Gender and Participation

Abstract

In late 2001, after many decades of war and political instability in Afghanistan, the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), under the leadership of the US government, intervened and brought a new government into Afghanistan. In 2003, Afghan elders from across the country convened a traditional Loya Jirga in Kabul; a new constitution was drafted under which a presidential form of government and free market economy are chosen. Many educated Afghans living outside of Afghanistan used the opportunity to come back to Afghanistan to manage and run the new government; the international community encouraged and facilitated in this regard. Gender, human rights, freedom of speech and a free market were the political slogans. The majority of the government offices were equipped with computers flown in from Dubai and funded by external aid. Modernization and quick transfer of the country into a developed nation were bywords while the past and its influences were considered non-existent.