Pictures of women outside beauty salons are being blackened or removed. Sales of burqa have spiked. These are the new pictures emerging out of the chaos and fear in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover of the country. On the one hand, the Taliban are trying to portray that they are more moderate than what they seem to have been in the past when they had imposed a strict form of Islamic rule in the 1990s; on the other hand, the real situation on the ground seems to be quite different.
Very few women have been seen on the streets of Kabul in the past few days since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan; women on roads are teased if they are not covered, they are asked to wear burqas and then only allowed to step outside their homes. Women across Afghanistan are seeing the return of the old repressive rule of the Taliban where women are not allowed to step outside without any male relative to escort them. They are not allowed for education, jobs, etc.
“Public transport in Kabul is not stopping for women when they are alone. Women can only use public transports and taxis if they have a male companion. This is because if the Taliban capture a taxi driver with women alone, both will be beaten to death. Women are hiding and are not ready to come out even as the Taliban has announced that women will be allowed to work and study. We all are sceptical because the ground situation is different,” says a woman residing in Afghanistan who in fear doesn’t wish to be named.
She continues, “There are some women who were beaten on the streets for travelling alone without their male companion. Currently in Afghanistan, women are struggling for basic rights, including the right of being free.”
Women who went to the airport to escape Afghanistan have told The Daily Guardian that they were beaten with guns. “Currently, women are in a bad mental state. You know that 20 years of effort and learning have all been sacrificed. Since the beginning of the talks between the Taliban and the Ashraf Ghani government, we have repeatedly stressed that the achievements of our past years should not be sacrificed. But now it has happened.”
Not only women, even journalists fear for their lives in Afghanistan. On Tuesday, a very rare picture was seen of a Taliban official sitting down with a female Afghan TV reporter for a live, in-person interview as part of the terror group’s efforts to project a more moderate image to the world as it asserts control over Afghanistan. This was the first broadcast conducted by a woman reporter since the Taliban’s takeover. The Taliban are asking women journalists in government-owned media platforms not to come to work. A senior anchor from one of the news channels in Afghanistan said that the Taliban are asking women journalists to get back to their homes.”Because you are a woman, you go home and don’t come to work.”
“Most local social media channels are being censored or controlled by the Taliban. Some Afghan journalists have been asked to stop working and stay at home. Besides, they are receiving life threatening calls,” another journalist said.
“The Taliban have targeted and killed journalists in the last 20 years, and now, even though our colleagues in every media outlet in Kabul are working, they are worried. They are under threat. Yesterday, the Taliban ransacked the room of some of our local journalists. Our office is trying to transport them to India,” said one of the prominent journalists who has reached Delhi.
A reporter showed injuries after allegedly being attacked by Taliban fighters in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
Over the past 20 years, a vibrant and growing media industry has taken root in Afghanistan, with many independent outlets reporting news from around the country, even in the face of violence and instability. Now journalists are in fear due to the dangerous and uncertain future under Taliban rule. It’s a terrible fate that is awaiting women who have progressed socially and economically in Afghanistan.