Revolutionary Association of The Women of Afghanistan - RAWA After The 2001 Invasion

RAWA After The 2001 Invasion

RAWA is highly critical of the NATO war that began in 2001, because of the high rate of casualties among the civilian population. The organization went so far as to threaten to sue United States government for unauthorized use of four photos from their website that were used in propaganda handbills dropped on various cities in Afghanistan during the 2001 invasion.

After the defeat of the Taliban government by US and Afghan Northern Alliance forces, RAWA warned that the Northern Alliance were just as fundamentalist and dangerous as the Taliban. They continue to charge that the current government led by President Hamid Karzai has no support in most areas of Afghanistan, and that fundamentalists are enforcing anti-woman laws as they were under the Taliban. These claims are supported by media reports about the Herat government of Ismail Khan, who has created a religious police that forces women to obey strict dress and behavior codes, as well as many reports by Human Rights Watch.

One recent report released by Human Rights Watch in 2012 describes a situation where women are punished by the judicial system for attempting to escape from domestic abuse and also occasionally for being victims of rape. It says that Karzai is "nwilling or unable to take a consistent line against conservative forces within the country," and that the lack of improvement in the plight of women in Afghanistan after ten years is "shocking."