Days after the Taliban vowed to protect women’s rights, it issued its first fatwa banning co-education in the government and private universities of Herat province.
Describing co-education as the root of all evils in the society, Taliban representative and Head of Higher Education, Afghanistan, Mullah Farid stated that there is no alternative and co-education must end. He stated that virtuous female lecturers would be allowed to teach only female students but not the male ones.
Taliban Vs North Alliance
Former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who declared himself as the acting President of Afghanistan (after President Ashraf Ghani fled from the country), has warned the Taliban to avoid entering the Panjshir province.
“I am the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud; surrender is not part of my vocabulary. This is the start. The Resistance has just begun,” said National Resistance Front of Afghanistan’s leader, Ahmad Massoud.
The situation is turning tense as Taliban fighters have been moving to holdout Panjashir also known as Valley of Five Lions. Hundreds of civilians have joined the alliance and over 300 terrorists have reportedly been killed in Andarab.
“When we were there, we received numerous warnings. If you go to work, you are under threat, your family is under threat. After one warning, they would stop giving any warning. They rape dead bodies too. They don’t care whether the person is dead or alive… Can you imagine this? If any woman worked for the government, they would suffer a terrible fate,” said a former Afghan police officer, Muskan, who had to leave the country fearing the Taliban.
Is Taliban’s Peace Assurance Just A Lie?
“They are forcing people to give them food and cook them food. A woman was put on fire because she was accused of bad cooking for Taliban fighters,” said Najla Ayoubi, a former Afghan judge and activist.
“There are so many young women in the past few weeks being shipped into neighbouring countries in coffins to be used as sex slaves. They also force families to marry their young daughters to Taliban fighters. I don‘t see where is the promise that they think women should be going to work when we see all of these atrocities,” Najla added.
Seeks LIst of Girls Above 15, Women Under 45 For Forced Marriage
“All imams and mullahs in captured areas should provide the Taliban with a list of girls above 15 and widows under 45 to be married to Taliban fighters,” stated a letter issued under the name of Taliban’s Cultural Commission.
Taliban Rape Gangs Going Door-To-Door For Girls as Young As 12
Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan politician and journalist got the courage to report some of the horror ongoing in Afghanistan.
“The gouging of a woman’s eyes in front of her terrified family; girls as young as 12 wrenched from the arms of their weeping mothers to become sex slaves for Taliban ‘warriors’; men punished or even killed for ‘offences’ as simple as listening to the ‘wrong’ music, or for daring to be ‘educated’,” she wrote for The Daily Mail.
Referring to itself as an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada led Taliban is a Deobandi Islamist religious-political movement and military organization in Afghanistan. They are the extremist Islamist militants who aim at restoring the Sharia law in Afghanistan.
After being in power between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban took over Afghanistan again on August 15, 2021, after the US retreated its military ending 20 years of war.
Recently, Taliban’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid addressed the first-ever news conference and stated that the rights of women in Afghanistan will be respected within the framework of Islamic law.
Chilling History of Atrocities Against Women
Taliban has long been known for subjecting women and girls to gender-based discrimination and brutal violence.
- In October 1996, a woman’s thumb was cut off for wearing nail varnish.
- In 1999, a mother of 7, Zarmina was executed in front of 30,000 spectators in Kabul’s Ghazi Sport stadium for murdering her abusive husband.
- Woman’s leg was broken while running an informal school.
- Ears and nose of an Afghan girl, Bibi Aisha were cut off after she fled from an abusive marriage.
- In 2013, Indian author Sushmita Banerjee was executed by Talibani militants.
- An Afghan woman was executed for wearing tight clothes and not being accompanied by a male relative in August 2021
Restrictions Under Sharia Law (for Women)
- Women should not appear in the streets without a blood relative or without wearing a burqa.
- Women should not wear high-heeled shoes as no man should hear a woman’s footsteps lest it excite him.
- Women must not speak loudly in public as no stranger should hear a woman’s voice.
- All ground and first-floor residential windows should be painted over or screened to prevent women from being visible from the street.
- Photographing, filming, and displaying pictures of females in newspapers, books, shops, or the home was banned.
- The modification of any place names that included the word “women”. For example, “women’s garden” was renamed “spring garden”.
- Women were forbidden to appear on the balconies of their apartments or houses.
- Ban on women’s presence on radio, television, or at public gatherings of any kind.
