Fear and agony. These are the feelings that have been haunting Afghan women since the day that the Taliban (Islamic fundamentalist group) took control of the country again.
20 years ago the Taliban’s era in power came to an end following the 9/11 attacks in the United States of America that not only shocked and put the whole world in stand by but also marked the history of our civilization. During their time in power, the Taliban caused immense terror and repression, especially for women. Girls and women were prohibited from attending school, going to work, and were not allowed to leave the house without being accompanied by a male relative, moreover, they were required to wear blue coloured burqas (an outer garment that covers all the body and face; colour blue is traditional colour in Isam for protection) so as not to show any skin and practice purdah (the practice in Islam of screening women from men). Women that opposed and challenged the Taliban’s strict rules, were often publicly humiliated and even beaten with brutality.
And now after 20 years of war and unpeaceful activities in the country, the Taliban troops have won over Afghanistan by capturing Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on the 15th of August. Being aware of the Taliban’s comportment towards women in their previous ruling, Afghan women and the international community fear that the worst is yet to come. Many want to have been trying to escape Kabul as reported by the shocking images from various news stations in the world.
‘Women’s rights in Afghanistan will be respected within the framework of Islamic law’
This was the sentence that a spokesman of the Taliban said in their first news conference since taking control of the country. These words are not a reason for happiness or relief, but yes for preoccupation as the Taliban are successfully creating a facade to elude the international community.
Malala Yousafzai, the young girl that fought for women’s rights for education and was shot when she was 15 by the Taliban, expressed recently on her Twitter account her sentiment of fear and concerns about the whole situation that women are facing in Afghanistan. In an interview with BBC, Malala said that ‘a lot of the women in Afghanistan remember what was happening from 1996 to 2001 and that they are obviously worried about their safety, rights and their access to education’.
Mahbouba Seraj, a women’s rights activist in Afghanistan, was asked by an interviewer what message she had for the international community. The message that she had was the following: ‘I’m going to say to the whole world, shame on you’. This clearly demonstrates that international intervention and attempts to solve the issue have been ineffective and that the United Nations and the European Union need to intervene in Afghanistan in order to prevent further violations of human rights.
With increasing war activities in the country, the male population is rapidly decreasing leaving women in vulnerable positions, where they with no education and even poor literacy possibilities (estimated that around 30% of Afghan women are illiterate by literacy rate as of 2018) have been left to support their families on their own. Despite those poor conditions, women of Afghanistan are full of eagerness and courage to rebel against the Taliban ignorance of women’s rights by protesting in many places of Afghanistan. As of recently, in the past week, there have been two noticeable protests, one happening in Heart, a city in west Afghanistan, and one in Kabul, both protests focused on rights to have education, work and security, while maintaining their Isamic identity and traditions without Taliban’s harsh rules. Although the two-day protest in Kabul was broken up by the Taliban force, it still shows that there is hope left in this issue, showing the perseverance, strength and immaculate courage of Afghan women.
Ērika Trifonova and Filipa Moreira
03.09.2021
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