Terror in Afghanistan: Taliban killed woman because she refused to cook for them | the Chronicle

The return to power of Taliban in Afghanistan It has aroused fear among the local female population and the first chilling accounts of the victims of the insurgent group have already emerged.

Najia She lived with her three young children and her daughter in a small village in the province of Faryab, in northern Afghanistan. One day a group of 15 fighters from the organization knocked on his door and when your daughter Manija, 25, opened the door and knew what to expect.

The woman said it was the fourth time the group knocked on the doors of her house for demand that he cook for them. My mother told them: ‘I am poor, how should I feed them? ‘ The Taliban began to beat her. My mom collapsed and they hit her with their AK47 rifles, the young woman linked to the CNN news network.

Then he yelled at them to stop. They did, but one of them activated a grenade and threw it in an adjoining room. The explosion set off a series of flames that caused everyone to leave the house except Najia who was lying dead from the blows she had received.

The brutal attack took place on July 12 and he was a chilling glimpse of the threat Afghan women now face after the takeover of the capital, Kabul, by the Taliban.

The Taliban have denied cruelly murdering Najia. However, witnesses from this province confirmed the death of a 45-year-old woman in the hands of Islamic extremists. Even the American media used fictitious names for the victims to protect the 25-year-old from possible reprisals.

Another woman, a neighbor of Najia, also confirmed the fact and recounted the desperate moment they live in various places in Afghanistan. Mostly, the women are widows of soldiers who served the previous government and who died in combat precisely to those who have now taken power. They have to sell the milk of the animals they raise at home, but the Taliban will not allow it. “We don’t have men at home, what are we going to do?he wondered.

Taliban bans on women

Afghan women have gained ground on rights over the past 20 years, when US forces drove the Taliban out of Kabul. However, the worst nightmares are resurfacing now that the fundamentalists have taken over the country. Women are the main victims of the regime which imposes strict Islamic Sharia law throughout the territory.

After the withdrawal of US troops, Taliban militants moved quickly to take control of the nation’s capital last weekend. The speed was such that it surprised part of the population, to the point that some women said they did not have time to buy a burqa to comply with the rules Taliban that women should be covered and accompanied by a male relative when leaving home.

The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, Between 1996 and 2001, they closed girls’ schools and banned women from working.

Following the invasion of the United States in 2001, restrictions on women were relaxed, and even as war raged, a local commitment to improve women’s rights, supported by international groups and organizations, led to the creation of new legal protections.

In recent hours, the Taliban have been trying to open up to the possibility of accepting women into the new regime undertake to let women work in accordance with “respect for the principles of Islam”. But the truth is, women are suspicious and believe that Taliban reform is not really possible.

During the 5 years that they controlled Afghanistan, they applied a strict religious interpretation that basically women could not have any kind of public life and they must be hidden from the eyes of anyone other than her husband. The penalties for non-compliance have been stoning, mutilation and flogging.

In this context, last Monday, groups of women took to the streets of Kabul to protest against gender-based oppression: with banners and surrounded by armed Taliban, They demanded that their rights be respected, among which they emphasized social security, the right to work and education, and the right to political participation.