Yet there were only four female representatives among the 21-member team at the Qatar talks and the role of women in the peace process has proved insignificant.
While peace talks are ongoing, targeted killings are still carried out in Afghan cities and deadly fighting continues in the countryside. Afghanistan has become the country of widows – a legacy of war.
Rahmat Gula is a housewife who lives in the southern province of Kandahar, birthplace of Taliban. ‘My husband was killed in the war. I don’t have money to educate my children. I spent my whole life in poverty. There has been no change in my life in these 20 years,’ she says.
