The Taliban’s rapid advances through Afghanistan in a matter of days have left women and girls the most vulnerable, and they fear that their worst nightmares will soon be realised. Given the Taliban’s extremist views, and their beliefs that women should have no voice, rights, or opinions, women are a sure target, especially for speaking out against this radical group. Given the Taliban’s stance, many fear that the country will regress and undo 20 years of progress that women have fought for, and worked hard to achieve.
The fact remains, an entire generation of Afghans were raised with a modern and equal worldview, but will now find themselves scrambling for basic human decency. However, there are still those among them who are willing to speak up, knowing fully well what consequences their actions will bring down on them. 27-year-old Zarifa Ghafari, the youngest, and first female, mayor in Afghanistan’s Maidan Wardak province, who rose to prominence in 2018, told I News, three weeks ago, “Younger people are aware of what’s happening. They have social media. They communicate. I think they will continue fighting for progress and our rights. I think there is a future for this country.”
Since then, with more and more reports coming out from the country, things seem bleak. “I’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family. I’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me. I can’t leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?” Ghafari said.
Malala Yousafzai, in an exclusive interview with Newsnight, said, “My request to all countries, especially the US, UK, and western countries, is that they must protect all those human and women's rights activists right now. And you know what has happened, you know, we can definitely debate about that. But we also need to talk about the immediate next steps that we need to take. We need to talk more about the solutions right now.”
Farkhunda Zahra Naderi, a former lawmaker and senior UN advisor to Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, told Bloomberg, “My greatest fear is now they are marginalising women who have been working in these leadership positions, who have been a strong voice against most powerful abusers, but also working with them to change the situation on ground.”
Marianne O’Grady, the deputy director for Care International in Kabul believes that it will be difficult the strides and achievements women have taken in the last 20 years. “You can’t uneducated millions of people,” she said in a statement to the press. “[If women] are back behind walls and not able to go out as much, at least they can now educate their cousins and their neighbours, and their own children in ways that couldn’t happen 25 years ago.”
During their previous rule, the extremist group banned women from working outside the home, girls were deprived from their right to education, or from attending school. Women were required to wear the burqa, and had to be accompanied by a male relative whenever they ventured outside.