Ministry of Women's Affairs (Afghanistan)
Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) was a ministry in the Afghan government which was established in late 2001 by the Afghan Interim Administration.
Husn Banu Ghazanfar, Minister of Women's Affairs from July 2006 to April 2015, the longest serving in the office. The department has since been disbanded.
Women's rights in Afghanistan have oscillated back and forth depending on the time period as well as the regime in power. After King Amanullah Khan's attempts to modernize the country in the 1920s, women officially gained equality under the 1964 Constitution. However, these rights were taken away in the 1990s through different temporary rulers such as the mujahideen and the Taliban during the Afghan civil war. During the first Taliban regime (1996–2001), women had very little to no freedom, specifically in terms of civil liberties. When the Taliban was overthrown by the United States following the 9/11 attacks, women's rights gradually improved under the presidential Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Women were de jure equal to men under the 2004 Constitution.
Image: Women of Afghanistan
Image: Stamp of Afghanistan 1963 Colnect 261822 Woman in National Costume
Group of women in Kabul, 2006
Postage stamp of Afghanistan from 1963, depicting an Afghan woman in folk clothing