Women's rights destroyed

August 31, 2026

It is interesting to note the impact of US intervention in Afghanistan. The Bete Noir of women’s rights there was Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s national security advisor. In a 1998 interview, he confirmed that the U.S. began covertly aiding mujahideen rebels six months before the Soviet invasion. He stated they “knowingly increased the probability” of a Soviet intervention. When the Soviets did invade on December 24, 1979, Brzezinski wrote to President Carter: “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war”. The goal was to trap the Soviet Union in a costly, unwinnable conflict, regardless of the consequences for Afghanistan’s people or its fledgling democratic institutions. Women in Afghanistan experienced a steady and significant expansion of their rights in the time prior to US intervention. Subsequently the US supported Mujahedin, which were the predecessors of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, began stripping those rights acquired over the previous sixty years. Prior to that women were in the Parliament and served as Cabinet Ministers. By the 1970s, women constituted 40% of doctors, 70% of teachers, and 30% of the civil service. Many more rights had been obtained but were all removed after Brzezinski’s catastrophic interference.