By Zahra Mousawi
Imagine that terrorists and fundamentalists have seized power in your country. You are a woman related to one of the previous regime’s officials, who is now being hunted down by the new regime. You cannot hide or leave the country. One day, on the way home, armed men abduct you and take you to a police station. There, they charge you with a series of political, moral and security offences. They lock you in a cell for hours without access to any means of communication or support. They are rude and threatening, telling you that you are a misguided, sinful, worthless, and immoral woman, and therefore they must discipline you. You are raped by one of the commanders and the scene is recorded on video. A high-ranking military man comes to your house with armed men and forces you into his marriage with threats. He locks you up, for months, and forces you to provide sexual services.
This is what happened to Elaha Delawarzai, a 24-year-old woman from Kabul. Two weeks ago, videos were released of her telling the story of her shocking experience, crying and pleading for help. Elaha’s rapist, Saeed Khosti, was spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior at the time.
Rape and construction of the female body
A year has now passed since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. During this period, the situation for women has been that of the most severe crisis possible. So far, women — and especially their bodies — have been the main target of discrimination and attacks by the Taliban, both overt and covert. Women have pushed back with civil protests and street demonstrations. On the international stage, the Afghan women’s struggle has only led to mere condemnation and the issuance of statements. At the domestic level, the protests have intensified repression, threats, violence, detention, murder, forced disappearance, forced video confessions, torture and rape. The Taliban, like other authoritarian and patriarchal groups, want to dominate the female body. By doing so, they have made a pitch for consolidating their authority in other areas. They have correctly understood that native masculinity is a common objective in the socio-historical-cultural context of Afghanistan. By limiting the realm of women’s mobility, the Taliban have achieved one of the most fundamental components of extreme patriarchy: removing women from public arenas by exposing their bodies to assault and/or submission.
Narration and duality of power and violence
The widespread disclosure that resulted from the #MeToo movement shows two important facts. First: the experience of sexual violence — including rape, assault and threats — is never limited to a specific political geography, cultural background, group, or class. Second: sexual violence is an instrument and strategy of social power for suppressing and controlling women’s bodies. In the discourse of power, rape and sexual assault are punishment for deviating from gender roles. #MeToo proves that the roots of sexual violence are not in the behaviour of “sick” individuals but in the structures of power. It is the alphabet of patriarchal discourse, of power over the bodies of women — bodies that are considered weak, vulnerable, and other, bodies that are considered the main object and arena for the production and reproduction of sexist relations. Therefore, women’s bodies are accused of being a potential threat to morality and values, and should be violently removed from public spaces. It is important for women to raise their voices. Narrative is a universal mechanism for reclaiming power.
In a context where women’s bodies are considered men’s honour and property, and their value is determined by concepts such as sexual chastity, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to talk about rape. Yet because of cultural deterrents such as shame, as well as psychological factors such as fear, trauma, and humiliation — and other exorbitant economic and social costs — most of the victims of sexual violence are forced to remain silent. A few, like Elaha Delawarzai, courageously tell their story.
Elaha’s revealing video, in its method and content, marks a significant rupture in the narration of sexual violence in Afghanistan. It has unprecedented potential to redefine dominant narratives of sexual assault and rape. Not to say that this was not reported in the past. But under the tyranny of an ideological power, she exposes the main mechanism of power relations in contemporary Afghanistan – which has been considered a legitimate taboo. Elaha has done this while knowing that the perpetrators enjoy complete immunity. She is aware the Taliban are not accountable to any domestic or international authority.
Conclusion
By revealing the psychological and political motivations involved in rape, Elaha Delawarzai takes back the power of which she had been deprived, and sends an important message. Elaha and other survivors of violence and rape who tell their stories point fingers at taboos in our society. All men aligned with the Taliban’s worldview are united within the structure of patriarchy: complicity in the will to exercise power through violence on women’s bodies. By paying attention to these narratives, we can comprehend the discourse of power over not just the female body but other social groups categorized as “other” due to their non-masculine body language.
