Female Afghan envoy fears Taliban rule
Female ambassador fears reprisals for cooperating with Western governments in work with Washington
Afghanistan’s outgoing ambassador to the United States fears going home because of the Taliban’s treatment of women. Roya Rahmani said the extremists had been reimposing gender restrictions not seen since the 1990s as they regained control of rural areas. “I do not feel safe about going back to Afghanistan at all. Given the circumstances, a lot of people, especially women, are not safe,” she said. Ms Rahmani was the country’s first female ambassador to the US.
AFGHANISTAN’S outgoing ambassador to the United States fears going home because of the treatment of women by the Taliban.
Roya Rahmani said the group had been reimposing gender restrictions not seen since the Nineties, as it regained control of rural areas.
“I do not feel safe about going back to Afghanistan at all,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “Given the circumstances, a lot of people, especially women, are not safe.” Ms Rahmani spoke amid rising fears in Afghanistan that 20 years of progress on women’s rights will be reversed once Western troops complete their withdrawal in September.
Already, Taliban fighters have seized up to a third of the country’s districts, despite taking part in peace talks with Afghan officials in Qatar.
Ms Rahmani was the country’s first female ambassador to the US, having previously been a senior adviser in the country’s foreign ministry.
Her achievements, including a degree in public administration, would have been unthinkable under Taliban rule, when the education of girls was forbidden.
“What we are hearing about the areas under Taliban control is that they do not have a good attitude towards women,” she said. “There is this huge sense of discrimination towards half of the population. The impact on women and the loss of their rights would not only impact on the country but would have a direct influence on the stability of our region and beyond. Denying women access to employment and education will translate into conflict.”
Improving women’s rights has been a centrepiece of the strategy of Afghanistan’s Western-backed government, with laws encouraging girls to attend school and efforts to increase the female workforce.
About one third of civil servants are women, according to Afghan government figures, while women’s rights charities and activist groups have thrived in the capital, Kabul.
But ever since the US signalled its planned pull-out, the Taliban has been waging a campaign of assassinations and intimidation against female activists and journalists, especially those appearing on TV or radio. Some have already fled the country.
Earlier this month, residents of northern areas around the city of Mazar-e Sharif said the Taliban had distributed leaflets ordering women to not leave their homes without taking a male companion.
Women who have cooperated with Western governments, such as Ms Rahmani, are understood to be at particular risk.
“I am worried about how they are going to interpret ‘cooperation’, and who they will take vengeance against,” she said. “Would that include people who worked with the forces, or will it go beyond?
“Will it extend to people who do not subscribe to their way of doing things?”
About 2.2 million girls in Afghanistan still do not attend school and less than 30 per cent of women are literate, according to UN figures.
Even the Afghan government has been criticised for curtailing women’s social freedoms – including banning girls over the age of 12 from reading poems or singing at public events.
Yesterday, neighbouring Tajikistan said it was preparing to take in up to 100,000 refugees fleeing towns and villages taken over by the Taliban.
The Afghan defence ministry said the Taliban’s claim that it has control of 90 per cent of the country’s borders was “an absolute lie”.