Letter from an Editor | August 21, 2021

Dear John,

It has been a sobering week, as we follow the news coverage of the chaos in Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans are trying to flee the country. Desperate Afghans scramble to the airport, struggling to find flights out of the country. Hundreds rush to the runway to chase down planes. Roads were gridlocked with cars. Many who worked for the Afghan government or U.S. or NATO forces, have gone into hiding.

The situation for Afghan women and girls is even more dire. Since the Taliban has taken over, women have largely disappeared from the streets of Kabul, fearing beatings by Taliban soldiers. Taliban forces are going door to door, looking for those who worked with U.S. and NATO-funded development and human rights organizations. Women activists and leaders have been targeted, threatened, kidnaped, tortured and assassinated by the Taliban. Women’s domestic violence shelters have been closed, and the Taliban has forced the women and children to return to their abusers—many have not been heard from since.

U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen and her colleagues have called for special visas for women’s rights leaders who have worked with U.S. and NATO-funded organizations to provide education and economic development opportunities to women. “We are gravely concerned about the safety of women leaders, activists, judges, parliamentarians and human rights defenders,” the Senators wrote in a bipartisan letter sent to the State Department and Department of Homeland Security.

This past week, letters to President Biden and Vice President Harris signed by hundreds of prominent women’s rights and human rights leaders, celebrities and artists, business leaders and Afghan-Americans, urged the Biden Administration not to abandon Afghan women and girls, and to take immediate action to save the lives of Afghan “women’s rights and human rights leaders and advocates … who are now being targeted by the Taliban.”

The advocates further urged the Biden Administration “not to agree to a deal that includes recognition and support of a Taliban regime” and that “any deal by the United States that would include recognition and support of the Taliban regime would be a reversal of U.S. commitments that were made [over the past 20 years]” and would undermine the administration’s commitments to human rights globally.

Afghanistan is not the only place in the world where a humanitarian crisis commands U.S. attention. Referencing the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Haiti following the massive earthquake and the continued arrival of Central American migrants seeking refuge at the U.S.-Mexico border, former deputy assistant secretary for immigration policy in the Department of Homeland Security Mary Giovagnoli writes this week in Ms. : “If the U.S. is unprepared to handle a rescue mission in Afghanistan, one that many had predicted would be needed, the consequences of a natural disaster for one of our nearest neighbors or the continued migration of Central Americans seeking protection from violence, corruption and economic despair, then we can never be the leader in humanitarian protection that we aspire to be.”

And finally, as we witness the renewed attacks on women’s fundamental rights in Afghanistan and remember how quickly women’s rights in this country were rolled back during the Trump administration, I’ve been thinking how critical it is that we secure final ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Constitution.

Women’s Equality Day on August 26, the day we celebrate the 19th Amendment and women’s constitutional right to vote in the U.S., is a perfect opportunity to call upon the Senate to pass SJ Res 1 to remove the arbitrary ratification time limit in the preamble of the ERA. Next week, leaders and activists working for the ERA will gather in front of the Supreme Court, across from the U.S. Senate, to rally for the ERA. If you can’t join the rally in person, Ms. will be live-streaming the event on Facebook, so please watch and call or write your U.S. Senator.

For equality,
Signature [[link removed]]
Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor

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