KABUL — Female staff gathered at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Kabul cried out as the radio crackled to deliver the news they had been dreading: the Taliban had arrived at Afghanistan’s capital.
The workers, gathered for a security briefing on Sunday on the country’s escalating crisis, hugged each other in fear of the oppression they think the Islamist militant group will bring on its return to power.
“It’s over!” several wailed, in a sign of the panic triggered after the end of the two decade long US-led military occupation of the Asian country opened the doors to the Taliban again.
The movement’s return has chilled Afghans who think they will be targeted by its harsh brand of Islamic law. Female rights campaigners see women and girls as among those who have most to lose, despite the Taliban’s insistence to the contrary.
“We are worried about women’s rights because we already have experienced what the Taliban have done in the past,” said one ministry staff member. “We have done a lot for Afghan women during these past 20 years. We don’t want to lose our rights — and we want to continue working.”
The anxiety formed part of a bigger chill enveloping the Afghan capital as the Taliban swept back in triumph on Sunday. Some residents are horrified by the second coming of a group forced from power in 2001 by the western military invasion launched in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
“The situation is very bad here,” said Mohammed, a 27-year-old Kabulite. “We don’t know what our lives will be. It feels as if no one cares. We have been left alone by the Americans and now the Taliban have come in our city.”
Kabul residents struggled to keep pace with the weekend’s extraordinary events as the Taliban advanced with staggering speed. Fighters first encircled the capital and then began arriving inside the city.
Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace in Kabul on Sunday.
© AP
On Sunday, President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and by that night footage emerged of Taliban fighters in his office. They had reinstalled themselves weeks before even President Joe Biden’s deadline to complete the US troop withdrawal — the 20th anniversary of the September 11 atrocities.
Afghan Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal sought to calm tensions by announcing an agreement to give up authority peacefully to the Taliban. He said security forces would remain stationed in the capital to maintain peace.
“There will be no attack on the city,” he said. “The agreement for greater Kabul city is that under an interim administration, God Willing, power will be transferred.”
Suhail Shaheen, Taliban spokesperson, assured the people of the capital that their lives and property were safe. He claimed the transfer of power would conclude in a few days.
But the public reaction suggested many Kabul residents doubted the official line. Roads in the city were choked with traffic as people rushed home or to the airport to flee the country.
The Taliban was expected to announce the revival of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the name it gave the country during its rule between 1996 and 2001. Those days were characterized by brutal public punishments, such as flogging and even execution — the fate suffered by President Mohammad Najibullah, publicly hanged by the victorious Taliban in 1996.
During that first Taliban era, women were prohibited from attending schools and colleges. They were also blocked from participating in public affairs without a male chaperone or a burqa to cover their bodies and faces.
The Taliban has claimed it will uphold women’s rights and allow them to participate in public life.
But some question those reassurances — and even say they would rather flee Afghanistan than take their chances under renewed Taliban rule.
“Like any educated woman in Afghanistan, I would want to leave the country,” said the ministry official. “We don’t want to trust them again.”
The fears of the nation’s women were laid out by Education Minister Rangina Hamidi in a BBC interview. “I might face consequences… I guess that’s the price we pay for trying to make the world a little better,” Hamishi said, adding she was fearful “like every woman in Afghanistan.”
Even as some Kabul residents put a brave face on the latest turmoil and hope for the best, few doubt the scale of political and cultural change that the Taliban’s return represents.
Akmal Khan, a journalist from the northern province of Kunduz, says that the fighting in his home place has stopped now the Taliban is fully in control. The next phase is to adjust to the new reality.
“The Talib leader made announcements in the mosques that people can return to their jobs and homes. No one will be harmed,” Khan says. “This is how it is going to be now. I will have to keep my beard long and give up my work in media — but at least it is peaceful.”