10 19. Family education and counseling is nearly non-existent in Afghanistan. Male members often avoid engaging female members in critical family issues. Women are not treated as actors and agents of change. This institutionalizes the marginalization of women. This must be changed through the establishment of family counseling associations and reforms in the educational curriculum. 1. Introduction Over the course of the past 13 years, significant efforts have been undertaken to tackle women’s problems in Afghanistan. Afghan women have taken important steps forward in all sectors ranging from education to politics, civil society, government and democratic institutions. Yet, women face insurmountable problems. Fragility and uncertainty in the position of women in society is increasing as the international withdrawal gets closer to its conclusion. Most of the problems women face today stem from areas and institutions that have faced negligence in the past decade or so. The family environment and religious institutions such as mosques and madrasas continue to constrain women. No conscious efforts have been made to help women penetrate the market place. Afghan public space haunts women and street harassment has turned into a serious issue across the major urban areas. These areas predominantly remain masculine. Women’s development will largely depend on structural reforms in these institutions. The efforts made in post-Taliban Afghanistan to address women’s problems have been radically different from those in 1920s, the decade of democracy, and under communist rule throughout the 1980s. Historically, structural factors and unequal social relations constituted the focus of reform movements. Change in conservative institutions such as marriage, and individual freedom including legal modifications attracted the greatest salience and controversy. Most interestingly, Afghan state agents and the urban elites were the principle drivers of these earlier reformist struggles.1 Over the course of the past 13 years, the Afghan government has not been a major champion of women’s rights. Neither have the state elite had the courage and ethical commitment to do so. Rather Afghan civil society with international support has led the efforts, albeit incoherently. The efforts at best have been scattered with not much focus on structural factors. The most important change with long-term implication has been women’s participation in the democratic institutions such as parliament and provincial councils, mainly through a quota system under the Constitution. Lacking solid vision and common agendas, the women 1.  AHRDO, Afghan Women after the Taliban: Will History Repeat Itself, February 2012.