Soon after its lightning takeover of Afghanistan, Taliban leaders unexpectedly promised a better deal for women -- a major statement from the fundamentalist group that has a chilling record of deep-rooted gender bias, public flogging and executions during its brutal rule in the past.

Despite Taliban’s assurances, women have felt insecure and vulnerable in the tumultuous period for the Afghan people, particularly the women, since the fundamentalists -- who ruled the country for five years until the U.S. invasion in 2001 -- seized power on August 15, 2021.

As the insurgents began taking control of the war-ravaged nation, Afghans flocked to the Kabul airport in droves in a desperate bid to fly out and escape the Taliban rule, while other countries began evacuating their diplomats and citizens.

The U.N. refugee agency says nearly 2,50,000 Afghans have fled their homes since the end of May fearing the Taliban’s strict and ruthless interpretation of Islam. Eighty per cent of those displaced are women and children.

During their last rule, the Taliban had a very strict regime for women that confined and caged them in many ways. They forbade girls' education and women the right to work.

The Taliban have tried hard to project a moderate image. One of their leaders was interviewed by a woman, Beheshta Arghand, on Tolo News, a local private channel, signalling a new face of the group, but the goodwill the gesture may have generated was soon replaced by dreadful anxiety.

News agency AFP reported on August 19 that an Afghan woman journalist was barred from working at her TV station and pleaded for help in a video posted online. Wearing a hijab and showing her office card, well-known news anchor Shabnam Dawran said "our lives are under threat" in the clip on social media.

Afghan woman TV news anchor stopped from working.

Shabnam Dawran, a news anchor with state channel RTA Pushto, has released a video saying she went to her office and was told to return home, despite assurances by the Taliban that women would be allowed to work under their rule pic.twitter.com/DUL5dpfist

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 20, 2021

Dawran, who has worked as a journalist for six years in Afghanistan for state-owned broadcaster RTA, said she was barred from entering her office while male colleagues were allowed in.

"I didn't give up after the change of system and went to attend my office, but unluckily I was not allowed despite showing my office card," she said in the video. "The male employees, those with office cards were allowed to enter the office but I was told that I couldn't continue my duty because the system has been changed."

Dawran pleads with viewers, saying: "Those who are listening to me, if the world hears me, then please help us as our lives are under threat."

Women hold signs reading "Stop killing Afghans" and "Peace, Freedom, Justice for Afghanistan" during a demonstration for the reception of threatened people from Afghanistan, in Hamburg, Germany, Sunday Aug. 22, 2021. (Image: AP)

On the same day, NPR reported a story of an Afghan woman doctor who had to flee the country as she was getting serious threats from the Taliban for administering a contraceptive injection to a 13-year-old. Dr Akbari recounted to NPR that the child bride’s husband was furious at this move and kept threatening her.

He was part of a Taliban contingent that was active in the area outside the city, even though the contingent did not then control the city itself. But as the Taliban started to make military gains, Akbari felt the threats became more real.

He'd point out that she belongs to the ethnic Hazara group — which generally follows the Shiite sect of Islam — and which the predominantly Sunni Taliban has a history of targeting.

"He would say, 'You're an infidel. You're against Islam. You're killing generations. We know what to do with you.” Soon, other Taliban members were also sending messages.

As a result of all this, Akbari fled the country a few days before the Taliban took control of Kabul. She didn’t even stop at her place to pack her clothes, belongings or anything. Boarding the plane, she was shocked to see it almost entirely filled with other women travelling alone, a rare sight in Afghanistan. That’s when she knew for sure the Taliban had taken the city.

Videos emerged on social media of a small group of women holding placards and demanding equal rights on the streets of Kabul — reportedly the first agitation of its kind since the militant group seized control of the country.

Translation:
“We want our rights, here are women, we want social security, no ban on work, the right to education and the right to political participation. No force can ignore and stifle women. All our achievements over the years should not be compromised and our basic rights!” https://t.co/A23STviJ4C

— Leah McElrath(@leahmcelrath) August 17, 2021

One of Afghanistan’s first female mayors, Zarifa Ghafari, also had earlier said she had no option but to wait for the Taliban to come and kill her.

Even though the Taliban has claimed that many practices concerning women will change under their rule now, still, a sense of dread appears to be omnipresent, particularly among women.

The Taliban on August 17 held their first-ever press conference which was addressed by Zabihullah Mujahid, its longtime spokesman. Mujahid emphasized that even though the group had the same beliefs, it now had new perspectives, which would encourage women’s rights but within the norms of Islamic Law.

Trying to portray themselves as more moderate than when they imposed a strict form of Islamic rule in the late 1990s, the Taliban vowed to respect women’s rights, forgive those who fought them and ensure Afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorists as part of a publicity blitz aimed at reassuring world powers and a fearful population.

Mujahid promised the Taliban would honour women’s rights within the norms of Islamic law, without elaborating. They have also encouraged women to return to work and have allowed girls to return to school, handing out Islamic headscarves at the door. The spokesman assured that women will not be discriminated against in the press conference.

If the Taliban are going on record to claim that women will be treated differently under their new regime, then why are so many people still sceptical? The fears are rooted in the Taliban’s track record.

When the Taliban previously ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it imposed strict, orthodox rules. Women found themselves virtually shut out from society as they were barred from stepping out without a male escort and were forced to wear a burqa that covered them from head to toe. They were not allowed to be in contact with men other than blood relatives.

A young Afghan woman shows her face in public for the first time after 5 years of Taliban Sharia law as she waits at a food distribution centre in central Kabul, on November 14, 2001. Under its strict interpretation of Islam, the Taliban ordered all women hidden behind head-to-toe burqas. (Image: Reuters)

If women violated the rules, they could face severe punishments from the Taliban, such as imprisonment, torture or even death. Women were often publicly flogged or executed during the Taliban's rule.

Girls and women were almost completely prohibited from receiving an education. A report published by Human Rights Watch in June 2020 found that although the Taliban officially claim it is no longer against education for girls, very few Taliban officials actually allow girls to attend school after puberty. Human rights group Amnesty International has previously reported that the vast majority of marriages in Afghanistan were forced during the Taliban era.

Women were also banned from taking up employment. The Taliban had outlawed watching television or TV or listening to music.

Afghan students attend a commencement ceremony at Kabul University on April 13, 2008. (Image: Reuters)

Prior to the rise of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were also protected under law and increasingly afforded rights in Afghan society. Women received the right to vote in the 1920s; and as early as the 1960s, the Afghan constitution provided for equality for women.

There was a mood of tolerance and openness as the country began moving toward democracy. Women were making important contributions to national development.

In 1977, a report by the rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) showed that women comprised over 15 percent of Afghanistan's highest legislative body. It is estimated that by the early 1990s, 70 percent of schoolteachers, 50 percent of government workers and university students, and 40 percent of doctors in Kabul were women. Afghan women had been active in humanitarian relief organizations until the Taliban imposed severe restrictions on their ability to work.

In 2020 and 2021, when the situation in Afghanistan started changing after USA’s announcement to pull back its troops in a phased manner, international human rights watchdogs were closely monitoring the situation, and apprehensions about how women would be treated under the Taliban were cited in several reports.

In June 2020, Human Rights Watch in a report titled “You Have No Right to Complain” noted, “While in power in Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Taliban’s rights record was characterized by systematic violations against women and girls; cruel corporal punishments, including executions; and extreme suppression of freedom of religion, expression, and education.”

In the 20 years since the Taliban was ousted, Afghan women have fought for their own rights and have taken a proactive role in the development of human rights in their nation – including the establishment of Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

In 2021, Amnesty International in a public statement titled ‘Afghan women’s rights on the verge of rollback as international forces withdraw and peace talks in stalemate’ said, “The Taliban has historically enforced harsh, discriminatory policies against women with the result of women being excluded from public life.

When the Taliban were ruling the country from 1996 to 2001, women were denied their rights to education and accessing healthcare, and their right to freedom of movement was severely restricted, they could not appear in public without a close male relative, and were subject to harsh, disproportionate punishments even for minor ‘offenses’. Any deviation from the group`s set rules could be punished through public corporal punishment, or even death penalty or public execution.”

Speaking to news agency AP, Marianne O’Grady, Kabul-based deputy country director for CARE International, said the strides made by women over the past two decades have been dramatic, particularly in urban areas, adding she cannot see things going back to the way they were, even with a Taliban takeover.

Afghan women in burqas walk on a street in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 22, 2021. (Image: AP)

Human Rights Watch has also offered a bleak assessment of women’s health care in Afghanistan in its latest report, saying that even basic information on health and family planning is not available to most Afghan women. And even when women can get the care they need, the quality is often poor. The report says there are 4.6 medical professionals to 10,000 people in Afghanistan; the World Health Organization considers 23 medical professionals to 10,000 people a critical shortage.

What emerged is a picture of a system that is increasingly unaffordable to the estimated 61 percent to 72 percent of Afghan women, who live in poverty, and one in which women often have more children than they want because of lack of access to modern contraception; face risky pregnancies because of lack of care; and undergo procedures that could be done more safely with access to and capacity to use more modern techniques, the report said.

Most women cannot afford the increasingly costly medicines they need or even the cost of a taxi ride to a clinic, often at least a half-hour away. Most Afghans live on less than $1.90 a day.

International aid to Afghanistan has also been dwindling in recent years, in part because of the deteriorating security amid relentless violence, but also because of increasing demands on funds exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

As U.S. and NATO troops continue their final withdrawal from Afghanistan, expected to be completed latest by September 11, assistance is likely to further decrease.

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