Conclusions: Protection at a Price?

The final chapter argues that the specter of female autonomy has stood at the heart of struggles over gender violence in Afghanistan. Yet this issue has rarely been addressed directly. Whether for strategic or ideological reasons, local activists have deemed it difficult and even unwise to confront the norms defining women’s movements and agency outside of family settings as highly problematic. The conclusion proceeds to argue that Afghan women’s rights advocates faced the choice of two models of protection – guarantees through accommodations with national groups, or by reliance on Western governments. Both strategies entailed a bargain in which loyalty, propriety and subordination were to be traded against patronage and protection.