The rights of Afghan women are the tale of glorious early achievement, decades ahead of most of the Western countries in catching up. They got the right to vote in 1919 — an accomplishment which was achieved a year earlier than America voted for its own women and over five-and-a-half decades earlier than Switzerland did it. The Afghan women were able to study in the universities, develop professional careers, and become part of the country's workforce from the 1950s, golden empowerment years.

Health and Hope: Nurses Leading Change

Afghan women were being incorporated into rural health care provision during the 1960s. Afghan nurses introduced useful health care to remote villages on the outskirts of Kabul with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. The women were not only doctors but also symbolic representatives of modernity, introducing medical services to previously deprived areas and breaking with traditional gender roles in Afghan society.

Scientific Progress: Women in Laboratories and Fields

Paralleling this process, Afghan women entered scientific spheres previously dominated by men. These included women such as the working professionals in bacterial culture at the Plant Protection Laboratory in the Ministry of Agriculture of Kabul, which demonstrated their additional contribution to the development of the country. Students of photogeology were working on topographical surveys, illustrating the country's determination to have a future when women were part of Afghanistan's science and technology progress.

Darkness Falls: The Taliban's First Regime (1996–2001)

This momentum was broken brutally in 1996 when the Taliban took control, beginning an age of brutal suppression of Afghan women. Women were de facto excluded from public life under the Taliban's repressive regime — forbidden work, education, or even venturing outside without a male chaperone. A dramatic December 2001 photo depicts two Afghan women advancing after the fall of the Taliban, their heads covered but their spirits unbroken, hoping to restore the freedom they had enjoyed for a brief moment. Hope Revived: Girls Return to School

Triumph over the Taliban in 2001 brought a new dawn of hope.

Afghanistan opened its arms to a new constitution in 2004 that promised the rights of women, and a renaissance in education called. Girls flooded the campuses of Kabul University, recently a battleground of warring gangs, and laid claim to learning. Little girls went in for training for all professions in Kapisa provinces, shattering the shackles of coercive forgetfulness and securing Afghanistan's future. Political Empowerment: Women Make Their Mark

The Afghan constitution called for more political representation of women too. History was created on January 26, 2011, as women MPs of the Wolesi Jirga (House of People) arrived at their oath-taking ceremony. For the first time in Afghan history, not just did the women arrive but became the spokeswomen of Afghani society and signed their names to decrees and edicts that would determine generations to come.

Public Sector Breakthrough: Health Care and Women in Uniform

The post-Taliban period also registered growing women's representation in the security and civilian sectors. Women police cadets received extensive training at the Kabul Police Academy, and midwifery schools mushroomed across the country, substantially reducing maternal mortality rates. Afghan bureaucrats included 21% women in 2020, a historic peak from de facto exclusion two decades earlier. Afghan women's life expectancy also went up significantly, witnessing the emancipatory potential of access to education and health.

Shattering World Barriers: Afghan Women Diplomats Paving the Way

Afghan women broke the world barriers between 2001 and 2021, and they held the top ranks of global assignments. A pioneer, Adela Raz was Afghanistan's Permanent Representative at the United Nations and subsequently at the United States of America as an Ambassador. Sitting in a senior UN meeting in a 2019 photo with her daughter — a symbol of legacy being passed on to the next generation.

Ground Realities: Daily Struggles With Hopes

Despite a record of success, Afghan women never felt safe – fear of the gains being tenuous. Daily life in Herat in 2012 saw women carrying babies in chadors and washing pistachios in factories. These were the ground realities of empowerment and open-ended fear of the country's changing politics.

The Fall: Taliban Return and Imposed Darkness

Our worst nightmares were confirmed when the Taliban took over in August 2021. The regime promptly began enforcing oppressive policies: shutting down girls' schools through grade six, barring women from almost all professional occupations, mandating full veils, and even prohibiting women from visiting public parks. Afghanistan's first female Deputy Speaker, Fawzia Koofi, encapsulated the international outrage

"We can't say women and human beings on your own lands, on your own countries, have to be treated with dignity and respect, but it's okay for women of Afghanistan to continue living as they are living today."

The Global Stage: Afghan Women Speak Out

Withstanding their intimidation, Afghan women continued speaking out everywhere globally. Afghan diplomats, activists, and former legislators protested voices to the globe at the UN Headquarters in October 2021, crying for more attention and action towards the revival of Afghan women's rights and dignity.

Unveiling a Future Yet to Be Written

The Afghan woman's story is not one-piece triumph or failure — it is a brocade with travail, success, tyranny, and determination. Regardless of how paralyzing the historic failures are, in her deep, her will never fails. And now, looking world-wide, the cry becomes to deafening roar: Afghan women are not only deserving of their survival but their entire development, their aspirations, and futures.