US Withdrawal: As the Taliban Advance, the Threat for Women in Afghanistan Continues

Fears of a militant resurgence by the Taliban in Afghanistan have become a probable reality. With violence spreading like wildfires across several major cities, particularly the south of Afghanistan, the Taliban have made their biggest gains since the U.S invasion in 2001. The recent developments have been made following the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw U.S troops after 20 years back in April 2021. As of August 16, the Taliban has reached Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. Reports state that Afghan President Ghani has fled the country and the Taliban are on the brink of taking power.

“Afghan women don’t want the dark era of the Taliban to be repeated,” says college professor Moqadasa Rasouli, and rightly so. 

“Dark era” of Taliban rule (1996-2001)

Gender equality and women’s rights during this era were non-existent. Women and girls were frequently discriminated against. Birthing a girl was considered a ‘crime’, a liability. The Taliban enforced their version of Islamic Sharia law, and women and girls were banned from: going to school, working, leaving the house without a ‘mahram’ (male chaperone), showing their skin in public, accessing healthcare delivered by men, and from being involved in politics (right to vote) or speaking publicly. Being invisible in public life and imprisoned in their homes was a reality that many women faced. A woman could be flogged for showing an inch or two of skin under her full-body burqa or beaten for attempting to study and stoned to death if she was found guilty of adultery. Independence was a distant memory dated back to life prior to the 1979 invasion, and a notion unknown to the new generation of women and girls.

Women walk through Kabul in 1972. (Amnesty International UK)

In a report released by Amnesty International: an account of a fifteen-year-old girl in Kabul, 1995 said: “They shot my father right in front of me. It was nine o’clock at night. They came to our house and told him they had orders to kill him because he allowed me to go to school. The Mujahideen, a group before the Taliban that emerged in 1994 after years of conflict, had already stopped me from going to school, but that was not enough. I cannot describe what they did to me after killing my father…”

2021: U.S withdrawal of troops - Taliban seizes Afghanistan

After two decades of progress for women, established rights and independence for women and girls are at serious risk. Reports have stated that women and girls in various districts under Taliban control are prohibited from leaving their homes without a male chaperone. This mirrors what was taking place in 1996-2001 under Taliban rule. “These restrictions have a serious impact on the rights of women, including the right to health - and, amid a war, the need to access urgent medical care for themselves and their families is a matter of life and death,” says UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.

Taliban fighters are currently going door to door and forcibly ‘marrying’ girls as young as 12 years old into sex slavery - what they call ‘qhanimats’ or ‘spoils of war’ - to be divided up among the war victors. Taliban commanders have ordered Imams in the areas they have seized to bring them a list of unmarried women aged from 12 to 45 to be married off and bound to soldiers. Free will and independence cease to exist. This is the latest of the violent and appalling treatment the Taliban have inflicted upon Afghani women and girls.

In early May, Kabul mourned the loss of 85 young female students in a targeted school bombing across the Dasht-e Barchi Neighborhood. 85 voices were silenced, 85 dreams non-existent and 85 innocent lives taken.

Female journalists, students, activists, judges, and women who work in the government’s military and security forces are not safe. Their lives should not be in danger for wanting more. The world needs to step up.

                                Tweet (Yalda Hakim on Twitter)

What now?

Michelle Bachelet urges all states to use their influence – bilateral and multilateral – to bring the hostilities to an end. International condemnation should not be selective. When the Coup d'etat occurred in Myanmar earlier this year, global governments made their stance on the situation clear. The people of Afghanistan need the same attitude and outright support from world leaders.

Canada already has plans to help resettle 20,000 vulnerable Afghans including women leaders, human rights workers, and reporters to protect them from Taliban reprisals. It has been reported that Britain’s Home Office does not want to give asylum to Afghans fleeing violence “because of the message it will send to other refugees.” Given Britain’s key role in creating this crisis in Afghanistan, this is nothing but sheer cruelty from a supposed emblem and enforcer of peace and democracy.

It was the U.S. government back in 2001 who justified its invasion of Afghanistan partly based on women’s rights. The United States should not halt its support to the region even though the nation has withdrawn its forces. The Biden administration’s prioritization of gender equality and the implementation of the women, peace and security law should also extend to women and girls in Afghanistan. The situation for females is not only a real test of commitment for the U.S. but also for international bodies such as the United Nations, whose goal is to achieve gender equality by 2030.