The Taliban regime has so far demonstrated a hardline approach vis-à-vis girls and women. While 2.5 million girls (80 percent of the school-going female population) remain out of school and women are deprived of livelihood opportunities and basic freedom, the hopes and dreams of millions are crushed. Afghanistan is now the only country that does not allow girls and women to study.
On April 5, the Taliban informed the UN that “no Afghan woman is permitted to work for the UN in Afghanistan, and that this measure will be actively enforced,”. The UN has strongly denounced the move and stated that negotiations are in place with the Taliban for an immediate reversal of the order.” The UN has advised all national workers, both men, and women, not to report to the office until further notice after “several female UN national personnel have already experienced restrictions on their movements, including harassment, intimidation, and detention.
Since 3,300 of the 4,000 UN employees in Afghanistan are local, the Taliban’s decision is anticipated to have an enormous effect on the UN’s operations in the country. This decision comes less than a month after the Security Council requested that the Secretary-General give the Council an impartial review of how the international community’s approach to Afghanistan by 17 November and extended UNAMA’s mandate for another 12 months. It is also the most recent in a line of Taliban policies that place gradually stricter restrictions on the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls. Examples of these restrictions include the ban on female NGO employees on December 24. According to the UNOCHA women comprise 35 to 45 percent of the NGO workforce in the country), the ban on women attending universities, and the decree requiring women to cover their faces.
Violent acts by the Taliban, such as the murder of Mursal Nabizada, a well-known advocate for women’s rights and former member of the Afghan parliament, and the unlawful confinement of 29 women and their families in Kabul, highlight the appalling decline in women’s rights under Taliban rule.
“In no other country have women and girls so rapidly disappeared from all spheres of public life, nor are they as disadvantaged in every aspect of their lives. The cumulative effect of the restrictions on women and girls is tantamount to “gender apartheid”, says Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Richard Bennett.”
Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) asked some local women how they viewed and lived under the Taliban rule – unsurprisingly, the majority responded in despair:
I have no hope that men and women in Afghanistan will be able to go to work freely. I don’t think this group [Taleban] will ever stop condemning us and I can’t imagine a time when we’ll be able to walk in Kabul freely.
Khwaga, 32-year-old single Pashtun protestor and former civil servant, Kabul City
I am disillusioned about living in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, giving birth to a girl is a big mistake because there are so many problems for them here.
Kamala, 29-year-old married Pashtun, Kunar province
According to 28-year-old married Uzbek former teacher, Sima, who lives in Samangan, it was still possible in the summer of 2022 to move around without a mahram in Mazar-e Sharif where her mother lives:
During the first six months, there was little enforcement [of rules], but now it’s very strict. I was going [from Samangan] to Mazar without a chador [burqa] or mahram and no one told me anything, but in the past two months, we haven’t been able to go anywhere without a chador, or abaya, and a mahram. Today [in Mazar], I went to the hospital with my mother in a taxi. No one told us anything, but it is impossible to do this where I live.
38-year-old former civil servant Khalida recounted her experiences in Kabul:
The enforcement of the restrictions has increased. The Taleban tells me to cover my face and hair whenever I go out. A few days ago, in front of Gulbahar Centre, a Taleb told me that God would not forgive me. I asked why? He said that, because my face was not covered, all non-mahram men could see it. Another time. I was waiting for my friend at Haji Yaqoob Square so we could go to a book fair together. The Taleban came several times to ask me why I was standing there, who I was, and who else was with me. Life is strict for women here. The Taleban tries to show the world that nothing [bad] is happening in Afghanistan. The Taleban said that women [government] employees must introduce their husbands or brothers to work in their place. They know this is impossible because everyone’s field of study and work experience is different. They just want to marginalize women and trick people.
According to data gathered by the United States Institute of Peace, the Taliban have issued more than 80 orders and decrees on girls and women since August 2021.
UN Women estimates that Afghan women’s rights violations have cost the country $1 billion in losses, or around 5% of its GDP.
The Taliban are not only silencing and erasing women. They have also gone to catch those who advocate for girls’ education or women’s rights. About two weeks ago, they arrested Matiullah Wesa, an ardent advocate of girls’ education, and founder and head of PenPath—a community-based education support network. “Matiullah Wesa has been detained for investigation because the intelligence agency had some suspicious information about him. He was organizing meetings and making contacts that were a cause of concern for us. It is the duty of the government to detain suspicious people and investigate them to ensure public order.” the Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the media.
So, the new rule is that girls and women should not ask for their basic rights, and neither should men support their female compatriots in the cause.
With each passing day, the Afghan girls are further being pushed towards regression and dark ages while the Taliban make excuses of ‘deciding on appropriate curriculum, ‘building infrastructure’, and ‘adapting to the post-takeover situation’. Eliminating women from public spaces and limiting them to their homes would only make Afghanistan suffer. Taliban are themselves divided on the issue of girls’ education reportedly, hence the issue of girls’ education is also said to be an outcome of the Taliban’s internal rift. However, a certain faction of the de facto leadership cannot impose its dogma on half of the country’s population.
Any idea of a civilized society that values gender equality and justice is in direct opposition to the Taliban’s disrespect for the law and human life. Their acts are nothing less than an outrageous breach of human rights and an attack in the face of the progress made in Afghanistan in terms of women’s empowerment.
