On Aug. 17, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Taliban, promised that the Taliban would respect women’s rights—within their interpretation of Islamic law. But many are skeptical that the Taliban will keep this promise. Jake Sullivan, a national security advisor for the U.S. said, “Like I’ve said all along, this is not about trust, this is about verify. And we’ll see what the Taliban end up doing in the days and weeks ahead, and when I say we, I mean the entire international community.”
The Taliban last held power in Afghanistan in the last ‘90s and early 2000s. Then, the oppression of women was rampant. Women lacked social, economic and political freedom due to numerous restrictions. Girls could not attend school and access to health care was restricted. Women could not appear in a public space without a male accompanying them, causing widows and their children to starve. Public stonings and amputations were utilized as punishment.
After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, women’s rights did improve–for the most part. From 2003 to 2017, the number of girls in school grew from less than 10 percent to 33 percent and female enrollment in secondary education from six percent in 2003 to 39 percent in 2017. The life expectancy of women increased from 56 in 2001 to 66 in 2017. While there were almost no female civil servants in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, by 2020, 21 percent of civil servants in Afghanistan were women, with 27 percent of Afghan members of parliament being women.
However, these improvements were experienced mostly by women in urban areas of Afghanistan. Women in rural areas (an estimated 76 percent of Afghanistan’s female population) were mostly left behind. Today, many lack access to basic healthcare such as routine checkups and vaccinations.
More than half of Afghan women reported physical abuse and 17 percent reported sexual violence, with rampant underreporting. Harassment and psychological abuse in the workplace are common for female employees.
Mujahid urged women in Afghanistan to stay home for their own safety because Taliban fighters have not been trained to respect them. There are reports of female employees turned away from work and female students and professors being sent home in Herat. One female student told the Guardian, “When I heard that the Taliban had reached Kabul, I felt like I was going to be a slave. They can play with my life any way they want.”
President Biden said on Aug. 19, “the idea that we’re able to deal with the rights of women around the world by military force is not rational.” The U.S. officially withdrew from Afghanistan on Aug. 30.
This attitude differs from that of a decade ago, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a group of female Afghan ministers: “We will not abandon you, we will stand with you always.”
Zarmina Kakar, a 26-year-old women’s rights activist from Kabul, told the AP, “Today again, I feel that if the Taliban come to power, we will return back to the same dark days.”
Want to see more HCFSU? Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and Pinterest!