Afghanistan is holding a peace jirga or an assembly of powerful leaders, tribal elders and representatives of civil society to consider plans to open talks with Taliban leaders in an effort to end the nine-year conflict. A possible return of the Taliban has touched off concern about the fate of women who were banned from schools, the work place and public life during the Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001.

"I would not expect the peace jirga to do anything good for women. My hope is that it will recognize their presence and protect their rights equally to men, as presented in the constitution," said Orzala Ashraf Nemat, a leading women's rights activist in Kabul.

Haitian women have been increasingly vocal and active in social, political, and economic issues since the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986. Though it has not come easily, their progress in changing gender relations of power within the home, within social movements, and within the nation has been steady.

Women’s organizations have been key to these advances, helping create the space to foster and protect women’s activism. One network is helping women gain voice, literally: the Haitian Women’s Community Radio Network (REFRAKA by its Creole acronym).

The importance of radio cannot be overstated in a country where 45% of men, and 49% of women, are illiterate. Nor can the significance of women taking the microphone, in a country where aggressive patriarchy in the home and society, as well as violence from male partners and the state, have tried to keep them silent.

Afghan women in public life have always struggled, but the involvement of the international community in Afghanistan over the past eight and a half years opened space for women that did not exist under Taliban rule. Current trends, though, are negative. Women’s participation in politics and public life generally is declining, and, alarmingly, violence against women who venture out of the private sphere is spiking across the country.

On April 14, an 18 year old woman stepped outside the Kandahar office of US-based development firm Development Alternatives International (DAI). A gunmen was waiting for her. With at least nine gunshot wounds, the woman died at the scene. Local authorities blamed the Taliban. The press did not print the victim’s name, presumably out of concern for her family’s safety.