Many popular accounts of women’s experiences during war exoticize and decontextualize female fighters, while underscoring women’s vulnerability and victimhood at the expense of their agency. But these narratives can have high costs, making a more holistic understanding of women’s contributions to armed groups urgently necessary.
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.
Tunisian President Kais Saied has steadily chipped away at a decade of democratic progress in the county since consolidating power in July 2021, and one of the rights most under threat is gender equality. Saied has used a variety of tools to give lip service to gender equality in Tunisia, while simultaneously undermining it.
