Kabul:
Monesa Mubarez will not just give up the rights she and other Afghan women have won during 20 years of Western-backed rule.
Before the hardline Islamist Taliban movement returned to power a year ago, the 31-year-old was director of policy oversight at the Ministry of Finance.
She was one of many women, especially in the big cities, who won freedoms that a previous generation could not have dreamed of in the late 1990s under the previous Taliban rule.
Now Mubarez is out of a job after the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic law severely limited women’s ability to work, forced them to dress and act conservatively, and closed secondary schools across the country to girls.
Under the new government there are no women in the cabinet and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was closed.
“One war ended, but the struggle to find a rightful place for Afghan women has begun… we will raise our voices against any injustice to the last breath,” said Mubarez, one of the capital’s most prominent campaigners. Kabul.
Despite the risk of assault and detention by Taliban members who patrolled the streets in the weeks after the Western-backed government was overthrown, she took part in several protests that erupted, determined to protect her hard-won rights.
Those demonstrations have died down – the last in which Mubarez took part was on May 10.
But she and others meet at home in private challenges, discuss women’s rights and encourage people to join the cause. Such gatherings would have been virtually unimaginable the last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan.
At one of those gatherings at her home in July, Mubarez and a group of women sat in a circle on the floor, talking about their experiences and chanting words including “food,” “work,” and “freedom” as if they were on an outdoor patio. . rally.
“We fight for our own freedom, we fight for our rights and status, we don’t work for any country, organization or spy agency. This is our country, this is our homeland, and we have every right to live here,” he said. them to Reuters. .
The country representative for UN Women in Afghanistan, Alison Davidian, said stories like Mubarez’s are being repeated across the country.
“For many women around the world, walking outside the front door of your house is a normal part of life,” she said. “For many Afghan women it is extraordinary. It is an act of defiance.”
While the rules governing women’s behavior in public are not always clear, in relatively liberal urban centers such as Kabul, they often travel without a male chaperone. That is less common in more conservative regions, especially in the south and east.
All women are required to have a male chaperone when traveling more than 48 miles (78 km).
Bottleneck
The Taliban’s treatment of girls and women is one of the main reasons why the international community refuses to recognize Afghanistan’s new rulers, cuts billions of dollars in aid and exacerbates an economic crisis.
Senior officials from several ministries said policies on women were set by top leaders and declined to comment further. The Taliban leadership has said all rights of Afghans will be protected within their interpretation of Sharia.
Rights groups and foreign governments have also blamed the group for abuses and thousands of civilian deaths while fighting an uprising against US-led foreign and Afghan forces between 2001 and 2021.
The Taliban said they oppose foreign occupation and, since returning to power, have vowed not to pursue vendettas against former enemies. In cases where retaliation was reported, officials said last year they would investigate.
Afghanistan is still the only country in the world where girls are not allowed to attend secondary school.
In March, the group announced that women’s high schools would reopen, but the morning after many girls had come to school excitedly, it reversed its decision.
Some have managed to enroll in private lessons or online classes to further their education.
“We are hopeful that schools will reopen,” says Kerishma Rasheedi (16), who started private lessons as a temporary measure. She wants to leave the country with her parents so that she can go back to school if they remain incarcerated in Afghanistan.
“I will never stop studying,” Rasheedi said. She moved with her family from northeastern Kunduz province to Kabul after their home there was hit by missiles during fighting in 2020.
The international community continues to advocate for women’s rights and leadership roles for women in public and political life. Some women said they had to accept the new standards to make ends meet.
Gulestan Safari, a former female police officer, was forced to change her career after the Taliban prevented her from entering the police station.
Safari, 45, now performs household chores for other families in Kabul.
“I loved my job… we could afford to buy anything we wanted; we could buy meat and fruit.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)