Afghan Women Have Come a Long Way

Although Afghanistan is still one of the worst places in the world to be a woman, Fawzia Koofi, a female member of the Afghan Parliament, argues in The Guardian that Afghan women have come a long way in the decade since the U.S. and Britain first intervened in her country. Koofi, one of 69 female members of Parliament, notes that Afghanistan has more female M.P.s than the U.K. does, and that today 40 percent of Afghan schoolchildren are girls. Koofi, who plans to run for president, fears that by negotiating with the Taliban her country might “trade away” the progress that has been made for women, and appeals to Britain and the West to prevent this from happening.