Cruelest bans and punishments the Taliban impose on women

The extent to which the Taliban regime has threatened the human rights of Afghan women is unprecedented in recent history. This was the clear and forceful conclusion of a 132-page report published in 1998 by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), documenting the results of a three-month study on women’s health and concerns about their rights conditions. humans in Afghanistan.

Like today the taliban they take control of Afghanistan, his war on women threatens to once again destroy the lives of professionals, activists, community leaders and politicians.

In 2001, with the end of the so-called Islamic Emirate, under which they could neither study nor work, among many other prohibitions, women were able to regain some of their freedoms. Did the Taliban then apply a strict religious interpretation that basically women could not have any kind of public life, hidden from the eyes of anyone other than her husband or male guardian. The punishments for non-compliance were stoning, mutilation and flogging.

“We will respect the rights of women”, he promised in dialogue with the BBC one of the representatives in the peace negotiations with the government, Suhail Shaheen. But the truth is, it just seems like a way to wash away your image: women are suspicious and think that reform of the Taliban is not really possible, because their core ideology is fundamentalist and misogynist.

“Tomorrow I won’t go to college anymore. The Taliban are like animals, they do not understand the Koran. For them, women should not be educated. It’s over for us “proclaims Khadija, 23, seeing the advance of the Taliban in his region.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. At that time, women were the ones who lost the most. To describe their life as hell would not be an exaggeration. They couldn’t leave their home without a mahram -Male guardian- and they had to cover their body from head to toe with a burqa, among other medieval prohibitions and impositions.

As an Amnesty International report points out, Historically, the Taliban have applied harsh and discriminatory policies against women that have excluded them from public life. When the Taliban ruled the country, women were denied the right to education and health care, and their right to freedom of movement was severely restricted.. They were subjected to severe and disproportionate penalties, even for minor “offenses”. Any deviation from the rules set by the group could be punished with public corporal punishment, even the death penalty or public execution.

RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of Afghan Women, was established in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1977 as an independent politico-social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and social justice in Afghanistan. The following list, compiled by the association, proposes just a brief glimpse into the hellish life Afghan women are forced to lead under the Taliban, and cannot begin to reflect the depth of women’s deprivation and suffering. “The Taliban treat women worse than animals. In fact, even when the Taliban ban the keeping of birds and animals in cages, they imprison Afghan women within the four walls of their own homes ”, They denounce RAWA.

“Women are of importance to the Taliban only if they are concerned with the production of children, the satisfaction of male sexual needs or daily household chores,” they write.

“As more and more areas come under Taliban control, Even as the number of rapes and murders perpetrated against women declines, Taliban restrictions – comparable to those of the Middle Ages – will continue to kill the minds of our people”.

The restrictions and mistreatment of women by the Taliban include:

1- Total ban on the work of women outside the home, which also applies to teachers, engineers and most professionals. Only a few female doctors and nurses were able to work in some hospitals in Kabul

2- Total ban on women’s activity outside the home unless they are accompanied by a mahram (close male relative, such as father, brother or husband)

3- Prohibition for women to deal with male traders

4- Prohibition of women to be treated by male doctors

5- Prohibition for women to study in schools, universities or any other educational establishment

6- Obligation for women to wear a long veil (burka) that covers them from head to toe

7- Whipping, beatings and verbal violence against women who are not dressed according to the rules of the Taliban, or women not accompanied by a mahram

8- Whipping women in public so as not to have their ankles covered

9- Public stoning of women accused of having had sex outside of marriage (Several lovers are high under this rule)

10- Prohibition to use cosmetic products (Many women with painted fingernails have had their fingers cut off)

11- Prohibition on women speaking or shaking hands with men who are not mahram

12- Prohibition on women laughing aloud (No stranger should hear a woman’s voice)

13- Prohibition for women to wear high-heeled shoes, which would produce sound when walking (A man shouldn’t listen to a woman’s footsteps)

14- Prohibition for women to travel by taxi without mahram

15- Prohibition of the presence of women on radio, television or public meetings of any kind

16- Prohibition for women to practice a sport or to enter a sports center or club

17- Prohibition for women to ride a bicycle or motorbike, even with their mahram

18- Prohibition on women wearing brightly colored clothing. For the Taliban, these are “sexually attractive colors”.

19- Prohibition for women to gather for festive occasions such as Eid, or for recreational purposes

20- Prohibition on women washing clothes by rivers or in public places

21- Modification of all the place names containing the word “women”

22- Prohibition for women to appear on the balconies of their apartments or houses

23- Compulsory painting on all windows, so that women cannot see themselves from outside their homes

24- Prohibition for male tailors to take measurements for women or to sew clothes for women

25- Ban on public toilets for women

26- Prohibition for men and women to travel in the same bus

27- Prohibition of flared (wide) pants, even under a burqa

28- Prohibition on photographing or filming women

29- Prohibition of photographs of women printed in newspapers and books, or hung on the walls of houses and shops

On November 8, 1994, the UN Secretary-General presented the progress report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan prepared by Felix Ermacora, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights. Some parts of the report on the status of women’s rights focus on the wearing of the veil: “A veil denier is an infidel and a woman without a veil is obscene”. In addition, it lists:

-The veil must cover the whole body

-Women’s clothing shouldn’t be fine

-Women’s clothing should not be decorated or colored

-Women’s clothes should not be tight and tight to avoid seditious limbs being noticed. The veil should not be thin

-Women should not wear perfume. If a scented woman crosses a crowd of men, she is considered adultery

-Women’s clothing should not look like men’s clothing

-The clothing of Muslim women should not resemble the clothing of non-Muslim women

-They must not wear clothes that produce sound

-They must not walk in the middle of the streets

-They must not leave their home without their husband’s permission

-If it is necessary to speak, you should speak in a low voice and without laughing

-They must not look at strangers

-They must not mix with strangers

Other report on the Taliban’s war on women conducted in 2001 by the Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the United States reveals: “The Taliban have claimed that they are trying to ensure a society in which women have a dignified and secure role. But the facts show the opposite. Women have been stripped of their dignity. They could not support their families. Girls have been deprived of basic medical care and any semblance of schooling. They were even deprived of their childhood under a regime that took away their songs, dolls and cuddly toys, all banned by the Taliban. ”

As reported The conversationAfter the expulsion of the Taliban, women entered public life in Afghanistan en masse. This includes the fields of law, medicine and politics. Women make up more than a quarter of parliamentarians, and in 2016 more than 150,000 women were elected to local office.

The Taliban are now imposing their authority on the Afghan people through war, as they did in the 1990s. Women now just hope history doesn’t repeat itself.

Infographic: Marcelo Regalado

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