Tragic Plight of Women in Afghanistan

The women in Afghanistan could be described as the worst victims of Taliban’s return to rule in Afghanistan two years ago.

The ruthless regime has issued around fifty various fiats ever since they retook Kabul on August 15, 2021 to ensure invisibilisation of women from public life.

The latest of these is proscription of beauty salons which besides depriving the women of the right to enhance their physical appearance, eliminates job opportunities for thousands of young women in the country.

Much that has happened to women during the last two years has rolled back the progress achieved by women during the last two decades since the nation’s takeover by the forces of the United States.

Following retaking of Kabul, the fundamentalist regime has constantly stripped Afghan women of their right to enrol in high schools and colleges; closed down clinics and shelters that provided treatment and asylum to women; asked NGOs to desist from taking up causes pertaining to women’s freedom, rights and equality; removed female news presenters from Television programmes; disbanded women police; banned women’s travel without a male escort (mehram); banned their employment in commercial, industrial, educational and government institutions; proscribed their visits to parks and places of entertainment.

The beginning was made by daubing the female faces from murals and advertisements on walls soon after the fanatic hordes of the Taliban entered Kabul.

Reports emanating from Kabul suggest that women’s mobility in public is being censured; they are forced into shuttlecock burqas when moving outside their homes and recommended to preferably remain confined to homes.

In a March 8, 2023 report presented by the Office of the High Commissioner of the Human Rights under the United Nations, it was observed that the “situation of women has reverted to that of the pre-2002 era when the Taliban last controlled the country, effectively erasing progress on women’s rights in the intervening 20 years.

The report described the situation as “an affront to all standards of dignity, equality and humanity” and stressed that world support for reasserting their rights should go beyond expressions of solidarity.

Reports state that several women who were trained for Afghan Army during the two decades were captured, tortured and killed while those who saved themselves from the agents of the new government, live in fear and constantly change their place of stay, often leaving their families.

Thousands of women who have been stripped of jobs live in penury and many are forced to beg for a living. Preponderant majority of those inflicted with malnutrition consists of women and girls, says a report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

An Amnesty International report issued following a survey between September 2021 and September 2022 had concluded that “cumulatively, Taliban policies form a system of repression that discriminates against women and girls in Afghanistan in almost every aspect of their lives.

Women who are found transgressing the repressive guidelines in matters of movement in public spaces, clothing and social behaviour are being arbitrarily detained under vague charges of “moral corruption” and denied access to legal counsel.

Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has even been misleading the foreign media by refuting detention of women agitators against repressive policies brought to fore during the last two years.

The international community has so far failed to act against the Taliban regime on account of its policies aimed at undermining the human rights of women.

It is time the community responds to the miserable plight of women in Afghanistan and brings about pressure to ease and remove all kinds of restrictions based on difference of gender.