The complicated interaction of power dynamics, societal norms, and safety processes in Afghanistan's gendered security landscape has a significant impact on women's lives there. Through three distinct lenses, this essay analyses gendered security in Afghanistan with the help of these theoretical frameworks.
Firstly, to understand how gender-related issues are framed and manufactured as security risks, influencing social views and governmental actions, we will examine Ole Weaver’s securitization theory. Secondly, to expose the gender-blind areas in conventional security assessments, we will be drawing on Lene Hansen's feminist critique of securitization theory. Thirdly, to investigate the complex relationships among security procedures, governance, and gender dynamics in Afghanistan, biopolitics and the PARIS school approach to (in)securitization will be used. this essay tries to shed light on the complex interconnections of gender, security, and power in Afghanistan.
Ole Weaver along with Barry Buzan and others initially proposed a concept which is developed by the Copenhagen School of Security Studies. Their focus was primarily on how the non-traditional security issues are being labelled as threats through speech acts. In this, certain issues are being labelled as “existential threats” which require a large deal of measures to be dealt with. This is done so by taking security concerns out of the realm of normal politics. His theory emphasises largely on the speech act and hence focuses a lot on the language and the discourse used in constructing security issues. The article argues that the use of speech acts to securitize certain issues creates a sense of urgency and hence calls for immediate action. The article also talks about desecuritisation processes in which that particular issue of security is moved back to the realm of normal politics. Overall this framework provides us with an understanding of how security threads are constructed by communicators and addressed in political contexts which highlights the discourse and the shaping of perceptions of security (Weaver,1995).
Relating this to the ongoing security concerns of the women in the Taliban-led Afghanistan, access to education along with freedom of movement etc can be securitized to highlight the urgency of addressing these issues. The speech act might also help in perceiving these matters as critical security matters that require urgent attention.
Moving on to the work by Lene Hansen, this criticises the Copenhagen School’s framework for its lack of gender discourses. The writer argues that the framework proposed by Ole Weaver which is based on the speech act leads to “security as a silence problem” where insecurity cannot be voiced and also to the “subsuming of a security problem” where the security concerns regarding gender are considered less important. There is also a push for dwelling deep into house security discourses are emphasis raised or constructed based on bodily performances and individualising strategies in security issues. This means that there needs to be a broadening of the understanding of security beyond its traditional meaning (Hnasen, 2000).
The security as a silence problem is quite prevalent in the case of Afghanistan where women under the Taliban rule have lost all the liberties a normal citizen would otherwise enjoy. The security of silence highlights the issue related to gender as the insecurities faced by women are not so openly voiced and are usually silenced in the traditional security discourse. The Copenhagen school does not look at the intersectionality and reduces the victim to just a human. In the case of Afghanistan, women are under the strict rule of Patriarchy and are also subjected to religious duties etc (HRW, 2022).
The lives of women in Afghanistan are seen from an individual perspective and hence there is no collectivization and hence the urgency is not conveyed. This comes under the subsuming of security problems.
Lastly, the biopolitics or the Paris school’s approach to (in)securitization talks about, how humans are viewed through two lenses, the first one views the human body as a machine, its disciplining, the optimization of its capabilities, the extortion of its forces, the parallel increase of its usefulness and its docility, its integration into systems of efficient and economic controls, all this was ensured by the procedures of power that characterized the disciplines: an anatomy-politics of the human body. The second way is to look at the body as a species- the body imbued with the mechanics of life and serving as the basis of the biological processes: propagation, births and mortality, the level of health, life expectancy and longevity, with all the conditions that can cause these to vary. Their supervision was effected through an entire series of interventions and regulatory controls: a biopolitics of the population (Foucault, 1990).
Relating this to the crises in Afghanistan, biopolitics can be seen implying that the governance of populations is to be done through techniques that regulate life processes. The women in Afghanistan face restrictions on their freedoms and rights and these can be seen as a form of biopolitics, in which the main aim is to regulate and constrain the lives of women. The Paris school's approach to insecuritisation not only talks about protecting individuals and communities but also about endangering them. In the state of Afghanistan, women's bodies are often seen as Insecurity as they can be subjected to violence by state or non-state actors whilst also implementing laws to protect them.
There is a broad consensus that the situation in Afghanistan is the most serious women’s rights crisis in the world (Chalabi, 2023). The theories and the frameworks can help us look more broadly and understand the issue better. By providing a different lens to study the gendered security difficulties encountered by Afghan women in a complex and changing security scene.
BIBLIOGRAPHY-
Chalabi, M. (2023, August 15). Women in Afghanistan: From almost everywhere to almost nowhere. UN Women – Headquarters. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news- stories/feature-story/2023/08/women-in-afghanistan-from-almost-everywhere-to- almost-nowhere
Foucault, Michel. The history of sexuality: An introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage 95 (1990). (Selection: Part Five: Right of Death and Power over Life)
Foucault, Michel. Power: the essential works of Michel Foucault 1954-1984. Penguin UK, 2019(Selection: "Governmentality")
Hansen, Lene. 2000. ‘The Little Mermaid’s Silent Security Dilemma and the Absence of Gender in the Copenhagen School’. Millennium 29 (2): 285–306.
HRW. (2022, January 18). Afghanistan: Taliban deprive women of livelihoods, identity. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/18/afghanistan-taliban- deprive-women-livelihoods-identity
Ole, Wæver. 1995. “Securitization and Desecuritization.” In On Security, edited by Ronnie Lipschutz. New York: Columbia University Press.
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