How Lives Of Millions Of Afghan Women Are Set To Change Under The Taliban Rule
On August 15, when one country was celebrating its 75th Independence Day nearly 1,300 kilometres away from Kabul, Islamic extremist militia Taliban stormed into and captured the capital city of Afghanistan.
With land control, a brutal state of totalitarian dictatorship and gender apartheid in which women and young girls are stripped of their basic human rights, is inevitable.
Multiple reports have emerged over the last few weeks where Taliban had issued orders for men and women, including what they could wear, what's allowed for them and what isn't.
As the country goes into the hands of religious extremists militia, millions of young girls and women in Afghanistan are staring at a dark future.
Recently, the Taliban reportedly executed a young woman for wearing tight clothes and not being accompanied by a male relative in the northern province of Balkh.
File Photo
Reports said a 21-year-old woman was shot dead by Taliban extremists in the village of Samar Qandian, which is controlled by the militant group.
In July, after capturing districts of Afghan Takhar province, Taliban had issued new set of rules and regulations including forbidding women from leaving home without a male relative and forcing men to grow beards.
Civil society activists in Afghanistan's northeastern province of Takhar said the Taliban have ordered men to grow their beards, banned women from leaving home alone, and have set dowry regulations for girls.
These incidents are an early sign that some of the rights won by Afghan women over the 20 years since the hardline Islamist militant movement was toppled could be reversed.
Women stripped of basic human rights
When they last ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, women could not work, girls were not allowed to attend school and women had to cover their face and be accompanied by a male relative if they wanted to venture out of their homes.
Women who broke the rules sometimes suffered humiliation and public beatings by the Taliban's religious police under the group's strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Women were often publicly flogged or executed during the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan.
During hitherto fruitless talks over a political settlement in recent years, Taliban leaders made assurances to the West that women would enjoy equal rights in accordance with what was granted by Islam, including the ability to work and be educated.
Reuters
Afghan women working in fields including journalism, healthcare and law enforcement have been killed in a wave of attacks.
Some fear that Talibanis will storm into their homes and will ask them to be accountable for what they have done during the past 14 years.
Numerous reports have emerged of the Taliban going door-to-door, drafting lists of women and girls aged between 12 and 45 years who are then forced to marry Islamist fighters.
During the Taliban's five-year reign in Afghanistan, girls and women were almost completely prohibited from receiving an education.
A report published by Human Rights Watch in June 2020 found that although the Taliban officially claim it is no longer against education for girls, very few Taliban officials actually allow girls to go to school past puberty.
Human rights group Amnesty International has also previously reported that the vast majority of marriages in Afghanistan were forced during the Taliban era.
Cries for help flood social media
Many educated Afghan women have taken to social media to appeal for help and express their frustration.
"With every city collapsing, human bodies collapse, dreams collapse, history and future collapse, art and culture collapse, life and beauty collapse, our world collapse," Afghan photographer Rada Akbar wrote on Twitter.
with every city collapsing, human bodies collapse, dreams collapse, history and future collapse, art and culture collapse, life and beauty collapse, our world collapse. someone please stop this.?
¡ª Rada Akbar (@RADAAKBAR) August 12, 2021
Noted Afghan filmmaker Sahraa Karimi has penned an open letter calling on the world to wake up to the impact of the Taliban¡¯s swift takeover of Afghanistan.
Karimi called for protection for filmmakers and for women in general against the brutal militants who have overrun the country.
In her letter, Karimi pleaded with the film community to join her ¡°in protecting my beautiful people, especially filmmakers from the Taliban.¡±
To All the #Film_Communities in The World and Who Loves Film and Cinema!
¡ª Sahraa Karimi/ ???? ????? (@sahraakarimi) August 13, 2021
I write to you with a broken heart and a deep hope that you can join me in protecting my beautiful people, especially filmmakers from the Taliban. #Share it please, don't be #silent. pic.twitter.com/4FjW6deKUi
¡°I am writing this with a broken heart and with the deep hope that you will join us in saving my beautiful country from the Taliban,¡± she wrote two days before the Taliban took over Kabul and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
¡°They massacred our people, kidnapped many children, they killed a woman in the name of dress, they tortured and killed one of our favorite comedians, they killed a prehistoric poet,¡± she wrote of the Taliban. ¡°They killed people associated with the government, some of us were hanged in public, and they displaced millions of families. After fleeing from these provinces, the families are in camps in Kabul, where they are in a state of dire straits.¡±
She went on: ¡°Children are dying in the camps due to dacoity and lack of milk. This is a humanitarian crisis, and yet the world is silent. We are used to this silence, but we know it is not fair. We know this decision to leave our people is wrong, we need your voice. What I have worked so hard for as a filmmaker in my country is likely to collapse. If the Taliban takes power, they will ban all arts. Me and other filmmakers could be next on his hit list. They will violate the rights of women and our expression will be silenced.¡±
Karimi appealed to those in the entertainment community to spread the word. ¡°Please support your filmmakers and artists as our voice, share this fact with your media and write about us on your social media. The world does not turn towards us. We need your support and voice on behalf of Afghan women, children, artists and filmmakers. This is the biggest help we need right now. Please help us not to leave this world to the Afghans. Please help us before the Kabul Taliban comes to power. We only have a few days.¡±
