Independent Coalition of Protesting Women: Fawzia Koofi Does Not Represent Us
The Independent Coalition of Afghanistan’s Women Protest Movements has issued an official statement expressing concern over what it describes as “interference, political exploitation, and attempts to co-opt the struggles of protesting women” by Fawzia Koofi.
In the statement, released on July 1, in Islamabad, the coalition alleges that Fawzia Koofi—a prominent political figure and former member of Afghanistan’s power structures—has undertaken efforts that risk turning the grassroots women’s protest movements into tools for political propaganda and partisan agendas.
According to the statement, the coalition considers Ms. Koofi to be “part of the failed structures of the past” which, they claim, have driven Afghanistan toward poverty, corruption, and war. The statement adds that the presence and voice of figures such as Koofi in the media do not reflect the real pain and suffering of the Afghan people, but rather represent a repetition of past failed experiences.
The statement reads: “Fawzia Koofi has never been, is not, and will never be a representative of protesting women. She is a merchant of Afghan women’s wounds and suffering.”
The coalition emphasized that Afghanistan’s political future requires new, independent, and transparent figures—untainted by the failures and corruption of the past.
The coalition members have also urged the media to refrain from labeling groups or individuals aligned with Ms. Koofi as part of the “protest movement.”
The coalition further emphasized that the protest movements are independent actions born from the direct will of oppressed, imprisoned, exiled, and resisting Afghan women—not pre-designed programs serving personal agendas. The statement concludes with the coalition’s well-known slogan, “Bread, Work, Freedom,” reaffirming the independence and clear path of this movement.
A number of women activists and independent civic groups have accused Koofi of exploiting her position, maintaining close ties with power structures and drug trafficking networks, and attempting to co-opt the independent women’s protest movements.
