International Women’s Day drew renewed media attention to the situation in Afghanistan, where ever since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, conditions for women have continuously deteriorated. This situation is particularly paradoxical because for the majority of Afghans, protecting women’s human rights is a key priority.
Afghan commandos who fled to Iran to escape the Taliban are now being recruited to fight alongside the Russian military in Ukraine. Tempted by high salaries and lacking stable incomes or other means of support for their families, many of these U.S.-trained fighters see joining the war effort in Ukraine as the least bad option.
Who is to blame for Afghanistan’s food insecurity crisis depends on whom you ask. What almost everyone agrees on, though, is that it is a manufactured disaster stemming from multiple, interrelated policy-driven causes. Ultimately, the blame game only adds a political layer to the problem, making it even more difficult to fix it.
