- Afghan women worried about their livelihoods after the Taliban were arrested.
- Women have begun to close their businesses and delete social media accounts.
- The Taliban occupied the capital Kabul.
From female journalists wiping computer files to beauticians removing posters from salons, many Afghan women did not have the opportunity to contact the country’s new Taliban leaders despite promising to continue working.
Three days after the Islamic movement captured Kabul in shock, there were few women in the streets.
Some women are deleting social media accounts, while others are closing businesses and wearing burqas to avoid being recognized when they are outdoors.
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“I feel like a prisoner. I dare not go out of the house,” said an award-winning journalist, whose name was concealed for her safety.
“I don’t know how the Taliban would treat me if they identified me as a female journalist. She made hundreds of reports exposing their actions to the Afghan people.”
The reporter said that she deleted her social media, deleted computer files, destroyed photos and concealed her awards. She added:
The Taliban say that women can wear Islamic headscarves to work, but… who knows if they will allow girls and women to study and work? Given their past records, there is no guarantee. If I was forced to stay at home, not allowed to work or raise my voice, even if they didn’t kill me, I would think I was dead.
Under Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, girls were prohibited from going to school, while women were unable to work and had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative.
But at the first press conference after they occupied Kabul, the Taliban stated that they would allow women to work and study “within the framework of Islam.”
However, the women contacted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation were skeptical, saying that the Taliban also made a conciliatory gesture before the implementation of a severe regime in the 1990s, when they had a strict interpretation of the Islamic law, including public flogging and stoning. punishment.
Timeline | Taliban occupy Kabul
In Kabul, business owners have deleted photos of women from beauty salons and tailor shops for fear of retaliation.
A barber at a large salon said that no one dares to return to work.
“At least 24 families have received support from this single place and women and girls. I think this is now a story of the past. Because of fear of the Taliban, not a single woman is ready to go back to work there,” she said.
Burqa
But some women ventured to Kabul-pictures of female journalists in the city were widely shared on social media, and people praised their bravery.
On Tuesday, a small group of women also marched in Kabul, holding signs calling for an end to “the fear in our and other women’s hearts.”
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“We are here to fight for the rights of Afghan women,” demonstrator Soodawar Kabiri told the TV news channel.
“We invite other women who are at home to participate…because this is the beginning. I hope we can continue, God bless, there are more and more women.”
“We don’t want the voice that Afghan women have gained over the past 20 years to be suppressed.”
As the only breadwinner of the family, women are particularly worried about how they will survive if they are prohibited from working.
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After the Taliban announced that health professionals could return to work, a female dentist in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif resumed work on Tuesday, but she said she would no longer treat men because of concerns that the Taliban would disagree.
“In the past (a few days) I was really worried…I will lose my job and be unable to feed my children,” said the mother of four.
Tuesday was the first time she went out since Mazar-i-Sharif fell to the Taliban on Saturday.
“The city seems to have changed. There are fewer women we see on the street, and the clothes they wear are different,” she said.
“Most women wear loose dresses and burqas. Women used to wear jeans and coats to go out, but I don’t see such signs today.”
She said that only female teachers and female doctors were allowed to return to work, and female government employees were told to wait at home until the Taliban decided on their roles.
uncertain
A geography teacher at a boys’ school in Kabul said she didn’t know if she still had a job because the Taliban announced that women could no longer teach boys above elementary school.
“I don’t know if they will transfer me to girls’ school or terminate my job altogether,” said the mother of four, who is the only working class in the family.
“I have no other income, and my son has not yet reached the age to find a job. I don’t know what my future will be like. I am really worried.”
A small group of protesters opposed to the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan gathered in Parliament Square in London.
Getty Images Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
She said she hopes her eldest daughter will leave Afghanistan, but this is impossible because they do not have passports and most consulates are closed.
“My eldest daughter has just completed a degree in biology. She wants to become a teacher. But with the arrival of the Taliban, for now, all her plans have been in vain,” Hakima added.
restraint
Wazhma Frogh, a prominent women’s rights activist who runs the Women and Peace Research Organization in Kabul, said that the Taliban have shown restraint so far, but this may be due to the international community’s attention to Afghanistan.
Because of the Taliban’s repeated death threats, Frog went into exile.
However, she said that society has changed in the past 20 years and believes that the Taliban cannot completely turn back the clock.
“Families don’t want their daughters to be illiterate anymore,” she said. “The girls who have grown up in the past 20 years are more brave. They stand up, they stand up for themselves.
“The men on the street today said that we can no longer segregate women.”
Since 2001, women have made significant progress, and more and more women are working in the former male fortresses, including politics, media, justice, and IT.
Although worried that the Taliban might oppose women, Frog said that it is no longer possible for the Taliban to “drive women out of the streets.”
“There are 18 million women…you can’t let them disappear or disappear behind the door. They can’t kill all 18 million.”
