Women are under threat in Afghanistan

As the Taliban takes over Afghanistan, Afghan women, fearful of their lives and rights, have been speaking up. These fears are rooted in the country’s dark history of the Taliban rule, between 1996 and 2001, when systemic violations of women and girls were institutionalised. The regime imposed Sharia and interpreted the Islamic law ruthlessly, prohibiting women from working and girls from attending school, and allowing women in public places only if they covered their faces and were escorted by male relatives.

Now, as the Taliban returns, so do memories of the horrors of its brutal rule. Nearly a quarter of a million Afghans were forced to flee since the end of May, 80% of them women and children, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. More Afghan women and children were killed in the first half of 2021 than in the first six months of any year since records were kept in 2009.

The last two decades saw millions of Afghan girls attending school and Afghan women engaging in public life — for instance, female literacy rate shot up from less than 17% in 2000 to 30% in 2018, as per the World Bank. The Taliban has, in its first press conference since the takeover, said that it will honour women’s rights, albeit within the norms of Islamic law. While this can be seen as an attempt to win international legitimacy, it is important to go by the Taliban’s actions and history, and not merely words. The international community must make the equal and fair treatment of women a precondition for formally recognising the Taliban regime in Afghanistan — with an enforcement mechanism to ensure that reality matches commitments. The brutalisation of women must not be allowed again.