Taliban promises 'rights' but Afghan women fear return of 'dark age'

The Taliban on Tuesday (17) has promised women’s rights and safety along with media freedom and amnesty for government officials in their first news briefing after the swift seizure of Kabul. Meanwhile, thousands of Afghan women and girl students have reportedly started cloistering in their homes, fearing for their lives and future under new Taliban rule.

“We assure that there will be no violence against women,” the spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said. “No prejudice against women will be allowed, but the Islamic values are our framework.”

Another Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on Monday (16) that under the Taliban girls will be allowed to study.

However, there is still a deep mistrust in the public, especially women, as per local reports.

When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001- what is often called a "dark age" of Taliban domination- women could not work, girls were not allowed to attend school and women had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative if they wanted to venture out of their homes with frequent incidents of humiliation and public beating for women who broke such laws were reported.

As the Taliban captured dozens of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals, the speed of the militants' advance has caught locals off guard.

Some women said they had no time to buy a burqa to comply with Taliban rules that women should be covered up when they leave the house, reports said. 

Women who were working in bureaucracy, media, journalism and other professions are reportedly in a state of fear for their safety and future.

Hosna Jalil, Afghanistan's former deputy minister for women affairs, predicted the new regime would be even more ruthless than the old, adding that she believes its leaders will seek revenge on those it saw as responsible for casting them from power, reports said.

One of Afghanistan’s first female and one of the youngest mayors Zarifa Ghafari has said that she is waiting for the Taliban to find her and kill her.

“I’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family”, the 27-year-old former mayor of Maidan Shar in Wardak province said.

Khadija Amin, a prominent anchorwoman on state television, declared in social media that the Taliban had suspended her, and other women employees, indefinitely, New York Times reported. 

It was also reported that Taliban insurgents recently walked into the offices of Azizi Bank in the southern city of Kandahar and ordered nine women working there to leave, telling them that their male relatives can take their places if they want.

Women working as doctors, teachers and in other government and social organisations have not returned to work after Sunday (15) with most of them fearing that they never will. 

Taekwondo fighter Zakia Khudadadi and discus thrower Hossain Rasouli will not be attending the Tokyo Paralympic Games this month.

Meanwhile, a handful of women on Tuesday (17) were seen testing the Taliban's promise to respect women’s rights and safety as they protested for the right to work and go to school, feets away from armed Taliban fighters.

These brave girls protesting before the armed #Taliban in #Kabul for their rights.#AfghanWomen pic.twitter.com/fNlYYJbe45

— Nadia Momand (@NadiaMomand) August 17, 2021

After the US invaded in 2001, restrictions on women had eased, and even as the war raged, a local commitment to improving women's rights, supported by international groups and donors, led to the creation of new legal protections and also a new generation of women who were employed in various fields.

"I worked for so many days and nights to become the person I am today, and this morning when I reached home, the very first thing my sisters and I did was hide our IDs, diplomas and certificates,” a resident of Kabul told The Guardian.