Fawzia Koofi is an Afghan politician who for the past few years has been one of the few women in peace talks with the Taliban. Last August she was wounded in an assassination attempt. She discusses the attack and the threat the Taliban pose to women’s rights, while the Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, discusses the legacy of the US ‘forever’ war

Last August, Fawzia Koofi, a member of Afghanistan’s peace negotiating team, was wounded in an assassination attempt. Koofi, also a women’s rights activist, has been a vocal Taliban critic, but the Taliban denied they were behind the attempt on her life. Just weeks later she was once again face to face with them at negotiations trying to reach an agreement to bring stability to Afghanistan.

She tells Rachel Humphreys about the progress of those negotiations and the impact the US troop withdrawal will have on her country, and in particular on women’s rights. After 20 years of US military involvement in Afghanistan, the US has announced it will have withdrawn all of its troops by 11 September this year.

Continue reading…

You May Also Like

Ben Jennings on Boris Johnson’s Christmas rules — cartoon

Discover and buy more of Ben’s cartoons here Continue reading…

‘We didn’t want to be part of the war’: Russians at the Georgia border flee Putin’s call-up

Families, exhausted and bewildered, are queuing for hours at Russia’s borders to…

Richard Sharp: BBC chair was shareholder in firm awarded £600k while he was a No 10 adviser

Sharp alleged to have helped facilitate loan for Boris Johnson has multimillion…