Publication

This paper discusses women’s rights in Afghanistan in the context of the multiple transitions entailed by the process of post-conflict reconstruction: a security transition (from war to peace), a political transition (to the formation of a legitimate and effective state) and a socioeconomic transition (from a "conflict" economy to sustainable growth). In the first section the author contextualizes attempts at securing women’s rights in the troubled history of state-building and state-society relations in Afghanistan. The paper’s second section discusses the implications of the far-reaching changes in social relations brought about by years of war and displacement following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.