After the Fall


A Ms . CONVERSAT ION WI TH AFGHAN L EADERS FAT IMA GAI LANI AND FAWZ IA KOOF I IN THE WAKE OF THE TAL IBAN TAKEOVER


BY RENEE MONTAGNE “P


eace is not a lack of war. We don’t want a peaceful prison. We want a peaceful country that everyone is free in.”


That is how, in the spring of 2021, Fatima


Gailani summed up her goal as one of only four women leaders participating in peace talks with the Taliban as part of the delegation represent- ing the then-Afghan government. At the time, her fellow negotiator, Fawzia Koofi, offered a darker note: “But then, of course, the worst sce- nario is that the Taliban see the unconditional U.S. troops’ withdrawal as a sign of victory.”


24 | SPRING 2022 Barely three months after our conversation for Ms.,


this worst scenario became a reality. On Aug. 15, 2021, the war was suddenly over. After capturing rural vil- lages and provincial capitals, Taliban soldiers rolled into Kabul. President Ashraf Ghani fled. And Taliban leaders entered the presidential palace in triumph. With no interim government to protect their gains,


women all over Afghanistan now faced the prospect of living in a peaceful prison. Taliban officials promptly shut down the Ministry of


Women’s Affairs—and, in a highly symbolic move, turned its building over to the newly established Min- istry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. This all-male government sent women home from most jobs, and high school girls home from class- rooms. Faced with a failing economy and under enor-


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