The Future of Women's Rights in Afghanistan: One Year After the Taliban Takeover

Since the 2001 removal of the Taliban regime, Afghan women and girls had unprecedented opportunities and made significant progress especially in education, healthcare and participation in the public sphere. With the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, women and girls face an uncertain future with draconian measures including loss of gains made in all areas of economic, civic and social life. Taliban rule has had a devastating impact on the female population at large with monumental barriers to their participation across public life including law, politics, and academia with increased threats of gender-based violence, child marriage and severe restrictions on their rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, including choice of attire. Furthermore, Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis has exacerbated the dire situation for women and girls who are struggling to survive while caught in a system of gender apartheid. 

Today, one year after America’s departure, Afghan women and girls rightfully feel abandoned. The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Act of 2017 specifically requires Washington to promote the role of women and girls in peace, security, and conflict prevention. The crisis in Afghanistan, not only warrants serious concern but also poignantly raises these issues. 

It is therefore, of crucial importance to protect Afghan women and girls as the Taliban continue to engage in human rights abuses. How can the international community support women’s rights and the Women, Peace and Security agenda in the midst of conflict? And what strategic adjustments can be undertaken to elevate the voices of women and girls and keep their voices at the center of US and foreign policy amid ongoing Taliban suppression?

Join WorldDenver as we welcome Dr. Nina Ansary to discuss these questions and explore the future of women's rights in Afghanistan. 

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Event Agenda:
5:30 p.m. Registration, networking, and hors d'oeuvres
6:00 p.m. Speaker presentation & audience Q&A
7:30 p.m. Evening concludes
 

Tickets:
$30 for non-members
$20 for WorldDenver members
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$10 for WorldDenver Young Professional members

About Our Speaker:
 

Dr. Nina Ansary 
Author, Historian, Human Rights Advocate, Director of the World Affairs Council of America (WACA) Global Women's Lecture Series
 

Dr. Nina Ansary is an award-winning Iranian American author, historian and UN Women Global Champion for Innovation. She is the Director of the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA) Global Women’s Lecture Series and the Director of the Cambridge Middle East and North Africa Forum Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) at the University of Cambridge. 

Her books, Anonymous Is a Woman: A Global Chronicle of Gender Inequality (Revela Press/2020) and Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran (Revela Press/2015) received multiple awards, including the 2016 International Book Award in “Women’s Issues” (Jewels of Allah) and the 2021 Benjamin Franklin Book Award in “Interior Design” and “History” (Anonymous Is a Woman). 

Nina is the recipient of the 2020 Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award, the 2019 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the 2018 Barnard College, Columbia University Trailblazer Award, and has appeared on CNN International, Fox News, Larry King, the BBC, Sky News and been featured in a variety of publications, including Time, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, CNN.com, and Teen Vogue. She has presented her work on women’s rights at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security, the London School of Economics, the UN Social Good and Girl Up Leadership Summits, and at Columbia, Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge University.

Nina holds an MA in Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies and a PhD in History from Columbia University. She serves on the International Advisory Board of the Cambridge Middle East and North Africa Forum (MENAF); a think-tank based at the University of Cambridge, the Board of Trustees of the Iranian American Women Foundation (IAWF), and the Board of Directors of My Stealthy Freedom (MSF); an independent, nonpartisan, non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Iranian women’s actions to secure their rights.

She can be found on Twitter (@drninaansary) | Instagram (@ninaansary) | Facebook (facebook.com/ninaansary)
 

Note: As a nonpartisan convener of global affairs programming, WorldDenver provides an unbiased forum for experts, world leaders, diplomats, and representatives from the public and private sectors to share their expertise and views on a broad spectrum of issues that matter to the world. We aim for our events to inspire curiosity and further reading, discussion, and civic engagement among our members and the Denver community on the global issues that we present.