Following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the subsequent fall of the Taliban regime, international actors embarked on an ambitious project of political, social, and economic reconstruction. Central to this agenda was the stated objective of improving the status of Afghan women, a goal that was framed as both a moral imperative and a strategic necessity for building a democratic and stable state. Western policymakers frequently portrayed women’s liberation as evidence of progress and legitimacy for international intervention, yet these efforts were deeply shaped by external assumptions rather than grounded in Afghanistan’s social, cultural, and political realities.
While post-2001 interventions produced some visible gains in women’s education, healthcare, and political participation, they were also marked by significant limitations. Many programmes were designed according to Western liberal models of gender equality and failed to engage meaningfully with local power structures, religious traditions, and community dynamics. In areas where the Taliban retained influence, initiatives aimed at increasing women’s public participation often provoked backlash, heightened insecurity, and reinforced conservative resistance. International interventions in Afghanistan after 2001, despite their stated commitment to women’s rights, often exacerbated rather than alleviated gendered vulnerabilities. Rescue-oriented narratives, cultural insensitivity, and top-down policy frameworks undermined local agency and reinforced patriarchal power.
Scholars such as Kandiyoti and Abu-Lughod have shown that these interventions frequently generated uneven expectations and new forms of gendered vulnerability rather than sustainable transformation. Although urban women, particularly those from educated and elite backgrounds, benefited from increased opportunities, the majority of Afghan women in rural and marginalised communities remained largely excluded from these reforms. As a result, international policies not only struggled to dismantle patriarchal structures but, in some cases, inadvertently reinforced them. These feminist critiques highlight that security policies prioritised military objectives over human security, neglecting the lived realities of Afghan women. The exclusion of women from decision-making processes further weakened the legitimacy and effectiveness of reform initiatives.
Feminist Critiques of International Intervention
Feminist scholarship provides a critical lens for analysing the gendered consequences of military and humanitarian interventions. Thinkers such as Cooke and Butler argue that Western-led interventions have often failed to reduce gender insecurity and, in many cases, have strengthened local patriarchal structures. Instead of fostering sustainable change, these interventions created new forms of dependency and layered vulnerabilities for Afghan women.
Leila Ahmed’s concept of “saving brown women by white men” is particularly relevant in this context. This framing highlights how humanitarian rhetoric has historically been used to justify military and political domination. In Afghanistan, Afghan women were frequently portrayed as passive victims in need of rescue, rather than as active political agents with their own aspirations and strategies. This narrative reinforced Western hegemony while marginalising local women’s voices and priorities.
Similarly, Kabeer critiques the assumption that military intervention can automatically produce gender equality. She argues that international programmes tended to focus on surface-level indicators such as school enrolment or parliamentary representation while neglecting the structural roots of gender inequality embedded in economic systems, social norms, and legal institutions.
The economic dimension of intervention is equally significant. Neoliberal reconstruction policies weakened local governance structures and increased Afghanistan’s dependence on foreign aid. This dependency disproportionately affected women, who are more vulnerable to economic instability, unemployment, and the erosion of social safety nets.
Moreover, the militarised nature of intervention prioritised counterterrorism and state security over civilian protection. As a result, everyday forms of gender-based violence, including domestic abuse, forced marriage, and restrictions on mobility, remained largely unaddressed. Rather than empowering women, international forces often imposed external policies that intensified local tensions and, in some cases, escalated sexual and economic violence.
Feminist critiques therefore suggest that NATO and Western interventions did not simply fail to achieve gender equality but actively contributed to the reproduction of unequal power relations. This failure stemmed from a lack of engagement with local contexts, disregard for Afghan women’s agency, and an overreliance on militarised solutions to social problems.
Human Security and Gender in Post-2001 Afghanistan
The concept of human security, which prioritises the protection of individuals rather than states, provides a better framework for evaluating international interventions in Afghanistan. Unlike traditional security paradigms that focus on borders and military strength, human security emphasises economic stability, social well-being, and personal safety.
Despite rhetorical commitments to women’s empowerment, post-2001 interventions largely prioritised military objectives over civilian protection. International actors concentrated on counterterrorism and state-building, while failing to address the everyday insecurities faced by Afghan women. As a result, gender-based violence persisted, and women continued to experience systemic exclusion from political and social decision-making.
Many gender programmes were based on Western assumptions about individual rights and equality, which often conflicted with Afghanistan’s cultural and religious traditions. Women who entered public roles through donor-funded initiatives frequently faced hostility, intimidation, and violence, particularly in rural and conservative areas. Instead of reducing vulnerability, these programmes sometimes increased women’s exposure to risk.
Moreover, international support was unevenly distributed. Urban, educated women benefited disproportionately, while rural and poorer women were largely excluded from reform initiatives. This imbalance deepened inequalities among Afghan women and limited the transformative potential of post-2001 policies. Overall, the failure to integrate a genuine human security approach weakened the effectiveness of international interventions. By prioritising military and geopolitical goals, international actors neglected the lived realities of Afghan women and failed to create conditions for meaningful social change.
NATO’s Gender Policies in Afghanistan: From Ambition to Failure
NATO’s engagement with gender issues in Afghanistan reflected a tension between progressive rhetoric and militarised practice. While women’s rights were invoked as a justification for intervention, NATO’s policies were primarily shaped by Western liberal frameworks that did not align with local realities. The framing of Afghan women as victims in need of rescue reinforced orientalist narratives and obscured indigenous feminist movements. In rural areas, where patriarchal institutions remained deeply entrenched, externally imposed reforms were often met with resistance, further marginalising women rather than empowering them.
A major weakness of NATO’s approach was its failure to meaningfully involve Afghan men in gender reform processes. By treating women’s empowerment as a separate or adversarial project, NATO reinforced the perception that gender equality was a foreign imposition. This exclusion of men strengthened backlash against reform and entrenched patriarchal authority. Ultimately, NATO’s gender policies lacked cultural sensitivity, local ownership, and institutional sustainability. They focused on short-term indicators of progress rather than long-term structural transformation, which contributed to their rapid collapse after 2021.
After 2021: The Consequences of NATO’s Withdrawal
The withdrawal of international forces in 2021 exposed the fragility of gender reforms implemented under NATO’s presence. Many advances in women’s education, employment, and political participation were swiftly dismantled following the Taliban’s return to power. This reversal demonstrates that gender policies divorced from local institutions and social legitimacy are unlikely to endure. By prioritising counter-terrorism over long-term social transformation, NATO inadvertently strengthened conservative forces and facilitated the Taliban’s resurgence.
The framing of gender reform as a Western project alienated local communities and reinforced resistance to change. The failure to integrate Afghan men and traditional leaders into reform processes further entrenched patriarchal structures. NATO’s withdrawal revealed that its gender policies were more symbolic than substantive. Rather than producing lasting transformation, they generated limited and reversible gains that collapsed once external support disappeared.
The rapid rollback of women’s rights after 2021 underscores the need for a fundamentally different approach to international intervention. Future efforts must prioritise local knowledge, centre human security, and foster genuine participation by Afghan women and their communities. Only through such an approach can international interventions hope to achieve sustainable gender equality and meaningful social transformation in Afghanistan and other conflict-affected societies.
References
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Salma Abid
Salma Abid is a researcher focused on critical perspectives on gender and society in Afghanistan. She is the founder of Bahaar, an online space for Afghan women’s voices.
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