Fawzia Koofi is an Afghan politician who for the past few years has been one of the few women in peace talks with the Taliban. Last August she was wounded in an assassination attempt. She discusses the attack and the threat the Taliban pose to women’s rights, while the Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, discusses the legacy of the US ‘forever’ war
Last August, Fawzia Koofi, a member of Afghanistan’s peace negotiating team, was wounded in an assassination attempt. Koofi, also a women’s rights activist, has been a vocal Taliban critic, but the Taliban denied they were behind the attempt on her life. Just weeks later she was once again face to face with them at negotiations trying to reach an agreement to bring stability to Afghanistan.
She tells Rachel Humphreys about the progress of those negotiations and the impact the US troop withdrawal will have on her country, and in particular on women’s rights. After 20 years of US military involvement in Afghanistan, the US has announced it will have withdrawn all of its troops by 11 September this year.