“Just waiting for what will happen” - What’s next for Afghan women?
6/9/2021 SINI RAMOTaleban high officials have communicated that they plan to “uphold women’s rights” and allow women to go to work and girls to go to school, within “certain limitations” which they still refuse to define. Only time will tell what exactly will happen to women in Afghanistan, but based on current signals, the future looks bleak, with women and their rights being repressed yet again.
When the Taleban were in power in the 1990s, they were known for their ruthless “leadership” tactics and total repression of women’s rights. Women were banned almost from all work and from studying. They were not allowed to leave the house without a male “chaperone” (mahram) – if they were to defy this rule, they would be faced with public flogging. Women’s access to healthcare, including their sexual and reproductive rights, was severely restricted. Women were practically made invisible.
Health workers visiting a house in Nangarhar in 2017. Photo: Sini Ramo
Empty promises
Although it is impossible to predict what will happen to women’s rights under the new Taleban “government”, signs from around the country are pointing to little change from the extremist group’s previous views on women and girls’ rights.
Women have been forced out of their offices and demanded to go home at gunpoint. The Taleban have also asked women to “stay at home”, with Taleban Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid emphasizing this is "a very temporary procedure”:
It was horrendous to watch the Taleban “leadership” sit in the Government Media and Information Centre (GMIC) delivering their first official public remarks in a press conference two days after they overtook Kabul on 17 August.
I have organised many press conferences and events around women’s rights and gender equality in GMIC, and seeing the Taleban waltzing around this venue felt bizarre to say the least. The last workshop I organised in this place in 2017 convened Afghan journalists, diverse women and men, to learn about ethical reporting on gender-based violence – gatherings such as this will definitely not be in the cards in a Taleban-controlled Afghanistan where signs of strict gender segregation and invisibilising of women can already be seen.
Billboards and walls of bridal gown shops and beauty salons portraying women are being painted over. During the past week, street art work and wall murals done by a famous artist group called ArtLords around Kabul over the past decade have also been painted over and destroyed.
A wall mural painted by ArtLords in a UN compound in Kabul for International Women’s Day in 2017. Photo: Sini Ramo
Reports are surfacing that women are required to have a mahram with them if they leave their house – for example, a woman who got into a taxi alone without a male escorting her was ordered to return with her husband to sort out the issue with the Taleban guarding the streets.
Taleban leadership are signalling that women are allowed to pursue education, but only if classes for women and men and girls and boys are separated. As there are not enough women teachers and professors, this essentially means that many women will be denied their right to an education.
The Guardian reports that a new decree issued to private universities states the following:
Women must be provided with transport in buses with covered windows and a curtain separating them from the presumably male driver. They must be confined to a “waiting room” before and between classes, and the decree even details a required clothing colour for female students and teachers (black).
Reportedly, women would never be allowed to teach male students, although men might be able to teach women if there were no women lecturers available.
Violence against women and girls continues to be prevalent in Afghanistan, further fuelled by the ongoing humanitarian disaster. According to a 2006 study by Global Rights, 87% of Afghan women experienced at least one form of gender-based violence, with almost 60% being in forced marriages. “Honour” killings, child marriages, and the practice of baad — trading of young girls to pay debts or settle disputes – has still occurred in rural areas.
There are reports of women and girls being forced into marriages to help them escape out of the country amidst the chaos that unfolded at Kabul airport in the two weeks before the US forces withdrew.
The New York Times reports about the plight of gender-based violence survivors who relied on the protection services offered by a network of shelters and safe houses around the country. The fact that the Taleban set free thousands of prisoners during their military takeovers adds to the risk of reprisals faced by women who have suffered from violence from family members as well as the women judges and law enforcement officers who have helped jail many of these perpetrators
Many women are scared to leave their houses. My friend, Farzana (name changed), has not left her house since Kabul fell three weeks ago. She works at the UN and has not been allowed to return to the office – although many men have gradually started to pursue their business outside the house as usual.
“Just waiting for what will happen,” Farzana sums up her feelings.
Health workers delivering house-to-house services in Kabul in 2016. Photo: Sini Ramo
Women taking it to the streets
Women in the Western province of Herat took to the streets last Thursday to protest Taleban rule and gender-based violence. The women, marching towards the office of the Herat governor, demonstrated against restrictions to women’s right to work and education, and demanded for women’s meaningful participation in politics.
On Friday and again on Saturday, a group of women took to the streets in Kabul, calling for women to have a role in the future government. The protesters said Taleban fighters used teargas and beat them with rifle butts. Four men have been arrested.
Women’s possible role in the future government remains to be seen – however, it is unlikely that women will be in any way meaningfully or equally included in public life, let alone in politics.
Women protesting in Kabul on 4 September 2021. Photo: Reuters
A humanitarian crisis demanding action
Already deeply reliant on foreign aid for delivering basic services to its people, Afghanistan is heading towards severe financial hardship and deeper poverty levels, with women bearing the brunt of the impact. The upcoming winter, which is generally harsh in many parts in Afghanistan, is another factor adding to the hardship many Afghans, especially in rural areas, are facing.
Many foreign governments have stopped or frozen all development and humanitarian governmental funding as the Taleban took over, with the Swedish agency SIDA for example pledging to still continue its support to NGOs and UN programmes. The annual cost to the state for education is an estimated $800 million, and for the health sector $1.7 billion. Both sectors are to up to 85% financed by foreign donors.
The country is still in the midst of struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic in a situation where health systems were already extremely weak. Although the health sector has witnessed multiple wins over the past two decades, including decreases in maternal and child mortality, women’s access to quality healthcare, including sexual and reproductive healthcare, will likely be severely decreased under a Taleban-controlled regime.
There is also a critical internal refugee crisis, with UN OCHA reporting that nearly half a million Afghans are internally displaced. Around 80% of the country is exposed to a serious drought severely affecting livelihoods - the World Food Programme estimates that 14 million Afghans currently need food assistance.
We know that women are hardest hit by disasters, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We know that women and girls will bear the brunt of the short and long-term impacts of the currently unfolding insecurity and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. Women and girls’ rights must be front and centre of global decision-making and disaster response and recovery measures.
Foreign governments need to continue to protect safe passages and support efforts to evacuate Afghans most at risk, including women human rights defenders, journalists, women with prominent roles in government or public life, and minorities, exploring all possible options via land routes as international flights remain on hold. We need significant increases in resettlement quotas and the provision of humanitarian visas, with an urgent focus on facilitating family reunification processes.
Governments and international organisations need to continue support for humanitarian aid and local actors on the ground, targeting those most marginalised and in need. Afghan women are strong and they have been through decades of conflict, war, violence and injustice. But this is a time when the world cannot turn their back on them – women are courageously demanding to be heard and seen, to meaningfully participate and to be protected from the various rights violations they are already subjected to. The need for swift action is urgent, even more so now when the global attention on the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan and on Afghan women begins to fade.
As Farhat Popalzai, a 24-year-old woman protesting on Kabul streets on Saturday said:
“They think this is a man’s country but it is not, it is a woman’s country too.”
