By: Ali Sadiqi
When Yalda Ahmadi travelled from Herat with her family of six to Iran three months ago, she knew it would not be easy. But she never imagined they would almost not get through because the Taliban at the Islam Qala border crossing said an adult male must travel with them.
“When my mother gave our six passports to the Talib, before taking the passports, he asked, ‘Where is your mahram (male escort)?’”
Her mother’s answer that her 9-year-old son is their mahram did not satisfy the Taliban. So the six of them – Yalda, 22, her mother, her three sisters and brother – waited for half an hour until the Taliban said they could not cross the border and the family should return to Herat.
“But my mother insisted. She said many times ‘My son is our mahram!’ She also pointed to the stranger who was in the van from a distance and said we are with them and we are not alone,” Yalda said.
Finally, the Taliban at the border allowed them through that day. The experience has made Yalda’s mother vow to never return to Afghanistan as long as the Taliban was in charge.
“My mother was very afraid of how women and girls are disappearing every day and the news of the rape of a girl who was thrown off the roof,” Yalda said. “We sold all the furniture in the house and went to Iran to continue our lives.”
While waiting at the border crossing, Yalda said she also saw a woman with her baby sent refused to be allowed across and sent back to Herat. “Her crime was that she did not have a male escort,” Yalda said.
The Taliban have banned women from travelling without a male family member outside of Afghanistan. The decree, announced on February 27 by Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, has impacted the lives of many women who used to travel to Iran via Islam Qala. These days, women have told Rukhshana Media that their treatment at the border is humiliating and insulting. Some have even been abused and beaten.
One of the most common occurrences is ethnic and religious discrimination from the Taliban towards women who are not Pashtun. To avoid this, some women have resorted to taking a male member of their family with them to the last possible point of the border, pay an additional fee for another person to cross, but leave the male family member in Afghanistan as the woman continues her journey into Iran.
Many of the women travelling are female students. Some are concerned that the Taliban is collecting their personal information at the border, including their exact address.
Fereshta Mohammadi, 27, found treatment by border officials was also terrible when she returned to Afghanistan from Iran.
“The Taliban were harassing the Hazara people and women at the Islam Qala border,” she said. “They don’t consider a woman as a person at all and they ask all the questions from a mahram. They don’t even allow women without a mahram to speak.”
Fereshta, who was travelling with her 50-year-old mother, said the Talib at the border told them they aren’t allowed to travel alone to do “ugly things.”
She also witnessed a Talib disrespecting an elderly woman in her 70s wanting to cross into Iran but he was refusing to allow her.
“The woman was alone and the driver said that he was her mahram. Finally, only after pressure from the other people at the border, she was allowed to enter Iran,” Fereshta said.
Nowhere in the world is anyone banned from travelling without a companion. The decree by the Taliban received widespread international condemnation, but the Taliban has ignored all advice and recommendations. They say the ban is a practice “according to the principles of Islam.”
The restrictions mean large number of girls who do not have a mahram have remained in Iran and are not sure what to do when their visa expires out of fear of crossing alone back into Afghanistan with Taliban border officials.
The violent death of a university student who was beaten to death on April 7 by border officials at Islam Qala was reported by Rukhshana Media. She was detained for at least five hours for not having a mahram, and when she later died, the photos of bruises covering many parts of her body were sent to Rukhshana Media.
Bahara Moradi*, 28, is in Iran and is fearful of returning to Afghanistan without a male family member. Getting out of Afghanistan was already very complicated, even with her brother accompanying her to crossing point of the border.
“My brother accompanied me to Iran’s zero point,” she said. “He left his work that day and travelled with me in the hot weather, just because of the Taliban law, to be able to put the Afghanistan exit stamp on my passport.”
However, the Taliban refused to stamp it.
“When the Taliban did not put an exit stamp on my passport, we had to go to their commissary office,” she said. “When we were there, the Taliban did not allow me to speak at all and said, your mahram should speak.”
Finally she was able to cross the border that day, but the experience has caused her anxiety about returning.
“My visa time is running out,” she said.
For Bahara, the violation of the free movement of women is one side, but the real situation at the border crossing of Islam Qala goes beyond the freedom of travel.
“They say to women who want to travel alone, “You are prostitutes”,” Bahara says. “Even those who were husband and wife were asked very personal questions to prove their mahram.”
She says such behavior of the Taliban forces are worse than a physical blow.
Roya Mubarez*, 28, who was a journalist and athlete before the Taliban regained power in August last year, has left Afghanistan. As a single girl, she could not cross the border.
“After several days of searching, a Hazara family finally agreed to take me with them as a member of their family – as a brother’s wife,” she said. “The Taliban at the border saw our passports and realized that I am Pashtun and they are Hazaras, we were all very scared at that moment. I didn’t want that innocent family to get into trouble because of me, and I thought the Taliban wanted to beat me up.”
She says that her father died, one of her brothers was killed in the war in Afghanistan, and her other brother was in Iran at that time. According to Roya, although she was able to cross the border after humiliation and insults from the Taliban, she says that she does not have much hope of returning to Afghanistan.
“If I come back, will I survive?” she asks.
Roya said that any protest against the Taliban’s inhumane behavior is beatings.
“I saw one of the young men complain about the Taliban at the border and one of the Taliban forces slapped him several times,” she said.
Not only have the Taliban imposed restrictions on women traveling alone outside the country, but according to the instructions of the group, women inside Afghanistan do not have the right to travel alone for a distance of more than 78 kilometers without a male chaperone. Taxi drivers are also abiding by the decree.
“We cannot take women who are travelling without a mahram,” a driver of a passenger company on the Herat-Mashhad route said on condition of anonymity. “If we do, we have to take her as a member of our family so that the Taliban do not suspect, otherwise drivers will be beaten.”
Nagin Ghafouri*, a 23-year-old girl who traveled to Iran two weeks ago with her 60-year-old mother, told of her experience that because they did not have a mahram, they were insulted and humiliated by the Taliban. “The border of Islam Qala has become a prison for women,” she said.
Amnesty International, in its 100-page report on the situation of women under Taliban rule, titled “Gradual Death, Women, and Girls Under Taliban Rule”, has acknowledged the massive violation of women’s rights by the Taliban including women’s rights to free movement.
Note: The names of the women interviewed have been chosen as pseudonyms at their request.
