The crime of being a woman in Afghanistan: ‘A Taliban can knock on your door at night, rape you, take you away and marry you’

“I am very tired and have no energy for anything.” Nahid’s soft, self-conscious voice comes from Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. Nahid is 25, and her name is not Nahid. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Afghan women to trust someone they don’t know to describe their daily life under the Taliban regime. In August 2021, this young woman was working as a hairdresser, but she had to quit after a few weeks to avoid being beaten or arrested by the fundamentalists. “The days go by and nothing changes. I have less and less contact with my friends and now, with these new rules, we are going to be even more isolated. I am even afraid to meet them at a house to talk. I have lost hope of regaining a normal life,” she tells EL PAÍS by phone.

Nahid is referring to the latest edict issued by the fundamentalists, at the end of August, which further oppresses women by banning them from speaking in public, from their faces being seen outside the home, from looking into the eyes of a man who is not a family member, or from leaving the house without a male chaperone.

NGOs, activists, and Afghan women, inside and outside the country, describe these measures as “the final nail in the coffin of women.” Since their return to power on 15 August, 2021, the Taliban have issued more than 100 edicts that have gradually erased the presence of women from the public space. They have closed the doors to education for women aged over 12, an unprecedented restriction in the world, and excluded them from most jobs and places of leisure. They have also severely restricted their movements and their right to receive healthcare and legal assistance.

“Being a woman in Afghanistan today means that you cannot take a cab without a male escort, or that you cannot speak normally to the shopkeeper who sells you food. And if you are a widow, for example, and you have no children or brothers, what do you do? Women are living like criminals, they are deprived of the minimum dignity that human beings deserve,” Fawzia Koofi, a former Afghan parliamentarian who participated in peace talks with the Taliban before 2021, says by phone from the United States.

Recognizing gender apartheid as a crime against humanity would pave the way for accountability both from Afghanistan as a state, and from specific individuals in the country”

Dorothy Estrada Tanck, UN

Mariam Safi, director of the Development Research and Policy Studies Organisation (DROPS), which conducts surveys and research on human rights in Afghanistan through a network of local collaborators, recalls that this is the first time that these rules — applied in practice by the Taliban since their first period in government (1996-2001) — have been written down in law. “It seems that these new rules have surprised the international community. Not us. We knew that the Taliban would not back down and that we had to be very firm with them. But the United Nations chose to bring them to the negotiating table to speak directly with them about the situation of women. It is clear that it did not work,” she explains to this newspaper in a telephone conversation from Toronto.

Gender apartheid

When they returned to Kabul in 2021, following the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, the Taliban guaranteed that fundamental freedoms would be respected and said they needed time to create safe environments for women to study and work. The international community wanted to believe them. “But they have been in power for three years, it doesn’t seem likely they are going to leave, and they have not kept their word. Countries that do not officially recognize the Taliban as a government, but do have dealings with them, could demand a timetable. For example: ‘You said you would open secondary schools, so give us a date. You promised to cancel that measure in the medium term, so tell us when that will happen,’” suggests Dorothy Estrada Tanck, who is part of the UN Working Group on discrimination against women and girls.

The Working Group and Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, co-authored the report presented to the Human Rights Council in 2023, in which they concluded that the Taliban regime has established gender apartheid and the persecution of women. In June, Bennett again recommended that this be recognized as a crime against humanity. Last week, the Taliban banned the UN representative from entering Afghanistan. “Recognizing gender apartheid as a crime against humanity would pave the way for accountability both from Afghanistan as a state, and from specific individuals in the country,” stresses Estrada Tanck.

We need to think about who is silencing these women’s voices. We are all doing it, because we are not paying attention to them, even though there is no comparable situation in the world”

María López de la Usada, vice president of Netwomening

Following the publication of the new Taliban edict, a group of Spanish women is collecting signatures to urge the government to go to the International Criminal Court to declare the treatment of Afghan women a crime against humanity. In addition, on September 5, Spanish Socialist MEPs called on the European Union to denounce the latest decisions of the Taliban before international justice, and to clarify the bloc’s role in providing international protection for Afghan women who flee and reach Europe.

“We need to think about who is silencing these women’s voices. We are all doing it, because we are not paying attention to them, even though there is no comparable situation in the world,” says María López de la Usada, vice president of Netwomening, one of the organizations that supports the social integration of Afghan women in Spain.

‘Nobody does anything, nobody says anything’

Hussnia Bakhtiyari, an Afghan prosecutor who has been living in Spain for almost two years, panicked when she called her family in Kabul and, on the other side of the screen, her 18-year-old sister appeared with a black eye. “She didn’t want to tell me what had happened to her, but she ended up telling me that a Taliban hit her in the street because he thought her dress was too short. It reached her ankles, but apparently it wasn’t enough.” Bakhtiyari doesn’t sleep thinking about her two sisters, who remain in Afghanistan.

“What rights do Afghan women have under this new law? Virtually none. Wasn’t it enough that we weren’t allowed to go to university, to our offices, to the hairdresser? But nobody does anything, nobody says anything,” says the 35-year-old, who was part of a group of prosecutors, judges, and lawyers evacuated and welcomed by Spain in January 2023.

DROPS and other NGOs have warned that one of the side effects of women not being able to work or study is forced and child marriages, of girls aged 12 and 13. In addition, fear, lack of future prospects, and poverty dangerously undermine their mental health. Many women live locked up in themselves, barely saying a word. Others suffer from deep depression in total solitude and some resort, in desperation, to taking their own lives. In 2023, DROPS interviewed 2,000 women in 17 Afghan provinces about the psychological damage caused by fundamentalist rules: 68% of those surveyed said they knew a woman in their environment with mental health issues. But mental health remains a taboo subject in a country where going to a psychologist was never well-regarded, and is now impossible for a young woman. “Families hush up problems, cover up suicides,” says Bakhtiyari.

What rights do Afghan women have under this new law? Virtually none. Wasn’t it enough that we weren’t allowed to go to university, to our offices, to the hairdresser?”

Hussnia Bakhtiyari, Afghan prosecutor

Because homes are not a safe place for Afghan women either, NGOs working in the country have detected an increase in violence against women within families, and a general lack of understanding regarding the restriction of their rights. “We have spoken to women in several provinces in recent days, and we feel that they are increasingly afraid. This edict will undoubtedly deepen their psychological problems. They will think twice before leaving home or going to work in the only two sectors where their presence was still tolerated: health and child education. Will their male escort have to speak for them at school, or in the hospital?” asks Safi.

Hiding in Islamabad

Razea is one of many Afghan women in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, waiting for a country to grant them international protection. These women live in hiding, with hardly any resources, and in fear of being deported. “What did I flee from? In Kandahar, my city, a Taliban can knock on your door at night, rape you, take you by force and marry you. The anguish is hard to imagine. My friends who are still there call me every day, crying” explains the 31-year-old over the phone. She escaped from her country clandestinely by road with her brother more than a year ago and also does not want her real name to be published.

According to the UN, there are around 7.7 million Afghan refugees in Iran and Pakistan, of whom at least 1.6 million arrived after August 2021. The ordeal for women does not end when they leave the country. Organizations supporting Afghan women, such as Netwomening and Afghan Women on the Run, explain that there are women who requested an appointment at the Spanish embassy in Islamabad in 2021 to request asylum, received a number indicating their place in the queue, and are still waiting to be called for a first interview. Between August 2021 and August 2022, that is, in the first year after the return of the Taliban, Spain evacuated 3,900 people from Afghanistan, according to official figures. Since then, they have been arriving in dribs and drabs.

These NGOs help women prepare their request for protection from diplomatic authorities and there are cases that particularly shock them, such as that of a journalist who was refused transfer to Spain because it was decided that she was not in danger. “We have presented an appeal to the embassy itself and we have taken the case to the High Court. We believe that they should re-examine it. The woman is desperate and has threatened to go to the embassy door and commit suicide,” explains López de la Usada.

At the moment, Afghanistan is neither an emergency nor a priority. It doesn’t matter what laws the Taliban make”

Queralt Puigoriol, Afghan Women on the Run

“The fact that they are women and Afghans at this time should be enough to grant them protection,” says Queralt Puigoriol, a volunteer with Afghan Women on the Run, an organization that has managed to bring 700 Afghan families to Spain, in an interview with this newspaper. “But at the moment Afghanistan is neither an emergency nor a priority. It doesn’t matter what laws the Taliban make,” she adds.

When was the last time there was a major demonstration in Spain to denounce the oppression and harassment suffered by Afghan women? Even long-time activists can’t remember. “We must continue supporting women and their organizations inside and outside Afghanistan, gather strong support for the campaigns and put more pressure on governments, and these on the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. It was achieved in South Africa. It took more than 20 years, though. Hopefully here we won’t have to wait so long,” says Estrada Tanck.

Meanwhile in Kabul, Soraya, a 53-year-old mother who has worked as a teacher for almost 30 years, watches from her home as society crumbles. “I believe that teaching has transformed the lives of many of my students. We cannot become a country where half of the population does not receive education. I hope that the international community will do something to save our society from ignorance,” she tells this newspaper.

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