The realities of life under Taliban control are already evident. According to an Afghan woman and school teacher, women are no longer allowed to go out to the market without a male guardian. As per Afghan civilians, there is a prevalence of sexual violence in the recent onslaught. What’s despicable is that the Taliban commanders have ordered communities to turn over unmarried women to become “wives” for their fighters.
It is crystal clear by now that women and young girls are likely to bear the brunt of restrictions under the Taliban and their imposed doctrine, as witnessed from 1996-2001, where systematic rights violations take place. The last time the Taliban were in power, they curtailed women’s freedom of movement and freedom of expression and put a full stop to their right to education. Moral policing and wide-scale corporal punishments were a regular occurrence. During their last regime of five years, Taliban used to flog women publicly and give heinous treatment during this time and now history seems to be repeating itself.
Hadia Ibrahimkhel, a senior economics student at Kabul University, tells me from the Afghan capital that “her life just isn’t the same anymore” ever since the Taliban have started to gain control again amidst the U.S. forces’ withdrawal.
In November 2020, Taliban attacked the Kabul University and killed many classmates and took many others hostage. According to another Afghan woman, her country is entering “a new situation” that holds a “dark future” for its women.
Mariam Atahi, a women’s rights activist, says she is afraid the Taliban will come and kill her. She feared punishment as she has been working for women’s rights for more than 20 years. Her modus operandi goes against the ideologies of the insurgents, who project and propagate patriarchy and a conservative version of Islam.
Going by the data of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, almost 1 million people have been displaced in Afghanistan already over the past few months. Out of this, 70 percent of the displaced have been women and children.
Afghanistan has already been going through a misogynistic social construct. In such circumstances, the growing Taliban influence and control will further fuel inequalities against women, who make up 48.7 percent of Afghanistan’s population. Although there has been an improvement in women’s role in the country in the past, with more women gaining access to education and careers. Under Taliban rule, women are more vulnerable to being subjected to a renewed set of restrictions, violence, and injustices and are prone to being displaced, trafficked and even attacked.
In early July, Taliban leaders took control of the provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar. Soon, they issued an order to local religious leaders to provide them with a list of girls over the age of 15 and widows under the age of 45 for “marriage” with Taliban fighters. However, it’s not yet clear if they’ve been successful in their wicked demand.
It is being predicted by many that if these forced marriages occur, women and girls will be forcibly taken to Waziristan in Pakistan to be re-educated and converted to “authentic Islam.”
This order has led to a lot of fear among women and their families residing in these areas and forced them to flee and join the ranks of internally displaced persons. This has added to the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Afghanistan. In the past three months alone, 900,000 people have been displaced.
Apart from this, the Taliban have hinted at their plans to deny girls’ education after the age of 12, to ban women from employment and reinstate the law requiring women to be accompanied by a guardian.
Besides, to lure more militants to join the Taliban, they are offering “wives”. Undoubtedly, this is not marriage but sexual enslavement, and pressurising and forcing women into sexual slavery under the guise of marriage comes under war crime and a crime against humanity. According to Article 27 of the Geneva Convention:
“Women must be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any other form of indecent assault.”
Taliban fighters use mosque loudspeakers in areas under their control and often announce that women must now wear the burqa and have a male chaperone in public. They burn public schools, libraries and computer labs.
In Taliban-run religious schools for girls, students learn the “appropriate” Islamic role of women, as per the Taliban’s harsh interpretation of the faith, mostly comprising domestic duties.
Such actions are enough to show that the Taliban disagree with the basic principles of democracy, including gender equality and free expression.
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