Oct 12 (IPS) – The creator is an Afghanistan-based feminine journalist, skilled with Finnish help earlier than the Taliban take-over. Her identification is withheld for safety causesAfghanistan might be likened to an open jail, the place almost 20 million girls wrestle day by day for his or her freedom. What these girls demand is an easy proper – the precise to steer dignified lives, equal to their male counterparts. Unfortunately, this aspiration appears distant and despairingly unattainable.
Ever for the reason that Taliban swept again to energy in Afghanistan two years in the past, the remedy meted out to girls is a mirrored image of how they’re seen in society: “imperfect mind, incompetent, weak, and should be under the control and administration of a man”, says Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the top of the Supreme Court.
In his new e-book, titled, “Islamic Emirate and the System”, printed by the Taliban, Haqqani considers girls as primarily meant to supply kids for the continuity of generations.
Education, work outdoors the house, and social and cultural actions of girls, that are thought-about their primary rights, have been declared blasphemous and opposite to the divine system that they themselves consider in.
However, in the divine system that we Muslims are conversant in, finding out is necessary for each women and men.
Under the Taliban’s rule, girls are banned from attending faculty and college; will not be allowed to take a seat round in parks; girls’s gyms are shuttered. Even the sound of music is prohibited at wedding ceremony ceremonies.
Women are additionally denied entry to justice in Taliban courts for crimes like theft and rape until filed by way of a male guardian. Those who dare to protest their basic rights face arrest, compelled confessions beneath brutal torture, and, if their crime is taken into account critical, as judged by the Taliban, they’re stoned or shot in public.
Just a few examples comply with as testimony to the Taliban’s violent and heinous acts towards girls.
Last a yr, a district court docket in Badakhshan province sentenced a girl and a person to be stoned to dying. Their crime was their need to stay collectively.
Celebrating Mother’s Day is said a criminal offense by the Taliban, and a gaggle of girls paid dearly in May this yr. A visit to the store in Kabul to purchase truffles for the celebration ended them being thrown into the again of Ranger automobile by armed males.
They have been pushed to an unknown place and never heard of since. Eyewitnesses mentioned nobody may strategy to assist the ladies by asking why they have been arrested. Their family members are anxiously ready for his or her return.
Zainab Abdul Hai, one other younger lady was shot useless by the Taliban at a checkpoint whereas getting back from a marriage get together. The cause, in accordance with the Taliban, was not sporting a full hijab.
I personally additionally fell sufferer to the enforced restrictions put in place by the Taliban. Although I used to be absolutely coated in a hijab, I used to be interrogated for 20 minutes by an armed group at a checkpoint in Shah Do Shamshire simply because a couple of strands of hair may very well be seen beneath my hijab.
As I used to be crossing the street after my launch, the stare of accusation and mocking laughter felt like a sword sunk deep into my soul.
Twenty-nine-year-old Ruqiyeh Sai was amongst a gaggle of girls protesting for his or her proper to work and for his or her daughters to go to highschool. In the area of three months in 2022 and 2023, she was arrested twice by the Taliban and tortured in a dreaded torture centre.
Ruqiyeh, instructed Nimrokh journal in an interview: “One of them punched me, the other kicked me, and another one hit me with a water pipe. “They cursed me”, ‘to which country did you sell yourself, you prostitute? For whom do you spy?’ “I passed out under their torture,” she said.
Ruqiyeh Sai was released from prison with a guarantee from the elders and a promise to the Taliban not to protest anymore. Nevertheless, she was video-recorded and threatened to be stoned to death if she raised her voice again.
“I used to be very confused, and I’m nonetheless confused to the extent that generally I consider suicide, however after I see my kids, I abandon the thought”, she mentioned. Ruqiyeh has since fled to Pakistan together with her kids.
Suicide amongst Afghan girls has elevated for the reason that Taliban returned to energy, in accordance with a UN Report. It is especially because of despair stemming from the extreme crackdown on girls and women’ human rights, particularly since many have been compelled to desert their schooling.
However, girls and women’ suicide shouldn’t be broadly reported as a result of Taliban’s clamp down on the press.
Women’s voices are additionally silenced over the radio. In their newest decree the Taliban have ordered that if a girl’s voice is heard over the radio – whether or not as a presenter and even in commercials – the proprietor of that radio station can be punished.
In essence, the Taliban at this time mirrors the oppressive regime of twenty years in the past, perpetuating the struggling of Afghan girls.
© Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal supply: Inter Press Service
