By Saloma
It was lunchtime and the weather was very hot. Food is not available inside the university. The Taliban has closed the only cafeteria on the campus. Therefore, my friend and I want to go outside to buy something to eat. A group of Taliban with rifles hanging from shoulders are congregating at the southern university entrance. The atmosphere is both militarized and terrifying. We get permission from the woman guard at the entrance to go outside.
The scorching summer heat makes it feel like you are in a furnace. We bought food from the closest eatery and returned. On our way back, a Taliban gunman’s commanding voice froze us. He said, “You, girl! Stay there! Why are you unveiled? Don’t you have shame?”
My friend who was more scared than me, hastily said, “Sorry Mawlawi Sahib, I did not notice, maybe the button has fallen off.”
The Taliban gunmen scrutinised us angrily, turned to the female guard who was in charge of checking girls’ clothes and said, ““Take her student card. I’d talk to the head of the university, don’t let her come any longer, and if I see her again, you’ll be dismissed.’
They took my friend’s card, filling me with fear and anger. I blame myself for taking her with me. Now we are no longer hungry, our only concern is to get my friend’s card back and prevent her expulsion from university.
My friend was seriously worried. We went back to the guard to ask for my friend’s card. No matter how much my friend begged, she did not return the card. A kind-looking woman was there and hinted to us that if we came back later, maybe she could help us get the card.
We sat in a corner of the campus. We were anxious. We were trying to find a solution. At last, I went to get the card.
I went to the woman in charge of controlling the clothes of the girls. I respectfully and politely asked her to return my friend’s card. In return, my friend promises to be more careful in dressing so as to not repeat what happened that day. Saying this was as if I had exploded a bomb. With an angry and sad tone, the woman said that because of the female students’ clothing, they are humiliated and under pressure by the Taliban every day. She had handed the card to the Taliban fighter who complained about us. The Taliban fighter said that I should get the card from the university chancellor.
My friend and I decided to ask for help at the university’s security office. We sought help from a friend who can speak Pashto.
We thought it’s better to talk with him in Pashto. We arranged our hijabs and clothes and went to see him. My friend called him “Qari Saheb” and explained the story to him in Pashto. He said, “A woman in a veil is like a covered chocolate which flies and ants cannot bite into.” Then he explained that he has a wife and children, and all of his children are “Hafiz Quran, [meaning they can recite the Quran by heart]. Still thinking about the comparison of women and chocolate, I said, “Mashallah! Mashallah!”
He went on, “My dear sisters, my people [colleagues] always tell me that unveiled women look like dogs.” He pointed to the roses near the university’s head office and said, “But women who wear hijab are like these roses.”I was fed up and said, “Yes!” Black rose flower! Even though I repeated myself twice, I wonder if he didn’t understand or pretended not to hear.
That day, our very existence was compared to chocolate. We were told that a woman without a veil is like a dog. After such extreme humiliation and disrespect, my friend’s student card was returned. But this narrative is not a one-day story of our humiliation. Since the Taliban came, it’s been our everyday narrative.
The presence of Taliban fighters on the university campus has caused panic and fear among students, who are regularly mistreated. That’s why girls don’t dare to talk to them. Every day, female students wonder if they can continue their studies under such conditions.
People’s desire to learn as well as international pressures made the Ministry of Education open universities to girls again, but with onerous regulations. Boys and girls must study in separate classes. Women are not allowed to teach boys. Cafeterias are closed. Wearing a long black robe has become mandatory for women. Every day, the Taliban take students’ cards at university entrances under the pretext of breaking their rules. In most cases, they are excuses to abuse students.
For girls, the university has become an environment full of terror and humiliation. They are paying a heavy price in exchange for learning.
Saloma is a pen name for a university student.
