August 15, 2022: The global humanitarian community is failing Afghan women and girls, and it will continue to fail them until it starts backing up its empty statements with real action and working directly with Afghan women, girls and women-led organizations to implement solutions to the crisis they face.
After Afghan women spent two decades thinking they were part of a partnership with the U.S. and international community, to then be betrayed and left behind, it’s past time for the global community to listen to Afghan women and girls and empower them to drive solutions to this crisis.
After the fall of Kabul one year ago, our efforts at VOICE quickly adapted from analyzing how we could best support Afghan women and girls to combat gender-based violence pre-Taliban rule, to evacuating women from the country, to our current advocacy work inside and outside Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban takeover last year, we have been leading critical discussions with the UN Security Council, UN agencies, the U.S. State Department, and other leaders on the Hill about the current crisis facing women and girls in Afghanistan. VOICE has developed and shared case studies with policymakers to show the humanitarian community what’s happening on the ground in Afghanistan while advocating for and with women leaders and women-led organizations whose voices are essential to driving positive change. VOICE is also working closely with the Afghan Women’s Advocacy Group (AWAG) to further uplift the voices of Afghan women and make sure their perspectives are represented at the decision table. What’s clear to us is that the UN and U.S. are not doing enough to work with and support Afghan women and girls.
Multi-Agency Policy Statement:
