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THE BELOW (updated 12 MAR 2022)
When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi
figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da
qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so
called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali
DW Made for minds
13 Aug 2022
By Kalika Mehta
<<Afghanistan: 1 year on from fall of Kabul to the Taliban, little hope
for female athletes. year ago, the Taliban regained control of
Afghanistan amid chaotic scenes. Female athletes who remained in the
country now fear for their lives, while those who left have little hope
of resuming their careers. < knew if I stayed, the Taliban would find
me, beat me and burn me alive. So, I thought if I got killed by a bullet
or I was crushed at the airport while waiting to escape the country, it
would be an easier death.> Recalling how she stood among more than
10,000 people desperately waiting, hoping and praying to pass through
one of three gates and get inside Kabul airport in August 2021,
Nilofar's story is all too common. The morning after the former
footballer's wedding day, the Taliban recaptured the Afghan capital,
overthrowing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan under President Ashraf
Ghani and reinstating the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the
control of the Taliban. Eleven months on, Nilofar remembers with
terrifying accuracy the days spent without sleep, hearing the cries of
mothers around her who could do little but watch their children
suffocate in the mass of people frantically attempting to get on one of
the few flights out of the country. Nilofar's only crime had been to
have the audacity to participate in a form of sporting activity and
encourage other girls to do the same. But it led the Taliban to hunt her
down.
<Every human should be able to do these activities,> Nilofar told DW.
<It is a human right, but the Taliban do not accept women as human.
<They make the girls believe that playing sport is a crime for women
because the philosophy that the Taliban have is that women are made for
the home and nothing else.>
Lucky escape with a tragic twist
Nilofar eventually got inside the airport perimeter with the help of an
American soldier, but refused to leave until she could ensure that 16
footballers on the local team she coached — who were still on the other
side of the gate — would make it on to a plane, too.
In the end, she was only able to bring eight other girls with her. Days
after reaching Doha, Qatar, Nilofar learned that the American soldier
who helped them had been killed in the suicide bombing of the airport on
August 26, 2021. Although Nilofar was one of the lucky ones to reach
safety in a third country, there has been a significant mental toll for
those who escaped. Young female Afghan athletes are scattered across the
globe, still too scared to even contemplate playing sport again and
constantly worried about their families who remain under threat in
Afghanistan, simply because their daughters participated in a sporting
activity during the previous 20 years. <It's hard when I turn on the TV
and see the sports channels or I see a soccer match,> Nilofar explained.
<I think back to the girls who I worked with, who I encouraged to play
sports, whose activities I facilitated with equipment. I think back to
the days when we worked hard to encourage women to stand up for their
rights. Now the girls hate themselves for being a part of a soccer team
and having been a soccer player. They blame themselves for the misery
that their families are now suffering.>>>
Read more here:
https://www.dw.com/en/afghanistan-one-year-on-from-fall-of-kabul-to-taliban-little-hope-for-female-athletes/a-62781229
DW Made for minds
12 Aug 2022
By Tolo News (Kabul)
<<Afghanistan's last remaining women's rights activists
Dozens of women-led protest groups took to the streets following the
Taliban's takeover in 2021, but, facing violence and detention, their
numbers are dwindling. So why are some women daring to keep up their
activism?>>
Watch the video here:
https://www.dw.com/en/afghanistans-last-remaining-womens-rights-activists/av-62779317
Al Jazeera
12 Aug 2022
By Ruchi Kumar and Hikmat Noori
<<A year after Taliban, Afghans who chose to stay fear grim future
A judge and a professor say they decided to stay back – despite threats
and adverse conditions – to help other Afghans. Mina Alimi never left
Kabul – not during the wars she was born in, not during the first
Taliban government when she was just a little girl, and not even last
year when the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized her
hometown. Even as her friends and colleagues fled fearing the new
regime, Alimi, one of only 270 female judges in the country, chose to
stay back despite the threats against her. Her name has been changed to
protect her identity as she remains at risk. <I had many opportunities
to leave Afghanistan, but it meant leaving behind my elderly parents,
in-laws and siblings who had supported me every step of the way. They
were at just as much risk as I was because of my profession. How could I
just leave them at the mercy of the Taliban and the criminals they
released?> Alimi told Al Jazeera. Threats and even armed attacks were
not uncommon in her line of work. In the year preceding the takeover,
several female judges were targeted in assassination attempts in
Afghanistan, resulting in the killing of Judges Qadria Yasini and Zakia
Herawi. Alimi, too, had been receiving threats from the Taliban and
other armed groups in Afghanistan – threats she ignored owing to her
steadfast faith in the rule of law that she had spent years upholding.
'They are looking for me'
However, when the Taliban marched into Afghan cities as part of their
stunning takeover of the country last August, they began releasing
prisoners from Afghan jails, some of them criminals whom Alimi had
helped put in. <I worked in the criminal division court and was part of
hearings that convicted many Taliban fighters and other criminals. My
name is a part of official verdicts that put many dangerous insurgents
behind bars, and they have been looking for me since they were
released,> she said, adding that the threats forced her and her family
to go in hiding. <I can't even imagine what would they would do to me
but I am terrified of what they will do to my family,> she said.
Afghanistan saw an exodus of nearly half a million people in the year
since the Taliban takeover. The United Nations said 2.6 million Afghan
asylum seekers were registered with them at the end of 2021. While Alimi
stayed behind to protect her family, others did so with the hopes of
rebuilding their lives now that the war was over. A 52-year-old
university professor who only wished to be identified as Marzia says she
stayed back for her students, especially the women she was training with
the hopes that they would lead a new Afghanistan. <I had a lot of hopes
for the next generation, the youth we were training who would take
Afghanistan places,> Marzia said. She said she felt a strong sense of
loyalty towards the country. <When the Taliban came, I had a few
opportunities to leave, and many of my colleagues did leave because of
the threats they faced for our work together, but I chose to stay. This
country invested so much in me. I got to grow, educate and work here. I
can’t just leave everything behind,> she told Al Jazeera.
'Situation is miserable'
Having spent the past year living under the Taliban regime, the two
women expressed tremendous disappointment. Marzia had hoped that despite
the collapse of the Afghan government and its economy, the end of the
war would mean the end of violence and bloodshed, providing some
stability to Afghans to rebuild. <But the situation is miserable,>
Marzia said. The professor said her family has been hit hard by the
economic crisis and is struggling to make ends meet.
<People are starving and the Taliban instead stop me for the clothes I
wear or if I don’t have a mahram [male guardian] while travelling. It’s
infuriating,> she said. She said she has been instructed by her
university's management to remove students from classrooms if they wear
bright colours. <How is this governance?> she asked.>>
Please do read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/12/a-year-after-taliban-afghans-who-chose-to-stay-fear-grim-future
2 video's embedded of protesting women
DW
11 Aug 2022
By Michaela Cavanagh, Uta Steinwehr, Jan D. Walter, Ahmad Hakimi
<<Fact check: Have the Taliban kept their promises?
A year ago, the Taliban retook Kabul. In their first press conference
after seizing power in Afghanistan, they surprised the world with the
announcement of moderate policies. A key pledge was to address women's
rights.>>
Note by Gino d'Artali: It indeed is a long read and facts checking
article.
Read it here:
https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-have-the-taliban-kept-their-promises/a-62649985
Al Jazeera
11 Aug 2022
By Ruchi Kumar and Zuhal Ahad
Published On 11 Aug 2022
<<A year of Taliban takeover: The missing women in Afghan workforce.
It has been a year since 43-year-old Masuda Samar, a senior official at
an Afghanistan ministry, stepped into her office. On August 15 last
year, she rushed home early from work to be with her family after
hearing that the then Afghan president had fled the country, paving the
way for the Taliban to seize capital Kabul. When she went back a few
days after the chaos that followed the takeover ebbed, Samar, who
requested her name to be changed to avoid persecution by the Taliban,
was told she was no longer welcome in the office where she had spent the
last 17 years of her life. The Taliban imposed several limitations on
women's freedoms since returning to power.
'I feel so insulted'
While the new regime has not directly fired female government em-ployees
such as Samar, it has restricted women from entering the workplaces,
paying them a significantly reduced salary to stay at home, many working
Afghan women told Al Jazeera. <We went back several times in the last
one year [to appeal for their jobs]. We decided to wait at the gates of
the ministry for days at end waiting to get a hold of the new minister,
to convince him to change this decision, but they [Taliban guards] would
send us away,> Samar told Al Jazeera. Samar has been withdrawing her
meagre salary regularly due to financial pressures on her family. But
she feels humiliated.
<Each time I go to the bank, I wipe my tears first because I feel so
insulted to take that amount, that I don't even have the right to work
and earn. I feel like a beggar,> she said. <But then last month, I
received a call from the human resource department, asking me to
introduce a male family member to take my place. The HR person said the
workload had increased due to the lack of female staff and they wanted
to hire men to replace us,> she said. <I was the one who studied to get
this job. I worked hard to rise in the ranks and get this position
despite the tough challenges. Why should I give up my job to my husband
and brother?> she asked, the frustration seeping into her voice.
Meanwhile, in the private sector as well, several organisations have
reduced the number of female staff, either out of financial crunch,
Taliban coercion or as a precautionary measure to avoid the group’s
wrath. A study by the International Labor Organization (ILO) this year
documented a disproportionate drop in women’s employment in Afghanistan
– 16 percent in the months immediately following the Taliban takeover.
In contrast, male employment dropped by 6 percent.
<In the pessimistic scenario in which restrictions intensify and women
do not feel they can safely show up at their workplaces, the scale of
job losses for women could reach 28 percent,> the report warned.
Prior to the Taliban takeover, women made up 22 percent of the Afghan
workforce. While the figure is still dismal, it reflected years of
social progress in a deeply patriarchal and conservative society like
Afghanistan. <Female labour force participation in Afghanistan had been
increasing tremendously in the last decades, in some cases better than
our regional neighbours,> Afghan economist Saeda Najafizada told Al
Jazeera.
'Less power'
Working women in Afghanistan are also vulnerable to unemployment shocks
due to the existing economic crisis, restrictions on women's movement by
the Taliban, and the prevalent patriarchy. <Women have less power over
making their decisions in Afghanistan. Even decisions made by
themselves, in many cases, are hugely influenced by societal norms that
in a way push them into accepting unwanted outcomes,> Najafizada said.
She said the effect is devastating for the economy as it leads to more
people having less or nothing to fulfil their basic needs and thus
falling below the poverty line. <The absence of women in workspaces in
Afghanistan not only affects their household but [also] makes an entire
economy dysfunctional,> she added.While the Afghan economy has severely
suffered due to the Western sanctions on the Taliban, women-centric
businesses were among the worst affected due to the additional
restrictions on women.>>
Read more here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/11/a-year-of-taliban-takeover-the-missing-women-in-afghan-workforce
and two videos are embedded
8 Aug 2022
Note from Gino d'Artali: I highly recommend the here partly quoted
article as published on 25 May 2022
by the Women's Media Centre
<<Taliban Abuses Continue; Afghan Women Fight Back.
In late 2001, Afghan women were at the forefront of global agendas,
fueled by a mix of media coverage, humanitarian intervention, and
military operations. Calls for <liberating> Afghan women were
widespread. As of August 2021, the U.S. had spent two decades and over
$780 million to promote women's rights in Afghanistan. Now these rights
have been stripped away, and any gains — however tenuous — now appear
lost. First, let us be clear: Afghan women have always been actively
liberating themselves. And they continue to do so now. Afghan women are
the ones who led underground schools during the Taliban's first reign
from 1996 to 2001 — risking their own lives to educate their girls. They
used their chaddaris as tools for feminist activism, smuggling cameras
in order to film and expose the abuses of the Taliban to the world.
Afghan women have always had a strong voice, but they have always been
an underutilized force. If they lead, Afghanistan will have peace. A
peace without women is not real peace — not in Afghanistan, or anywhere.
Today, Afghan women are resisting yet again.
In my first book on women in Afghanistan, published in 2009, I explained
that women, politics, and the state have always been intertwined in
Afghanistan, and conflicts have been fueled by attempts to challenge or
change women's status. It appears that we have come full circle since,
20 years later in late 2021, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban once more.
Afghanistan consistently ranks among the worst countries in the world in
terms of gender equality. In fact, the World Economic Forum ranks
Afghanistan as one of the worst places to be a woman, the Women, Peace,
and Security Index places Afghanistan 170 out of 170, and the latest
Global Gender Gap Index ranks Afghanistan 156 out of 156. There is no
doubt that the situation for women in Afghanistan is dire.
....
In addition to a humanitarian crisis, Afghanistan faces a human rights
crisis. Women have reported increased instances of violence deliberately
targeting women and girls. The situation is now worse than ever,
especially after the Taliban dismantled already-scant gender-based
violence support systems. The situation is rooted in deep structural and
long-standing challenges that have been exacerbated and
institutionalized by the Taliban. Afghanistan's deeply patriarchal
society has meant violence against women — in particular domestic
violence — has always been widespread. According to the Afghan Ministry
of Women’s Affairs’ 2016 strategy on eliminating violence against women,
more than half of all Afghan women reported experiencing at least one
type of physical, sexual, or psychological violence, and more than 60
percent were married without their consent.>>
Read all here:
https://womensmediacenter.com/news-features/taliban-abuses-continue-afghan-women-fight-back
The Guardian/The Observer
8 Aug 2022
By Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul
<<‘They beat girls just for smiling': life in Afghanistan one year after
the Taliban’s return.
Maryam* is near the top of her sixth grade class in Kabul, which under
Taliban rule means that her education should be ending in a few months.
But the 10-year-old, whose name we have changed to protect her identity,
has a strategy to stay in school for another year, and her eyes dance
with satisfaction as she explains her plan. <I will make sure I don't
answer too many questions right. I have decided to fail, so I can study
sixth grade again.> This is Afghanistan nearly a year after the Taliban
seized control of the country in a lightning advance, moving so fast to
take Kabul they surprised even their own leadership. The country's
brightest young citizens are harnessing their intelligence to
self-sabotage, because in a twisted system the group has created, that
gives them more hope than success. In their campaign for Afghanistan,
and in international talks with the US, the Taliban offered an implicit
promise, that in return for a slightly tempered version of their
puritanical extremism, they would at least bring peace and stability to
a country racked by decades of war. Women had an Islamic right to
education and to work, their envoys said at international conferences,
and without constant war the Afghan economy would have more room to
grow. As hundreds of thousands of Afghans fled, many others welcomed the
silencing of the guns with hope. Nearly a year on, that vision looks
increasingly hollow. Talking about the seis-mic shift last August,
Taliban refer to before and after <the victory>. Ordinary
Persian-speaking Afghans in the capital speak about life before and
after <the fall>, or <the collapse>, suqut in Afghanistan's Dari
dialect. The Taliban are an isolated pariah state, not recognised by a
single country, even erstwhile allies. Their embrace of their old,
violent allies was dramatically exposed last week when the US killed the
leader of al Qaida in the heart of Kabul's elite Sherpur neighbourhood.
Before that though, they had spent months out of the global spotlight.
Putin's invasion of Ukraine was a gift to the Taliban, drawing the
world’s attention away as the group cranked up their extremist policies.
Women face harsher res-trictions here than anywhere else in the world,
barred from secondary education and most work outside healthcare and
education. They are forced to be accompanied by a male guardian for all
but short jour-neys and required to cover their faces in public.
Restrictions are enforced intermittently but, particularly for poorer
and more vul-nerable women including those without a guardian, the fear
of enforcement alone can be crippling. <Three I've seen women being
beaten in the market by Taliban. Sometimes now were wearing trousers
they thought were too tight, you should have seen how broken they were
afterwards,> said Farkhunda*, 16, who had to stop school in September
and has been battling depression. <Another time they beat girls just for
smiling and talking too loud. It's a natural thing to chat about dresses
you are buying and things,> she said.> She doesn't have
Taliban-regulation long, black abaya and the family can’t afford to buy
one. <Since then I've even stopped going to study at the madrassa
[religious school], it's better to be at home than run into these
animals,> she said.
Economic collapse
The economy has collapsed by at least a third, after international
sanctions on the Taliban cut trade, the aid that had sustained the last
regime dried up, and a militant group ill-prepared to shift from
fighting an insurgency to running a government stumbled in their
management. <We weren't politically linked to the last government, but
the Taliban are just taking revenge that we were here doing business,>
said one major entrepreneur who has laid off almost 500 staff after
equipment was confiscated and licenses suspended across several
sectors.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/07/they-beat-girls-just-for-smiling-life-in-afghanistan-one-year-after-the-talibans-return
France24
3 Aug 2022
<<Women in Afghanistan gradually disappearing from public life.
Women in Afghanistan are slowly disappearing from public life, a year
after the Taliban retook control of the country and imposed a rigorous
version of Islamic Sharia law. FRANCE 24's Shahzaib Wahlah and Sonia
Ghezali report from Kabul.
Deprived of education, forced to wear the full veil, banned from
politics and the media, women are gradually disappearing from public
life in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime has put in place a rigorous
version of Islamic Sharia law that leaves no room for women, who make up
more than half of the population. A civil servant who spoke to FRANCE 24
on condition of anonymity says she has become little more than a shadow.
Her husband is seriously ill and she was the sole breadwinner. <I liked
my work, I could offer a good education to my children. But when they
arrived I was forced to stay at home. And they cut my salary. I believe
that the Taliban are the same as they were before. It is a dark regime.
Click on the player above to watch the report in full.>>
https://www.france24.com/en/afghanistan/20220803-afghan-women-gradually-disappearing-from-public-life
Note from Gino d'Artali: There are several links embedded and all
concerning girl's education which 'till today is prohibited by the
taliban.
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