Women rights

Credit: The Left

In the seven months since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the economy has plummeted. Millions are starving and women's rights have been severely curtailed. Since August 2021, the Taliban has banned Afghan women from receiving high-paying jobs, obstructed the free movement of women, closed and abolished the Ministry of Women's Affairs, and silenced women, journalists. Access to education has been particularly affected. Less than a third of Afghanistan's 34 provinces have allowed girls' schools to reopen. Secondary classes due to starting this weekend, facing tough conditions

A report from 'Women for Women International’ a part of it says, “No One Hears Our Voices.” It's basically what has changed in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power.

Some of the key questions in the report: 

How has your weekly income changed? More than half say income has dropped to zero. And the other half say it has been reduced.

How would you describe food security in your home? Two-thirds say, often not enough to eat. One-third say, sometimes, not enough to eat.

Have you received assistance in the community from the government or organizations or individuals since August? 95% say, no.

Status of women:

Following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 and the consequent human and economic crisis affecting the country, there has been a lot of talk about Afghan women without talking to Afghan women themselves. That is why the adaptation and policy recommendations of the 'Women for Women International program’ are based directly on the inputs of Afghan women. Eighty women were contacted across Afghanistan. Women's rights organizations and women activists were also considered. 100% of them said that their financial situation has deteriorated and they do not have enough to eat. 97% of women said they had restrictions on their freedom. 91% of women said they needed more psychological help. It's been several months since they left home. Women's rights groups say they want a solution to the economic crisis and want their rights, but the study conveys an important message that the international community has a role to play in using its power. (Ahmadi, S.)

Now, over the past 20 years, women in Afghanistan have gained access to education and training so that they can work at a higher level and contribute. Being able to work at a higher level gives women the ability to feel like human beings. They are living to their full potential and doing their part for their country. This attitude changed and backslided with the change of government. We as women are no longer able to work independently or reach our potential as human beings. However, our request and desire from the present government is to make positive progress on women and their ability to work and their training and education. (Behboobzada, E.)

It was a wonderful experience for me to return to Afghanistan after leaving the country for the first time. It was more about how I came on the ground with information, talking to different groups, women, children, and men. It was a dramatic change in the country. The most important issue is the humanitarian crisis. The way a large number of women stand in front of a bakery in Kabul for just one loaf of bread is heartbreaking. Finding a large number of girls and women who are still waiting for their schools, jobs and do not know what the future holds for them, was a real shock. But like the last six months, I've been working on these topics and working with women across the country, moving to rural areas, far away from Kabul, where, as in the last 20 years, there is no assistance or services for the people. There are people in this village who I thought lived 100 years ago.  (Ghafari, Z.)

Schools reopening:

The secondary schools we are talking about are not opening in warmer areas. They are opening only in the northern areas which were open even on the day when the Taliban government came. In the whole southern region, none of them started school. At present, 18 schools in Kandahar have not been asked to open for girls tomorrow. Their doors will be closed to girls. Today, when they claim that the war is over, why are the girls of the rural areas still not able to go to school? Why don't city girls go to school? Giving an ultimatum to the international community and then saying that we are doing well is fooling the international community. Schools in the northern areas were also open in December and closed only for the winter holidays. The same thing is still happening in the north, not in the south. The whole international community is thinking that it is open to the South or any other warm region, but it is not. The Taliban are still not on the same page when it comes to defending girls' education and women's rights under Sharia law. The fact is that women workers are still missing. No matter how optimistic the picture, one can sell of Afghanistan, no matter how many hundreds of girls I can enroll in school, it just breaks my heart that girls from all over the region will not be able to go to school just because a few men came to power. Based on research, we have conducted strongly recommended that the international community should hold the Taliban’s government accountable for the promises it made by the end of March to start schools and invest in teachers and education.

Unemployment:

When you create an industry that is all about the humanitarian aid industry and there is no substitute for it, there is no denying the fact that when the whole international community withdraws from Afghanistan, there are no jobs left for them. There is no money because there are no organizations left to serve in Afghanistan. This is something we need to understand. Most jobs in Afghanistan were based in the humanitarian industry. The second question is why the Taliban are claiming that girls' schools will be opened and they are still not opening in the areas, at the same time schools were opened for boys. There are also career choices for boys that encourage them to go to school, but what about the girls and women who have to work? (Durrani, P.)

If we are talking about opening up for girls, we need to talk about how many more schools we have across the country and how many of them are self-functioning as we need it for women. They can't do this, especially for the girls in the country. Like in the same village I visited a few days ago, there was only one primary school that still studying in the open field. So when we talk about girls' education in Afghanistan, we just have to admit that we don't have the right limit of services for all the needed women and girls who are getting education across the country. Most importantly, we still have so many places that we don't even have those primary schools. (Ghafari, Z.)

"I am listening to women share their experiences and those of their sisters and speaking to the de facto authorities about the urgent critical need to make prowess progress towards the realization of women and girls' fundamental human rights and to bring to an end the many serious human rights violations to which women and girls are being subjected. Girls should be able to go to school and university and be empowered to contribute robustly to the future of the country. Women should be visibly represented in the police force, in courts of law, in government, and in the private sector, indeed in every sphere of civic."-- Michelle Bachelet, the high commissioner for human rights at the UN.

It's not about ideology, it's not about tradition. Everything we have is like two major crises in Afghanistan that have caused us educational problems: First, it was a security that the Taliban themselves were the main reason. The second is how we use millions of dollars in Afghanistan and we haven't really been able to monitor it properly and we haven't been able to use it properly. My point is that millions of dollars are being poured into Afghanistan. (Ghafari, Z.) I totally agree that there is education, and the employment rate is declining, but I am not referring to the economic situation at the moment. I am talking about the discrimination that schools are open for boys all over Afghanistan but not for girls. Because the Taliban are not on the same page and they do not have the same government that they would like the world to accept. So if they are not uniform, I would not like to call them government. They are regime and that is what they do. At the same time, their policies towards women are not the same, except how they are better off keeping all women at home from the working forces. How they are to impose all this economic poverty on women and yet they are seeking legal status from the world. (Durrani, P.)

What International community needs to do?

The Taliban have been denying access to secondary school to millions of girls for more than seven months. So the good news is that they have said they will reopen these schools this week, but this is not the time to be happy and move on. It is imperative that the international community does three things: First, confirm that these schools are indeed open. Second, look at a wide range of issues related to access to education, including whether teachers are being paid, whether the Taliban are harassing teachers and students, and whether the curriculum is being changed in harmful ways. Third, donors must recognize that this cannot be a separate education from other forms of women's rights violations. For example, the Taliban are banning women from most forms of employment and girls will be less motivated to pursue education if they are not able to pursue the career they are preparing for. (Barr, H.)

Recommendations:

An article titled "Four ways to support girls’ access to education in Afghanistan" by Human rights watch underlined four tips:

i) Fund education without funding discrimination. ii) Support communities as they fight for girls’ right to education. iii) Stand by Afghans under threat for defending the right to education. iv) Monitor all aspects of access to education. 

 

Pashtana Durrani, An Educator And The Director For Learn Afghanistan.

Storai Ahmadi, a Program Coordinator at Women for Women International.

Zarifa Ghafari, a Human Rights Activist and Economist. She’s Also the Former Mayor of the City of Maidan Shahr.

Heather Barr, Associate Director, the Human Rights Watch.

Sosan Ehsan Behboobzada, the Former Mayor of Herat Afghanistan.

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