The return of the Taliban disrupted the lives of Afghan women, but at the same time their courage to protest for their rights grows

Difficulty in finding a job, closure of schools and colleges for women, the obligation to wear a hijab as well as being able to go out only accompanied by a man and even the removal of mannequins and the closure of beauty salons, since they do not respect the rigorous interpretation of the Islamic law (sharia), are the realities that Afghan women face every day since the return to power of the Taliban, which is already six months old.

Last August, the Taliban promised some flexibility for women, who during their first regime (1996-2001) were deprived of almost all their rights, but it seems that their objective was to obtain the approval of the international community.

The new Government has avoided enacting too strict rules in this regard on a national scale, it has been the provincial authorities that defined what obligations women must respect.

The Taliban’s return to power in August ended two decades of conflict in Afghanistan and for some women the end of the fighting has brought relief from the fighting, but for others the restrictions imposed by the fundamentalists compound their desperation.

“Before there were planes in the sky and bombing… We are happy that the Taliban have taken power and that there is peace… I feel more serene,” says Friba, a mother of three in Charikar, Parwan province. , a village located on a hillside near Kabul.

But although security has improved, the woman admits that she continues to fight every day to survive. To get by, the family relies on small farm jobs and food donations.

For Zakia, 24, on the other hand, the return of the insurgents meant an indefinite break from her studies. He remembers that he was in class on August 15, 2021 when the teacher warned that the Taliban were already at the gates of Kabul.

“My hands started to shake. I took my phone out of my bag to call my husband and he fell several times”, he says and says that since then he has not returned to classes both because of fear and because he could not pay the tuition.

Roya is another Afghan who used to go around the center of Kabul to teach dozens of students how to embroider and at night, she would make dresses and shirts for the future store that she dreamed of opening with her daughters. But her foreign-funded school closed when the Taliban returned and she hasn’t seen any of her students since.

Currently, Roya spends her days at home. The household now relies on the income of her husband, a security guard who works part-time for a few dollars a week.

Women come out to protest

These realities have made women’s protests against the regime recurrent in the country, which recently appointed a first woman as part of its government. The appointment of Dr. Malalai Faizi to head a maternity hospital in Kabul opens a step towards a possible relaxation of female employment restrictions in Afghanistan, but doubts persist.

For the Ecuadorian political scientist Arianna Tanca, all these changes in the lives of Afghan women are something that the return of the Taliban implicitly brought, although they handle a more moderate discourse to have the attention of the whole world on them and thus reassure the international community. .

“It is normal for these acts to happen to clean up the image, but once the months have passed they really start to do what they wanted to do,” he says, adding that different DD organizations. H H. They are following in the footsteps of the regime.

Virginia Gómez de la Torre, director of the Desafío Foundation and former member of the National Women’s Coalition in Ecuador, agrees with Tanca that what is happening was to be expected and laments the cases of journalists, teachers and other women who held high positions and have been displaced.

She says that in countries like Afghanistan, patriarchy, machismo and misogyny are entrenched, but it must be recognized that with the pre-Taliban regime, women did manage to access spaces of power and education, among others.

Tanca mentions that the interesting thing is to see how Afghan women have taken to the streets demanding their rights.

“It is very important because on previous occasions it is not that they did not exist, but today they have much greater support, because once the fight for human rights and gender equality has begun, there is no turning back. … we don’t want to go back from what has already been achieved”, underlines and highlights the courage of Afghan women to claim their rights despite the risks to their lives.

For Gómez, those same protests are “an act of heroism, a reckless act of bravery.”

“These women are exposed to death, in those regimes protesting is an act of survival… in those cases when a woman has nothing to lose, she has to go out and offer her life based on the legacy they are going to leave to the ones that follow”, he points out.

However, Gomez It also recognizes that from the international community it is difficult to achieve a change in a regime that is sustained by a theocracy, but it highlights the courage of the women who take to the streets. Tanca, for his part, says that from the West it is necessary to continue making what is happening in Afghanistan visible in order to generate pressure on the regime and support the organizations that work in the country.

Main restrictions for Afghan women

• The Taliban say they allow women to work, but they can no longer access public jobs, except in specific sectors such as health and education. Tens of thousands of women lost their jobs after the return of the Taliban, ending two decades in which they could access new jobs, such as in the police or justice.
• The Taliban government claims to claim the right to education for girls; however, the vast majority of secondary schools have closed their doors to them since August. Currently, it is known that schools will reopen at the end of March for all, but the shortage of female teachers and the prohibition of men teaching girls portend new difficulties.
• Most private universities reopened, even a month after his return, but there is a lack of teachers, since the separation into male and female classes is imposed, they are not enough. Public universities resumed their courses last week and the same thing happens.
• In its previous stage, the Taliban imposed the use of the burqa in public, a full veil with a kind of mesh at eye level. There are now signs in all shops in Kabul indicating that women “should” at least wear a hijab, a cloak that covers the head but leaves the face uncovered, although they are illustrated with photos of the burqa, suggesting it as more advisable.
• By decree, women must be accompanied by a close male relative on long trips between cities. And taxi drivers were ordered not to pick up women with bare heads.
• Television networks can no longer broadcast series with actresses. And female journalists must wear the hijab on camera.
• A senior Taliban official asserted that “it is not necessary” for women to play sports. But Islamists have avoided formalizing this, as funding from the federations that control world sport, including cricket and soccer, would be frozen if women are not allowed to play. (I)