She had “a lot of friends” when she was a student in Afghanistan.
She remarked, “We were happy together. We were studying, occasionally getting together, and riding bikes.
20-year-old Zahra no longer rides bicycles. Or visit friends who have left the nation, attend to school, or go outside without hiding her face. She claims that the only thing she can do is stay at home and fret about a future that is disintegrating in front of her.
“When I stand in front of the mirror, when I look at myself, I just see a different Zahra from two years ago,” she said. “I feel sad for my past.”
On Tuesday, the Taliban will have been in power in Afghanistan for two years. The Taliban took power during the chaotic and contentious American pullout from the country following nearly two decades of conflict.
Tuesday has been proclaimed a national holiday by the Taliban, who are not acknowledged by the majority of nations in the world. The day is “full of pride and honour for Afghans,” Taliban deputy spokesperson Bilal Karimi told CNN.
Afghans were able to reclaim their nation, freedom, government, and will once the country was liberated from occupation. Pressure and force are not reasonable solutions; understanding and communication are the only options, he continued.
But as life under the Taliban regime becomes more oppressive and harsh, celebrating is the last thing many Afghan women like Zahra, who CNN is only identifying by her first name for safety reasons, want to do.
Activists caution that as the world turns its back on Afghanistan because it is weary of the country’s protracted battles and is too consumed with its own domestic problems, things could only grow worse. Millions of Afghans are suffering from disease, malnutrition, and drought in the midst of a crisis that the UN’s human rights experts warned this week is becoming worse.
Mahbouba Seraj, an Afghan women’s rights advocate and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize finalist, declared that “women’s freedom” no longer exists.
The women of Afghanistan are gradually being eliminated from society, from daily life, from everything, including their voices, opinions, and whereabouts.
They are unable to attend school? Afghan woman upset over Taliban’s restriction on women attending universities
When the Taliban, a hardline Islamist organisation that had previously controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s, came to power in 2021, it originally portrayed itself as a more moderate version of its former self and even made the promise that women would be permitted to pursue higher education.
But since then, it has stepped up its enforcement, closing girls’ secondary schools, prohibiting women from going to college and working for NGOs like the United Nations, restricting their freedom to travel without a chaperone, and barring them from public places like parks and gyms.
Since the Taliban shut down all beauty salons nationwide last month, women have lost access to the majority of professions. The sector had employed about 60,000 women, many of whom were the only wage earners in their homes, adding to the financial difficulties of already struggling families.
The abrupt disruption of daily life is especially upsetting to young women like Zahra as they mature and form goals for the future. She likes art and had hoped to become a designer or launch her own company, but neither of those things seem feasible in Afghanistan now.
She said, “I’m twenty years old, and it’s time for me to study, to get educated.” But I’m not permitted. I’m only at home. I’m only concerned about my future, the future of my sisters, and the future of all Afghan women.
She attempts to keep herself busy at home by drawing, reading, and enrolling in any accessible online classes because she is unable to spend much time outside. However, she claims that it seems confining, like being in jail.
I am having trouble focusing because I can see my sister and the other girls sitting in their homes. They are powerless to act.
According to a UN report last month, collected following a week-long visit to Afghanistan, it has also had a devastating impact on mental health, with widespread allegations of sadness and suicide, especially among adolescent females who have been stopped from pursuing an education.
According to the poll results, about 8% of respondents knew of a girl or woman who had tried suicide. According to the report, restrictions and economic difficulties have also contributed to an increase in domestic violence and girl forced marriages.
The Taliban has asserted time and time again that women are welcome to work in specific fields as long as they adhere to “Islamic values.”
Another Taliban representative, Zabiullah Mujahid, agreed that there was still a “problem regarding the girls’ education,” but stated that the group wished to “pave the ground for Islamic rules and regulations” and create a “safe environment for their education.”
Additionally, he asserted that “women are actively working in health, education, police departments, passport offices, airports, and so on.”
However, experts and nonprofit organisations assert that this is untrue, and the health care industry is one area where there is a glaring gap.
Women are only permitted to receive medical care from other women under Taliban regulations, but due to the ban on women’s higher education, no female medical students have been able to complete their degrees, which has led to a dearth of much-needed female doctors, midwives, and nurses.
Heather Barr, association director of the women’s rights division at Human Rights Watch, cautioned that “(the Taliban) seem perfectly comfortable with the idea that women and girls are almost certainly already dying because of a lack of health care professionals, because of their policies.”
“I did nothing wrong,” Afghan girl: “I only want my right to education.”
The Taliban’s treatment of girls and women has drawn widespread condemnation from the international community, and last week the UN human rights body urged the group to implement reforms and respect women’s rights.
However, these messages haven’t done much to affect change, and the international spotlight has largely receded, leaving many Afghans to feel bitter and abandoned by the outside world.
According to Seraj, a women’s rights activist, “the young people of Afghanistan are screaming their lungs out, trying to bring the world’s attention to themselves and to the situation of the war, of the woman in Afghanistan.”
Zahra questioned why other nations appeared prepared to turn a blind eye. She remarked, “They are at ease; their daughters, sisters, and kids are in school. But there are girls and women in this area of the world who are helpless because they are disregarded by the rest of the population.
Following the Taliban takeover, the US and its allies cut off international assistance and frozen roughly $7 billion of the nation’s foreign funds. With millions of Afghans out of work, government employees going without pay, and the cost of food and medication increasing, the decision destroyed an economy that was already highly dependent on aid.
The US established a $3.5 billion economic assistance fund with the frozen assets last year, but officials said they won’t immediately give the funds to an institution in Afghanistan and will instead go through an external organisation that is independent of the Taliban and the nation’s central bank.
Following the Taliban’s restriction on women working for NGOs, humanitarian help has become even more scarce recently. Numerous organisations, including the UN, were forced to halt crucial operations or programmes in the nation.
Even though the Taliban is not generally seen as a legitimate administration and does not hold power over Afghanistan’s UN seat, advocates worry that it may gradually become more accepted on the international scene.
They’re getting on private aircraft to fly off to significant high-level meetings where people spread out the red carpet for them, and they’re posing for photos with beaming ambassadors, according to Barr. “They are being given permission to take over embassies in an increasing number of nations. So, in my opinion, things are going fairly well from their perspective.
According to the UN, the catastrophic situation has caused more than 1.6 million Afghans to leave their country since 2021. Even those refugees face an unclear future because many are still awaiting admission to the US and other Western countries, and some have waited for so long that they were forcibly deported back to Afghanistan and were forced to go into hiding.
Seraj, a women’s rights activist, stated, “The only reason I’m here Afghanistan and why I’m remaining here is to be next to my sisters and attempt to help them. “I haven’t given up on hope. But I can tell that it’s getting harder and harder with each decision and step along the way.
And it appears like escaping is the only way forward for young Afghans seeking to save what’s left of their future.
Naturally, everyone enjoys visiting their home country because it is where they were born and raised. However, I believe that staying here is the only option, said Zahra. “I must make a choice on my future. So leaving the nation is the greatest option.