As the Taliban overrun larger parts of Afghanistan and plan to take over the entire country in less than a week, fears and concerns mount over safety and rights of women. According to reports, the Taliban has adopted a more hard-lined approach in the newly captured areas even as they claim commitment to provide women their rights.
Re-imposing their repressive laws, the Taliban have reportedly demanded that families marry off girls aged 15 and above and widows below 40 years of age to their fighters, the WSJ reported. Human rights groups have said it is a form of sexual violence. The Islamist group has, however, denied these reports.
Further reports suggest that the Taliban are going back to their retrograde policies in the captured areas followed during their rule between 1996 and 2001. The Taliban had in its five years of rule prohibited women from attending school or leaving home without a male relative. Women, who disobeyed were sometimes killed, Sher Jan Ahmadzai wrote in Asia Times.
During the previous rule, the women were required to cover their bodies and faces in a burqa and those accused of adultery were stoned to death in stadiums.
The Taliban, in recent years, have said they are committed to providing women their rights and allowing them to work and attend school, provided they do not flout Islamic or Afghan values. However, the Taliban also said they want to limit the freedom gained in recent years by women, which has promoted “immorality” and “indecency”.
Public infrastructure has been destroyed and social services halted in many Taliban-controlled areas, leaving 13 million people without public services, the Asia Times quoted the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission as saying.
The reports of forcing women and girls into marriage have been confirmed by the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations. However, the reports could not be verified or investigated either by the ministry or the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).
Several women have fled their homes and taken refuge in Kabul fearing for their lives as the Taliban take over more and more territories. The displaced women mostly end up in camps or find refuge in mosques or homes of strangers.
Horrified of the changing situation, 60-year-old Rahima, who is a mother of seven girls, has taken many young girls and women into her house in west Kabul. “It’s been two weeks that my house is packed full of guests. I have personally experienced displacement so I know what it is like to seek a safe place,” The Guardian quoted her as saying.
The Afghan Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations estimates that nearly 70% of the displaced are women and children.
UN High Commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet has also called for international action as she voiced concern over the Taliban imposing severe restrictions on human rights, specially targeting women. “People rightly fear that a seizure of power by the Taliban will erase the human rights gains of the past two decades," she said.
“We have received reports that women and girls in various districts under Taliban control are prohibited from leaving their homes without a Mahram, a male chaperone. These restrictions have a serious impact on the rights of women, including the right to health – and clearly, in the midst of a war, the need to access urgent medical care for themselves and their families is a matter of life and death. Hampering a woman’s ability to leave home without a male escort also inevitably leads to a cascade of other violations of the woman’s and her family’s economic and social rights," Bachelet warned.
The UN High Commissioner further cited reports of women having been flogged and beaten in public for breaching the rules and a woman rights activist being killed in Balkh province on August 3. She raised concerns over curbs on freedom of expression and journalism.
Further, a newly declassified US intelligence report suggests that the progress on hard-won women’s rights can be totally hampered even if the Taliban doesn’t take full control. The National Intelligence Council reports see the achievements made on the women’s rights front a result of “external pressure than domestic support, suggesting it would be at risk after coalition withdrawal, even without Taliban efforts to reverse it."
“Although the Taliban’s fall officially ended some policies (restricting the rights of women), many continue in practice even in government-controlled areas," the assessment stated.
“Afghanistan’s progress since the end of Taliban rule toward meeting broadly accepted international standards for the conditions of women has been uneven, reflecting cultural norms and conflict," the report’s authors wrote, noting that progress that was largely centered “in cities and ethnic minority enclaves, where violence is lower and women had more freedom before Taliban rule."
“Gains are less pronounced in rural areas, where roughly 70 percent of Afghans live," the report stated. “Nationwide, child marriage and stoning for adultery persist, and rape victims are killed by relatives for shaming their families."
However, the NIC report found that while the Taliban’s “desires for foreign aid and legitimacy might marginally moderate its conduct over time," it is likely that “in the early days of reestablishing its Emirate, the Taliban probably would focus on extending control on its own terms."
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