KABUL, Afghanistan – Farzana Ahmadi watched as a neighboring woman was beaten by Taliban fighters in her village in northern Afghanistan last month. The crime: her face is exposed.
“Every woman should cover their eyes,” Ahmadi recalled, saying one Taliban member. People watched in silence as the beatings continued.
Fears – even stronger than in recent years – are gripping Afghans now that the US and NATO forces will leave the country in the coming months. They will leave behind a publicly triumphant Taliban, which many say will take up more territory and re-establish many of the same oppressive rules they applied under their rule in the 1990s.
The New York Times spoke to many Afghan women – civil society members, politicians, journalists and others – about what was coming to their country, and they all said the same thing: Whatever happens will not bode well for them. .
Whether the Taliban take back power by force or through a political agreement with the Afghan government, their influence will almost inevitably grow. In a country where an end to almost 40 years of conflict is nowhere to be seen, many Afghans are talking about an impending civil war.
“All the time, women are the victims of men’s wars,” said Raihana Azad, a member of the Afghan parliament. “But they will also be the victims of their peace.”
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it banned women and girls from taking most jobs or going to school, virtually making them prisoners in their own homes.
After the US invasion to overthrow the Taliban and defeat al-Qaeda in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Western conspiracy to bring women’s rights to the already war-torn country seemed to many a noble enterprise. The cause helped sell the war to Americans shrinking at the sight of a B-52 carpet bombing insurgent positions.
Some schools were reopened, giving young women and girls the opportunity to train and careers that many had not had before. But even before US troops hit Afghan soil, some women risked their lives by secretly training and teaching themselves.
Over two decades, the United States has spent more than $ 780 million to promote women’s rights in Afghanistan. The result is a generation that has come of age in a period of hope for women’s equality.
Although the progress was uneven, girls and women now make up about 40 percent of the students. They joined the army and police, held political office, became internationally recognized singers, participated in the Olympic Games, and climbed on robotics teams, mountains and more – all of which were almost impossible at the turn of the century.
As the conflict continues for more than 20 years and battles on the battlefield escalate, U.S. officials and lawmakers have regularly cited the gains of Afghan women and girls as proof of the success of the nation-building effort – some progress in reversing the loss. try to be fair. of life, both American and Afghan, and billions of dollars spent on the war effort.
Even in the twilight weeks before President Biden made his final decision to withdraw all U.S. troops by September, some lawmakers and military officials argued that the preservation of women’s rights was one reason to keep U.S. forces there.
“I remember when Americans came and said that they would not leave us alone, and that Afghanistan would be free from oppression, and that it would be free from war and women’s rights would be protected,” said Shahida Husain, an activist. in southern Kandahar of Afghanistan, said. Province, where the Taliban rose up for the first time and now controls large tracts of territory. “It now looks like it was just slogans.”
Across the country, schools are now being forced to consider whether they will be able to stay open.
Firoz Uzbek Karimi, the chancellor of Faryab University in the north, oversees 6,000 students – half of whom are women.
“Female students living in the Taliban have been threatened several times, but their families are sending it in secret,” he said. Karimi said. “If foreign forces leave early, the situation will get worse.”
Human rights groups, NGOs, schools and businesses are left to devise emergency plans for female employees and students should the Taliban return to power by force or through an agreement with the Afghan government.
In his announcement Wednesday, Biden said the United States continues to prioritize women’s rights through humanitarian and diplomatic assistance.
But even now, profits for women in some places over the past 20 years have been volatile and unevenly distributed despite the millions invested in women’s rights programs.
In areas controlled by the Taliban, the education of women is extremely limited, although it does not exist. In the north, tribal elders have negotiated to reopen some schools for girls, although subjects such as social science are being replaced with Islamic studies. Education centers are regularly the targets of attacks, and more than 1,000 schools have closed in recent years.
“It was my dream to work in a government office,” Ahmadi, 27, said. She studied at Kunduz University two years ago before moving with her husband to a Taliban-controlled village. “But I will take my dream to the grave.”
If there is one thing that has taught Afghans decades of war, it is that conflict has never been a good way to achieve human or women’s rights. Since the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, war has increasingly fueled more warfare and ultimately undermined any humanitarian achievements.
Under the American occupation, educational opportunities, cultural shifts, employment, and health care benefited some and others became scarce, especially in rural areas. In those places, some of the most brutal chapters of the war took place with many civilians dying and ruining their livelihoods.
Often, women’s opinions are unclear in these parts, where about three – quarters of the 34 million people live in Afghanistan, and are often unreachable due to geographical, technological and cultural constraints.
“Despite real improvements, Afghanistan remains one of the most challenging places to be a woman,” a U.S. watchdog report from the U.S. government said in February. “US efforts to support women, girls and gender equality in Afghanistan have yielded mixed results.”
Still, the strictly restrictive religious structure of the Taliban virtually ensures that the oppression of women is embedded in whatever repetition of government they bring.
The idea of the Taliban of justice for women is for me. Ahmadi stiffens when she sees the rebels beating the revealed woman in front of her in Kunduz province.
For many other Afghan women, the government’s legal system was a different punishment.
Farzana Alizada believes her sister, Maryam, was killed by her abusive husband. But a police investigation of any kind took months to begin, thwarted by absent prosecutors and corruption, she said. Me. Alizada’s brother-in-law even put her under pressure to drop the charges by accusing her of theft. Police asked her why she was leading the case when her sister died.
Domestic violence remains an enduring problem in Afghanistan. About 87 percent of Afghan women and girls experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
“I have lost all hope in this government. In some cases, the Taliban may be better than this system. “Me. Alizada said. “No one is on my side.”
Ms Alizada’s sentiments are also portrayed in Doha, Qatar, during the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Despite months of negotiations, there has been little progress, especially when it comes to discussing women’s rights, which has made neither side a priority.
At a separate peace conference held in Moscow in March between the Afghan government, political power brokers and the Taliban, only one woman, Habiba Sarabi, was in the 12-member delegation sent by the Afghan government. And only four are part of the 21-person team in Doha.
“Moscow – and also Doha with its small number of women representatives – has exposed the thin veneer of support for true equality and the so-called gains after 2001 when it comes to who will decide the country’s future,” Patricia said. Gossman, the co-director of Asia for Human Rights Watch.
But one of the almost undeniable benefits was Afghanistan’s access to the internet and the news media. Cell phone coverage spans a large part of the country, meaning Afghan women and girls have more space to learn and make contact outside of their family bubbles and villages. The Afghan news media also flourished following large-scale investments by foreign governments and investors, and many women became well-known journalists and celebrities nationwide.
But even their future is uncertain.
Lina Shirzad is the acting managing director of a small radio station in Badakhshan, in northern Afghanistan. She employs 15 women, and given the growing uncertainty, they fear they will lose their jobs. Even some of the larger national stores want to relocate employees or relocate operations outside the country.
“With the withdrawal of foreign forces in the next few months, these women who are the breadwinners for their family will be unemployed,” she said. Shirzad said. “Will their values and achievements be preserved or not?”
Fahim Abed reported from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar.