Afghan women find worst fears confirmed as the Taliban return
As the Taliban and government forces battle for control of Afghanistan, residents of areas recently seized by the insurgents are now experiencing what life was like under the repressive regime that was toppled two decades ago.
Emboldened by the withdrawal of US and Nato troops, the Taliban have launched major offensives into new territory in northern and western provinces.
Although Afghan forces have kept control of provincial capitals, the insurgents have made gains in surrounding districts.
For Maryam, 28, life changed overnight after Taliban forces seized her district in Takhar province in the north-east.
“It has been about 20 days since they took control of our district. They announced during Friday prayers that the men should have beards and the women can’t go out without a mahram [a male guardian],” she told The National.
The Taliban distributed leaflets with these and other rules, including bans on playing music, selling imported meat, charging interest on loans, gambling, consuming alcohol or drugs, and missing daily prayers. They are encouraging people to report anyone committing these “crimes”.
The takeover cost Maryam her job at a private company.
“I haven’t been able to go to work, because they won’t let my employer continue to hire me,” she said.
“I haven’t been out of home this whole time, because I don’t have a mahram. My father is very old and unwell and I support the family.”
The Taliban imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia on Afghanistan after seizing power in 1996. It continued to enforce its rules, aimed at women in particular, in areas where the insurgents retained control, after being toppled nationally by a US-led invasion in 2001.
Taliban fighters in Maryam’s town insist that women wear a full body covering.
“We are Muslims and already wear the hijab, as specified in Islam. But what they want us to wear is a burqa,” she said.
Maryam said an acquaintance was recently stopped by the Taliban because her hair was visible through her burqa.
“She was at a pharmacy getting treatment for her son, when a Taliban fighter pulled her burqa from the back and questioned her about her visible hair. They then chopped off her hair as punishment. She was humiliated publicly.”
Maryam said women were being forcibly married to Taliban fighters, citing the case of a village elder from a neighbouring district. The Taliban wanted him to give his young daughter to a fighter.
“When he tried to resist, saying she was too young, they said she would ‘mature after marriage’,” she said. “He escaped with his daughter to our village that night.”
Heather Barr, co-director of the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, said she was not surprised at these developments, despite assurances from the Taliban when they began peace talks with the government last September in Doha.
“There was a period from about 2013 when US so-called experts were trying very hard to argue the Taliban had changed and reformed, as a way to suggest the US wasn’t really losing the war. But people paying attention to women’s rights always knew better,” she said.
“Any changes in the Taliban’s views on women’s rights have been tiny, incremental, and often changes in rhetoric related to strategy in Doha, not changes in practice.”
An article on the Taliban’s website says they seek women’s rights as understood by Islam.
However, the group’s interpretation of Islam is questioned by many religious scholars and women’s leaders.
The article says it would permit women to work “where she can serve her society in the education, business, health and social fields, while maintaining the correct Islamic hijab”.
But women like Maryam are forbidden from working.
“As the Taliban flex their muscles and feel triumphant, they seem more determined than ever to show women who’s boss, and that reforms women fought hard for over the last 20 years are done,” Ms Barr said.
The Taliban’s policies do not spare children. Mohammad, 34, a resident of Kandahar, said the insurgents had forbidden girls from going to school.
Before the takeover, “there were some social restrictions but girls were allowed to study at the local madrassas [religious schools],” Mohammad told The National. “But the Taliban has stopped that.”
The Taliban are also recruiting children to fight, he said.
“The other night, Taliban came to our village and asked families to send their teenage boys to them. Thankfully, our children are younger, but they came after our neighbour’s son. When he refused, they beat him up, accusing him of being anti-Islam.”
Maryam said many Taliban fighters in her village were children, some as young as 13.
“They brought little boys to our district to fight the government. Most of them struggle to pick up a rifle but are forced to the front line,” she said.
Ms Barr called for international organisations to investigate the Taliban’s actions.
“Even in areas not under Taliban control you have women and girls increasingly living in fear, wondering if choices they have made will make them a target, considering if they need to flee and contemplating what their life will be like if they lose access to education, health care, employment and freedom of movement,” she said.
The Taliban imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia on Afghanistan after they seized power in 1996