Ask a Feminist: Jennifer Fluri Discusses the Gender Politics of the US Withdrawal from Afghanistan with Sandra McEvoy

Abstract

On this episode of Ask a Feminist, Sandra McEvoy speaks to Jennifer Fluri about what the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan means for Afghan women and for the feminist movement in Afghanistan. Jennifer’s expertise as a geographer and her transnational feminist perspective are sorely needed in this perilous moment. As the withdrawal was underway, we heard familiar concerns—voiced by pundits and politicians—about the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban. But the broader context of the long US occupation, its effects on gender relations, and the history of women’s organizing in Afghanistan makes for a much more complicated picture. Jennifer—a professor of geography at University of Colorado, Boulder, who has worked in and on Afghanistan for almost twenty years—illuminates this complex history in this conversation with Sandra, who is clinical associate professor of political science at Boston University and a member of the Signs editorial board. This episode is available as a podcast at http://signsjournal.org/feed/podcast/signs-ask-a-feminist.