By Belquis Ahmadi, Scott Worden, and Muzhgan Y.
License: RWI report
Access to the report here.
This report synthesises responses from Afghan youth about life under Taliban rule, their needs and aspirations, and their ability to shape the future. The Researchers conducted individual and focus group interviews with 57 respondents living in 15 provinces who identify with different ethnic groups and genders, asking them two sets of structured questions covering governance, rights, agency, representation, security, economy, and personal aspirations.
To put Afghan youth experience into context and to examine opinions for greater youth agency, the Researchers conducted brief comparative studies of cases where youth movements participated in significant political transitions.
Youth movements outside of Afghanistan drew particular sustenance from universities, where organisation can more easily occur, and protests often originate. Youth groups also benefited from leveraging information technology to organise and conduct public messaging. Applying these cases to Afghanistan, the survey results show there is a broad agreement across youth demographics on priorities for a future Afghanistan that have cross-cultural appeal. Hopes for a stronger economy, better education, and more social cohesion unite youth cohorts and likely appeal to large portions of the broader public as well. On the other hand, Afghanistan under Taliban rule is deeply authoritarian, and there are few independent institutions or safe spaces to organise. This will make it difficult for a movement to coalesce. Linking community-based movements and perceiving space for independent thinking at universities are two opportunities where lessons from external cases can be applied.
Keywords: Afghanistan, Youth, Human Rights, Taliban, Education.