Taliban has ‘to listen to women’

ACTIVIST’S WARNING ON AFGHANISTAN ‘This is becoming like a nightmare for everybody.’

The Taliban will have no choice but to bend to the demands of Afghan women if its wants to escape economic collapse and diplomatic isolation, a leading rights activist said.

Seventy-three-year-old Mahbouba Seraj decided not to flee Kabul last month when the Taliban seized back power, two decades after they were ousted.

Instead, from her home in Kabul, she has followed the Taliban’s mixed messages, trying to decipher what lies ahead for the women of her country who she has dedicated her life to.

“This is becoming like a nightmare for everybody,” she says.

The Taliban have incrementally stripped away freedoms for women – excluding girls from secondary school, telling working women to stay home and unveiling an all-male government.

They claim it is only temporary, but many are distrustful and recognise a repeat of history unfolding.

“The first time, the Taliban had the same excuse, they said ‘wait, we’ll fix it for you’,” she said from her home in Kabul.

“We waited for six years and it never came. There is no trust [in the Taliban] among the women of Afghanistan.”

Many women, she says, are confused and under severe pressure, frightened to leave their homes and face Taliban harassment.

Still, she admits to being optimistic, sure that the Taliban will be forced to adjust if they want to remain in power.

There are signs of some changes – women can still be seen on the streets, many are still wearing headscarves instead of the all-encompassing burqa and some forms of university education can continue, though under segregation.

“It’s not Afghanistan of the ’90s any more, this Afghanistan is different,” she said.

“I really believe changes are going to happen. There is no other way and the Taliban should realise it.”

The head of the Afghan Women’s Network, Seraj has long advocated for the equal participation of women in deeply patriarchal Afghanistan.

She moved to the United States in 1978, a year before the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, living in exile through the civil war and Taliban years, and returning after an international-backed government had been appointed.

Although still marginalised, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots and police officers – though mostly limited to large cities. –