Study the Lived Experience of Women Representatives of Affirmative Actions in Afghanistan

After the Bonn Summit in Germany in 2001, followed by the adoption of the new Afghan Constitution in 2003 and the Electoral Law in 2004, affirmative action strategy with a clear and systematic mechanism to improve the status of women in socio-political participation entered the Afghan legal literature. With the passage of time, the implementation of the strategy of affirmative action and the ups and downs of women in Afghanistan required in this qualitative study, the above strategy can be represented and narrated from the perspective of the life experience of women representatives. The aim of this study was to inform political agents and citizens about the long-term results of the affirmative action strategy for women. In this regard, in a phenomenological way, data was collected and coded in person through “semi-structured interviews” with 15 female representatives. According to the findings, facilitating competition with men, creating opportunities for women, benefiting from gender diversity, improving the work environment for women, and flexibility in government policy-making for women are some of the categories that indicate women’s need for affirmative action strategy. The results also showed that executive policy is considered affirmative action in developing the ability and capability of women. Because the emergence of potential ability, the acquisition of skills and experience, the complement of meritocracy and the relative reduction of deprivation are among the categories that were extracted from the experience of female representatives. What matters is how this strategy is implemented. Based on the findings, unequal access, blame, feelings of inferiority, patriarchal culture, abuse and lack of peace in the interviewees’ experience indicated affirmative action challenges to the strategy. If this strategy is not implemented with proper tact and social context, it is possible that the leaders of parties, jihadi groups, influential people and tribes will take advantage of the affirmative action strategy and it will not lead to the desired result.