ABSTRACT
When the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 1994, it removed girls from school, forbade women from employment outside the home, and required women to wear garments totally covering themselves. This measure was a clear abrogation of the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. This chapter traces the evolution of thought and activism over the centuries aimed at defining women's human rights and implementing the idea that women and men are equal members of society. Three caveats are necessary. First, because women's history has been deliberately ignored over the centuries as a means of keeping women subordinate. Second, because any argument that the struggle to attain rights for women is only a Northern or Western effort is without foundation. Third, the oft-heard argument that feminism is a struggle pursued primarily by elite women is simply another example of the traditional demeaning of women.
