Reimagining ‘Negotiation’: Doha Diplomacy, Narratives, and Afghan Women’s Agency

This article re-conceptualises ‘negotiation’ beyond formal access to diplomacy in an attempt to locate Afghan women’s agency through narratives. The article zooms in on the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan to analyse the epic failure of Doha diplomacy. The Doha Negotiations (2018–2021) between the United States and the Taliban sought to end the decades-long war in Afghanistan, yet offered nothing more than hollow promises of peace for the Afghan people—especially women. The article asks the question: What constitutes Afghan women’s agency amidst an apparent lack of voice in the aftermath of the 2021 Taliban takeover? This question of agency pertains to Afghan women’s liminal status, landing in a space in-between voice and silence, and state and statelessness. The first part of the article analyses the discursive nature of the Doha negotiations—historical background, procedural lapses, and outcome gaps—forming the colonial basis of diplomatic engagement. This analysis is further corroborated in light of the four interviews with the Afghan women's delegation to the Doha negotiations. I argue that this form of diplomacy is a classic example of women’s bodies becoming the site of control—be it the Taliban’s internal colonialism of women or the US and its alliance’s external imperial ignorance of women’s fate after their untimely withdrawal. Taking a cue from Rae Langton's reimagination of the speech act, the article argues that this is a calculated silencing of women by imposing an illocutionary disablement of women's speech act, stemming from the systematic subordination of women in Afghanistan. At the same time, the second part of the article shows that despite the failure of the formal diplomatic channels, there are significant examples of Afghan women strategising survival as part of their daily negotiation with life. Drawing on James Scott’s idea of everyday resistance, the article argues that the Afghan diaspora’s continued acts of subtle defiance create a space for dissent beneath the surface of their outward conformity. Reaffirming Spivak’s strategic essentialism, in which Afghan women temporarily embrace a collective identity as Afghan irrespective of communal differences within Afghan society, the article envisions agency as contextual, mediated, and tactical.