Maintaining her ongoing commitment to improve circumstances for Afghan women, U.S. Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) this month marked her seventh year traveling to Afghanistan to visit them and United States service members stationed in the country.
“It is a great privilege to travel to Afghanistan each year around Mother’s Day to spend time with our brave military men and women who are on the ground there,” Rep. Roby said on May 15 when she returned from a bipartisan female congressional delegation (CODEL) to Afghanistan.
During the CODEL trip, Rep. Roby also met with U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass, military commanders and Afghan leaders, according to her staff.
“This annual visit is very special to me, and it always serves as an important reminder that those who wear the uniform sacrifice so much, including being away from their families in harm’s way for months at a time, for the security of our nation,” the congresswoman said.
Afghan women are playing an increased role in the Afghan National Defense Security Forces (ANDSF), said Rep. Roby, referring to the group that in January 2015 took over full security responsibility in Afghanistan after the United States officially concluded Operation Enduring Freedom and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ended the International Security Assistance Force mission, according to the United States Institute of Peace.
However, U.S. troops have been helping ANDSF fight the terrorist Taliban in the country since 2001, making it America’s longest-running military campaign thus far, Rep. Roby told colleagues upon returning from last year’s CODEL trip.
“The Taliban’s resurgence amid the drawdown of coalition forces presents a major threat that we must acknowledge,” she told members during a May 18, 2017 speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. “We cannot allow this to happen.”
“We cannot allow the gains we’ve made in Afghanistan to fall by the wayside,” she added. “We know all too well what can happen when radical, oppressive ideologies are allowed to fester in hostile nations. Make no mistake: because freedom and fairness for Afghan women is essential to the security of their country, it is also crucial to our own.”
Rep. Roby noted on May 15 after returning from this year’s CODEL trip that Afghan women in recent years have been able to progressively secure more basic human rights for themselves.
“I am always proud to be engaged in these issues to ensure that the people I represent are aware of the progress that has been made, as well as the work that remains,” she said. “We know that the success of Afghan women is an indication of the country’s success.”