Intrusions, Invasions, and Interventions: Histories of Gender, Justice, and Governance in Afghanistan

This chapter discusses past attempts to achieve closer public regulation of sexuality and of abuses committed within the family, and how these attempts were shaped by larger political agendas. It briefly introduces the reader to the first reforms made by Afghan kings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The chapter then draws upon interviews with former leaders, judges, and other officials to provide an account of how the issue of gender has been addressed in Afghanistan’s more recent history, especially during the communist (1978–92) and Taliban (1996–2001) eras. The final part of the chapter looks at the contemporary legal landscape, showing how its fragmentary nature can be traced back to the multiple intersections of politics, justice, and gender of the past, while at the same time being a product of the political settlement of the post-2001 order.