When they took power, in August 2021, they promised they were different. That they had changed, they claimed, and that they were no longer the same Taliban that had ruled Afghanistan during the last five years of the 1990s. What they had learned from their mistakes. That the Afghans would be freer than before, that the international community he could trust them and open the doors to the new Taliban-ruled Kabul.
They lied. But her lie was gradual, little by little, following a upward trajectory that has culminated —for the moment— with the prohibition this December that the women access university and that they work in NGOs. But the restrictions started already from the beginning. In September 2021, less than a month after the victory, the boys institutes They reopened after the summer holidays. The ones for girls, not under the promise that they would do it later- They have never opened.
Travel with guardian
That same September 19, the Taliban told the civil servant women that they could stay at home. On December 26, 2021, the Government prohibited a woman from travel to another city without guardian —a man from the same family. In January 2022, the hijab, the Islamic headscarf became mandatory. In March, it was confirmed that the girls could study only up to primary.
On May 3, the women stopped can drive. On the 7th of the same month, it was decreed that women should cover their faces full. The obligatory hijab was passed to the burqa is mandatory.
In October, the Taliban banned a woman from selecting the engineering studies, journalism, veterinary medicine, agriculture and geology in college. In November, Afghans stopped being able to enter parks, gyms and public baths — before, they could, but only with their male ‘guard’. And already in December, a few weeks ago, it was completely prohibited for women to Access to college and that, in addition, they can work in oenez
Police of exclusion and vice
“From the beginning they are applying their restrictions but now there is the police of chastity and vice [una especie de policía de la moral]who monitors the women’s clothing,” explains a young Afghan woman, It’s coolto Afghanistan Analyst Networka research group on the Asian country.
“A few months ago, I was stopped when I was going to buy because I was not wearing a burqa or with a male guard. They told the shopkeepers that do not let women alone in their stores. Since then we have tried to go anyway, but if the Taliban find out that we are going without the burqa or that we are wearing make-up, they investigate where we live and threaten our guardian men”, explains this young woman.
Initially, according to Nilab, the Taliban agents were swarming everywhere, in the streets, looking for people to intimidate for not respecting the new rules of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [el nombre oficial del gobierno talibán]. Now, a year and a half later, its presence has been reduced, which does not mean that the risk no longer exists.
“The Taliban warn the men in the mosques that they should not allow women leave home or go to any public space without them. They are told that if they see a woman alone on the street, this will be a problem for her guardian. They have even threatened taxi drivers so they don’t accept single women,” says Nilab.
A story that repeats itself
All these restrictions do not appear out of the blue, and the last time they were applied was not in the nineties. During the next 20 years, from international presence In Afghanistan, the Taliban have controlled territory in the Central Asian country, especially the rural southwest from the country. There, the new rules are neither new nor surprising: they have been applied for decades and even longer.
In rural Afghanistan, the ultraconservative tradition mark that when a girl has her menstruationes married by force. From then on, she no longer leaves the house, where she is confined to carry out the housework and care both the husband’s parents and the children that are arriving. But it is now when these restrictions have also reached the big cities of the country, more open than the countryside.
“Generally, Afghan society is traditional, and education is very low, especially in my area, where the majority of men support these restrictions. Those who are educated and know that these prohibitions are terrible, however, have afraid to speak. If they do, they will be arrested. My father, for example, is against all this, but he keeps quiet to save himself”, says the young Nilab, from the Nimruz province.
She sums up the last year and a half of Taliban rule like this: “Women should wear the burqa and men, barba. People obey because they are afraid of being arrested and punished. The restrictions increase. The Taliban can’t stand the sounds of happiness from the people. When there is a wedding, for example, his agents arrive suddenly to stop the music or, otherwise, they arrest all the men in the family.”