Under Siege: Women’s Rights in Afghanistan
By Gabriella Ribenfors. For their safety, we have hidden the identities of our interviewees
“Either you get to the throne or you get to the coffin.” In an online meeting hosted by FiLiA earlier this year, four women described how they remain committed to fighting for women’s rights in Afghanistan, despite the risk to their own lives.
After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021, mass evacuations decimated the women’s rights movement, with an estimated 80–90% of female activists leaving the capital. Yet those who remain are intent on continuing their work, determining their own “risk appetite” and disproving the assumption from outsiders that those who stay support the takeover. Amina*, Laila and Maryam are three of those who stayed behind; Najiba returned from safety abroad, one of the few entering a country that many more sought to leave. Discussing ways in which other women can help build solidarity and offer support, the speakers offered insights into the struggles that women face in a country where the “fragile democracy” of recent decades has been shattered: “The kind of life we fought for and lived for the last 20 years was not our life; it was a life given to us by the foreigners”.
One of the strongest themes was hope: the conviction that change lies ahead, even if the steps towards it are small and many. Najiba, who convened the meeting, remembered her school being closed when she was 14 years old, after the establishment of the Taliban government in 1996. On her return to Afghanistan 25 years later, her female teenage cousins, likewise seeing their education rights being stripped away, greeted her with optimism: “So, do you think now that you’re back you can do something about it?”
Related to this was the need for pragmatism: “People in Afghanistan do not have the luxury of not engaging with the Taliban”. Although the Taliban still lack legitimacy as a government, change has to be brought about through them. Evacuating the entire female population is not a solution. Advocacy is needed: amplifying the voice of Afghan women to demand education, the right to work and other freedoms.
A confounding factor, but sometimes an advantage, is the inconsistency of Taliban rule, with women’s organizations in different provinces experiencing very different situations. As Laila recounted, some in the Taliban chain of command allow work to continue; some take the middle ground; others are worse. Locations, religious differences, ethnicities, hierarchies and personal grievances all play a part. In one province, women managed to negotiate a more liberal interpretation of the law after identifying a senior ‘ally’ within the Taliban. Women who take the risk of engaging with the Taliban should therefore be supported: “They are negotiating change for women to continue their activities.”
Complaining upwards can sometimes get injustices resolved. The leadership often have more liberal views, or at least more familiarity with the law (the Taliban have issued a list of women’s remaining rights), than those further down the chain. Many among the latter are unaware that women are permitted to travel up to 45 miles without a mahram [close male relative]. “When you’re on the street, they stop you and they ask you why you don’t have your mahram with you. If you say, ‘I’m not travelling 45 miles’, they don’t care. They’re foot soldiers; they don’t understand the concept of 45 miles.” The leadership, on the other hand, usually agree with the women in this situation. Furthermore, women have sometimes managed to convey to officials the irrationality of the restrictions. “They have said, ‘Look, I lost my father in one suicide bombing that the Taliban committed, and I lost my husband in the next one, so where am I going to produce a mahram from?’ But these conversations don’t translate down to what happens on the street”.
With the disappearance of NGOs, lawyers, prosecutors and safe houses, this dependence on access to liberal senior officials or informal justice mechanisms leaves women vulnerable. There are indicators that the growing unemployment and poverty caused by the political situation has led to increased domestic abuse. Approached by women for support, however, community elders instead send victims back to the perpetrators. Amina described the deep sense of hopelessness, disempowerment, depression and anxiety that many women are experiencing, with an estimated 700 attempted or successful suicides in recent months. Women’s refuges no longer have funding or staff. When the Taliban therefore gave residents the choice of returning home or going to prison, they chose prison.
Some men remain allies, working with the feminist organizations that are left; others are “utilized” against their will in the Taliban’s oppression of women. Some, however, have seized the opportunity to give full vent to dormant misogyny. Men previously jailed for sex-based violence are now seeking revenge because “people can do anything to women right now”. Noting the enduring issue of forced marriage, and the recent preponderance of men leaving Afghanistan with their child brides and passing through UK and US borders unchallenged, Najiba remembered how only two of the dozens of 14-year-old girls in her class evaded marriage when the Taliban came to power the first time around. “But the Taliban did not say that you should get your kids married. It was society that did that. We are fighting the Taliban, but we are also fighting general misogyny.” To what degree do the Taliban simply sanction existing attitudes towards women, which are not confined by borders?
It is, therefore, women – both inside and outside the country – whom the speakers look to with hope. Discussing the support that politically engaged women in the UK can offer, they stressed the need to amplify the voices of Afghan women. “When you talk to anyone with a say, get them to advocate for direct contact between the Taliban and Afghan women. People talk on behalf of Afghan women too much.” Similarly, “if humanitarian assistance takes place without the involvement of Afghan women, it is incomplete. Women should have meaningful participation. They should not be excluded from these opportunities.” The Taliban cannot be accepted as a legitimate government unless they include and listen to women. The belief in the power of dialogue was clear: “We believe the Taliban are able to change if we engage in continuous conversation with them.”
Reflecting on the external expectation that Afghan women should constantly be out on the streets protesting, Maryam explained that other forms of activism could have more impact. “We should be part of advocacy efforts. When the international community talks with the Taliban, we should be part of that. The international community, the UN and other activist organizations need to create those spaces, rather than expecting us to only be on the streets and to absorb that immediate violence. We need to be involved in crucial conversations on poverty and unemployment.” Maryam also discussed the need for women outside Afghanistan to be involved in fundraising “to make sure a new generation of Afghan women leaders can develop their skills – and also remain self-sufficient.” More women are willing to step up as others have left, but they need to rapidly expand their technical skills and to be supported from outside by other women who can fundraise, donate, strengthen communication channels and share information with the public.
Ultimately, any form of Taliban government must be accountable to the Afghan people. Najiba described how the Islamic world needs to exert pressure on the Taliban, and how “we need to make sure that Muslim women are seen as Muslim women – as our sisters – when standing up to them, rather than something foreign or different.” In closing, she mentioned Taliban leaders becoming uncomfortable when two groups of people are mentioned: other religious scholars – and women. They realise that therein lies the enduring threat to their hold on power. And women will succeed or die trying.
*All names have been anonymised.
Since this meeting took place, the situation has continued to deteriorate. As media focus turned to the crisis in Ukraine, the Taliban increased repressive measures, including ordering women to wear the burqa in public. The UN has also reported “enforced disappearances” of women’s rights activists, despite the Taliban’s alleged commitment to some degree of rights for women. With the Afghan economy on the brink of collapse, unemployment and poverty rife (exacerbated by the fact that women are now generally forbidden from working) and international aid halted, nine million people are facing famine, and the number of families selling their underage daughters into marriage with adult men continues to rise. One of the questions posed in the meeting, and also elsewhere, was whether removing sanctions should be considered by the international community, so that aid can reach those suffering and alleviate the disproportionate impact of the Taliban takeover on women and girls. However, the official recognition of the Taliban government that this would entail remains a blocker.
FiLiA continues to be in touch with our sisters in Afghanistan and will update when we can. We invite everyone to support the organisations working to secure the rights of Afghan women and girls:
· Women Living Under Muslim Laws
· NEGAR