By Mohammad
Having grown up in a family with a single mother who took care of everything, I now think what my mother would have done in a situation like this. The strong and driven women who once were the breadwinners for their families are now subject to staying home and deprived of their right to work. One with a sound mind would naturally ask why? Why deprive women of working? They were providing for their families while contributing to the country’s development.
The woman who once provided for a family of five and lived an independent life is now heavily dependent on aid from charities and barely making ends meet. The proud mother was forced to marry her diligent girl off to someone much older, to provide for the rest of the family. Just a ten-minute walk around the city illustrates the increased number of women and child beggars. What is it, if not an immense catastrophe?
Although some women still show up for work, reports indicate that they are unsafe, mistreated, underpaid, threatened, and worried about their future. Not only did the Taliban ground female government employees, but restrictive rules forced many women out of their jobs in the private sector and in NGOs.
In the eyes of the Taliban, women and girls are reduced to materials or non-human beings. “I taught mathematics to girls from grades 10 to 12,” says Hafiza*, a school teacher in Kabul. “I loved my job. It made me feel like I was useful. The new restrictions against girls’ education forced me out of my job. They pay me part of my salary, but it’s not always about the money. I want to see the joy in my students’ faces as they learn new things in the class.” After asking the school principal when she and her female colleagues could return to work, Hafiza remembers being told, “You are being paid. Why bother coming and going?”
The Taliban’s dress code for women gives their armed men a good excuse to stop women at any point and question them. Seeing the agents of the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in their stained white robes on every corner of the city would naturally disturb women’s peace of mind and freedom of movement.
As an act of defiance — or merely out of love for beauty — Zahra* once went to her English class with a colourful flowery dress, but she was stopped at a square in Kabul by agents who issued a warning and preached to her about what she was already well aware.
Afghan women have proven to be stronger and more driven than the Taliban. Despite all the restrictions, threats, and suppression by the Taliban, women and girls continue to wear colourful dresses, go to private educational centres in absence of government schools, and — most important of all — fight for what is theirs. The protests and civil gatherings in recent months are proof of the ways in which Afghan women and girls have changed for the better and become aware of their rights.
Thinking of my mother, now I know what she would have done to provide for her children: she would stand against all the injustices done to her and fight for her children’s rights. Rest in power, Maman.
* Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees.
Mohammad is a pen name for a writer and civil activist in Afghanistan.
