By Elyas Ahmadi and Salik
In the two years since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, women have staged a civil protest on average every three to four days.
While these protests have faced sometimes violent suppression and high risk to personal safety, women and girls have continued to find ways to voice their outrage and refusal to bend to Taliban restrictions and threats. In at least 70 known cases, they have even been detained.
Rukhshana Media’s research shows that there have been at least 221 demonstration by women and girls in various forms since August 2021. These have been marches on the streets, indoor protests that were recorded and distributed, campaigns on social media, graffiti, and other forms of civil protest.
Two days after the presidential palace fell to the hands of Taliban militias, a group of women near the palace demanded their right to preserve the strides taken in their rights and protections over the last two decades.
Not only did the Taliban ignore these calls, but they set out to ensure that women would have no one to protect or support them when their rights were abused. The group dissolved the Ministry of Women’s Affairs one month after coming to power, and has proactively increased restrictions on the lives of girls and women .
The right to education, work, travel, choice of clothing, recreation, political involvement, and other basic rights of females in Afghanistan have been removed. Women are mostly invisible in public life.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan has said after a visit to the country, “Severe, systematic and institutionalized discrimination against women and girls is at the heart of the Taliban’s ideology and government.”
Two years of non-stop protests
The graph below shows the number of protests per month. Despite the fluctuations, it is clear that protests have continued non-stop for two years.
Not only have the Taliban regularly sought to disperse and detain protesting women – sometimes violently – but they have also tried to prevent the media coverage.
In the first year of Taliban rule, our survey shows that women protested more than 83 times in an effort to raise awareness and demand the rights of girls and women be protected. Of those 83 protests, 59 people were arrested and some of them have been tortured and forced into fake confessions against the protest.
Women activists who have organised or participated in many protests tell Rukhshana Media that the Taliban has not shown any respect to their demands.
Arifa Fatimi says that she feels their protests have not impacted the Taliban’s approach to women’s rights.
“Civil protests against the Taliban do not work in my opinion,” she says. “Just as the protests of the last two years have not been helpful to change their approach regarding women.”
According to Ms Fatimi, women protested the Taliban under difficult security and political conditions. She recalled her personal account and said that the Taliban view women as prostitutes if they leave their homes and demand their rights. “From [the Taliban’s] perspective, these women are prostitutes,” she said. “So, they think these women deserve to be arrested, tortured, and even murdered.”
And yet, Ms Fatimi still insists on attending protests to give others courage in raising their voices against the Taliban. “Demonstrations give people courage and continue to show the true nature of the Taliban,” she says. “In any case, we have no choice but to fight against the government of the Taliban.”
Some suggest that the Taliban is rattled by the ongoing unrest. In Human Rights Watch’s report on the experience of protesting women from the Taliban detention center, it quotes a woman who was shouted at by a prominent member of the Taliban. He blamed the women protestors as the reason the Taliban has been globally shunned by every other government. “You have put us in a bad situation, because of you the world has not recognized us,” he was quoted as saying.
At least 140 demonstrations in the second year
In the second year of Taliban rule, despite the risks and stories of severe treatment if detained, women’s protests only increased.
Since August 2022, women have staged nearly 140 demonstrations, almost double the year before.
It should be noted that in the second year, women’s protests have become more diverse as they seek some safety. Of these 140 protests, more than half of them protests have taken place in forms other than street protests.
Women’s demonstrations have increased in proportion to the Taliban’s restrictions which have continued to be introduced and largely abided by almost everyone in the country on pain of severe punishment.
A number of protesting women who believe that the Taliban do not want to ever recognize women’s rights, said that they have addressed human rights organizations and the international community in their protests in order to gain some support. But so far, these organizations have not paid much attention.
Shukria Barakzai, a member of Afghanistan’s lower house of the former government and a political analyst, told Rukhshana Media that the international community and human rights organizations have not given satisfactory answers to the protesting women of Afghanistan and instead have shown more of a desire to engage with the Taliban.
“Undoubtedly, the main audience of women and women’s protest movements was the international community and organizations. But the world’s response has been passive to the extent that they have merely published statements. But the world’s treatment of the Taliban government has been different. Red carpets have been rolled out for them even as they ignore women’s demands in the country.”
However, Mrs Barakzai believes women’s demonstrations pose a serious challenge to the Taliban government. She says the protestors have has a double effect – they have helped reveal the true nature of the Taliban’s government, and on the other hand, they have given women self-confidence.
She sees the women’s resistance movement as the only justice-seeking civil movement currently active in Afghanistan. It may even be causing a serious challenge to the Taliban’s efforts to be a recognized government in the world.
Rukhshana Media spoke to a number of women and girls who say they will continue their protests against the Taliban government despite the feeling that the Taliban will not budge.
Parwana Ibrahimkhel says she doesn’t believe the Taliban’s approach will change regarding women’s rights, but she continues to oppose them because of the challenge they create for the Taliban. “The result of these protests is that even the countries supporting the Taliban have not recognized their government so far,” she says. “These protests even create fear in Taliban lobbyists.”
But she says it should not only be women protesting and raising their voices for women’s rights, but rather all Afghan citizens, especially men.
Huda Khamosh, another woman who has been at the forefront of protests against the Taliban government and who now lives abroad, also wants to continue protesting. “We welcome any resistance against the Taliban,” she says. “Our women’s protests in the last two years have shaken the dictatorial pillars of the Taliban government.”
Maryam Maruf Arwin, head of the Purple Saturdays movement, who has helped organise and participated in various protests, believes that the Taliban is not capable of reform when it comes to their views on women, and therefore the focus is to break down the Taliban government. “Alternatives to the Taliban should be the focus of all our protests,” she says. “Because reforming the Taliban government is impossible.”
