In a newly released report, USIP researchers Erica Gaston and Tim Luccaro map how Afghan women seek justice when pursuing their rights and interests, along with the individual and collective barriers those women face. Understanding how women negotiate their rights and dispute resolution strategies within the familial and local sphere is critical to charting more effective pathways for women’s access to justice within formal justice institutions and informal mechanisms that are prevalent throughout the country. The report offers timely recommendations for finding Afghan-specific approaches to women’s justice needs, as actors both inside and outside Afghanistan express concerns about how the pace and progress will be sustained as Afghanistan transitions to full economic and security leadership. Some, like Afghan writer Mujib Mashal, fear that the reversals in rights adherence already taking place in far flung regions of the country herald a possible return to the old normal – even in the most progressive areas of the country.