The Guardian
Supported by the guardian org
24 Feb 2023
By Ruchi Kumar and Hikmat Noori
<<Farzana survived rape, addiction and losing her children. Then the Taliban came - now she is missing
For more than a year, Mariam*, an Afghan psychologist, has been trying to trace Farzana* and 14 other female survivors of domestic violence, whom she was counselling before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. After the takeover in August 2021, the organisation Mariam worked for was forced to close its offices, and many of her colleagues fled the country. But Mariam, who went into hiding and is now living in exile, continued to run a small operation discreetly, providing psychological support to vulnerable women, young people and mental health patients. <But there are 15 women who are untraceable. I have no idea where they are,> she says. One of them is the 28-year-old Farzana, a survivor of domestic violence and a re-covering addict, who was forced into drug dependency by her abusive husband of 12 years. When Mariam first met Farzana in early 2019, she was in the process of securing a divorce, an arduous process during which she was abused, blackmailed, humiliated and lost cus-tody of her three children. <I feel guilty about leaving the children with him but it was the only way I could escape his abuse,> Farzana told the Guardian in an interview in 2019. <He is a horrible man. He would rape me, and if I tried to resist he beat me up. Then he started to drug me so I couldn't fight back,> said Farzana, her hands trembling from the symptoms of withdrawal she was experiencing.
Even after the divorce, her husband broke into her house, raped her and beat her unconscious, she said. Mariam says: <The violence only stopped after he was arrested and convicted in a murder case. She was finally able to be free of him, get her kids back and rebuild her life. She made a living teaching the Qur'an to neighbourhood kids, and during our last session she told me that she no longer needed my support.> But a few weeks after their last session, in July 2021, Herat province fell to the Taliban, who released all prisoners from Afghan jails. <She called to tell me her husband was threatening her. He told her he had joined the Taliban and would find and punish her. She was terrified, and was in hiding with her children,> says Mariam. In the weeks after the collapse of the Afghan government, Mariam, too, was forced to switch off her phone due to the threats from criminals who had been set free, many associated with the Taliban. They blamed her for protecting and supporting victims of their violence, leading to their incarceration. <[When I turned my phone on again and tried to contact] patients who called me in that period seeking help, I couldn't reach them because their phones had been disconnected,> she adds. Today, Mariam has no idea where Farzana and the 14 other women are. She and her colleagues are not alone. According to a report by Amnesty International, several orga-nisations providing psychosocial support and shelters to Afghan female survivors of gender-based violence were forced to shut down by the Taliban.>>
* Names have been changed to protect identities
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/feb/24/afghanistan-taliban-domestic-violence-women-missing

The Guardian
Supported by Melissa and Bill Gates Foundation
17 Feb 2023
By Haroon Janjua
<<Taliban fighters stop chemists selling contraception
Taliban fighters have stopped the sale of contraceptives in two of Afghanistan's main cities, claiming their use by women is a western conspiracy to control the Muslim population. The Guardian has learned that the Taliban has been going door to door, threatening midwives and ordering pharmacies to clear their shelves of all birth control medicines and devices. <They came to my store twice with guns and threatened me not to keep contraceptive pills for sale. They are regularly checking every pharmacy in Kabul and we have stopped selling the products,> said one store owner in the city.
A veteran midwife, who did not want to be named, said she had been threatened several times. She said she was told by a Taliban commander: <You are not allowed to go outside and promote the western concept of controlling population and this is unnecessary work.> Other pharmacists in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif confirmed that they have been ordered not to stock any birth control medicines.<Items such as birth control pills and Depo-Provera injections are not allowed to be kept in the pharmacy since the start of this month, and we are too afraid to sell the existing stock,> another shop owner in Kabul said. It is the latest attack on women's rights by the Taliban who, since coming to power in August 2021, have ended higher education for girls, closed universities to young women, forced women out of their jobs and restricted their ability to leave their ho-mes. Restricting contraceptives will be a significant blow in a country with an already fragile healthcare system. One in every 14 Afghan women dies of causes related to pregnancy and it is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to give birth. The Taliban's Ministry of Public Health in Kabul has not issued any official statement on the issue and the UNFPA representative in Afghanistan did not respond to requests for comment. Taliban fighters patrolling in the streets in Kabul told sources that <contraceptive use and family planning is a western agenda>. For Zainab, 17, who was married two years ago in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the ban on contraceptives was a shock when she was told by her midwife last week.
Zainab, who has an 18-month-old daughter, is worried. <I was secretly using contraceptives to avoid immediate pregnancy. I want to raise my daughter well with proper health and education facilities but it shattered my dreams when the midwife last week informed me that she had no contraceptive pills and injections to offer me,> she said. <I left education to get married and I don't want my daughter's fate to be the same as mine. I seek a different future for my daughter. The last hope to plan my life has ended,> said Zainab. Shabnam Nasimi, an Afghan-born social activist in the UK, said: <The Taliban's control not only over women's human right to work and
study, but now also over their bodies, is outrageous. It is a fundamental human right to have access to family planning and contraception services free of coercion. Such autonomy and agency are essential components of women's rights such as the right to equality, non-discrimination, life, sexual health, reproductive health, and other basic human rights.> >>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/feb/17/taliban-ban-contraception-western-conspiracy

The Guardian
9 Feb 2023
Supported by The Guardian Org
By Zahra Joya and Rukhshana Media reporters
<<'No escape' for Afghan girls forced out of education and into early marriage
It is six weeks since the Taliban closed the door on girls’ education across Afghanistan and Zeina's last vestiges of hope for her future died. A very different kind of life now lies ahead for the 20-year-old, a life of domestic drudgery, boredom and seclusion that she has no power to change. Since the Taliban took control in August 2021, Zeina had managed to convince her frightened family to let her stay at school. She held on to the belief that she would somehow find a way to finish her education and achieve her dream of getting a master's in medicine. This dream has now ended. <When the schools were closed [by the Taliban], my father told me that he can't bear the poverty any more,> she says. <He had to marry me off to some-one. If the schools were not closed, this would not have happened. I wanted to finish my studies and be able to make something of my life for myself and my family, but all of these dreams have come to nothing.> Zeina's entire life has been defined by war and violence. Born in Badghis province, three years ago her family were displaced to Herat to escape increasing violence and fighting between the Taliban and the forces of the former Afghan government. Life as refugees has been difficult for Zeina's family. Already, Zeina had faced pressure from her father to marry because of the debt and pover-ty they were facing. Now, just weeks after the closure of all secon-dary schools and universities for girls, Zeina's marriage has already been arranged. Her father has spent most of her 200,000 afghani (£1,840) dowry, using 150,000 to pay off his debts. Now, as she prepares for her wedding day, Zeina is struggling with depression and anxiety. But there is no way out for her. <I'm stuck in a vortex of fate,> she says. <There is no escape.> Since the education ban, reports of schoolgirls and university students across the country being forced into marriage have increased. In December 2021, a de-cree by the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhund-zada, outlawed forced marriage and required women's consent to matrimony. Yet a prosecutor for the former Afghan government, who did not want to be named for security reasons, says this is not being enforced and the number of forced marriages has risen markedly since the Taliban attacked girls' right to education. <We are witnessing forced marriages in the provinces and Kabul. The very dire economic situation across the country causes more girls to get mar-ried off by their families,> she says. <During the previous government, when girls were attending schools and universities, the rate of forced marriages had decreased. Now they are rising again.> Mozhgan Ahmadi*, 18, was a seventh-grade student in the Shaidayee district of Herat before the Taliban took over. After the schools closed, her father accepted an offer of 700,000 afghani (£6,420) for his daughter's marriage to a local man working as a well-digger. Mozhgan says that, at first, she hoped her future husband would support her wish to finish school if the Taliban ever eased restrictions, but he refused.>>
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/feb/09/no-escape-for-afghan-girls-forced-out-of-education-and-into-early-marriage
* Names has been changed

Jinha | Womens News Center
3 Feb 2023
<<Professor arrested in Kabul for giving books to women
News Center- Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, women have been deprived of their rights such as their right to education, to work and to make decisions on their lives. While volunteer teachers and lecturers try to provide education for girls and women in a secret way, they face oppression by the Taliban. Professor Ismail Mashal, founder of the private Mashal University in Kabul and a lecturer at Kabul University, who protested the ban on women's education, was arrested and transferred to an unknown location by the Taliban forces for, according to local people, giving books to people, particularly to girls and women in Kabul. Professor Ismail Mashal previously made a statement in January against the Taliban's ban on women's education, <I will protest against the ban on women's education even if it means my death. Men must stand up for women. The only power I have is my pen, even if they kill me, even if they tear me to pieces, I will not stay silent now.> His family has expressed their concern about his life. The Taliban forces have not made any statement about the reason for his arrest.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency1.com/en/actual/professor-arrested-in-kabul-for-giving-books-to-women-32736?page=1

France 24
30 Jan 2023
<<UN calls on Taliban to let women help give aid to desperate Afghans
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN humanitarian chief said Monday he has pleaded with the Taliban to let women participate in a massive effort to support desperate Afghans struggling to survive a <savage> winter. Afghanistan is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with more than half of its 38 million population facing hunger and nearly four million children suffering from malnutrition. At least 166 people died in a recent wave of bitterly cold weather that heaped misery on the poverty-stricken nation. The crisis was compounded last year when Taliban leadership banned Afghan women from working with NGOs, forcing several aid agencies to suspend their vital work. In recent weeks, the authorities have allowed women to work in the health sector only. But <Afghanistan is going through a savage winter,> UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Martin Griffiths told reporters. <Last winter, we managed to survive. I don't know if we can do this indefinitely, not with these bans.> The United Nations has pleaded with the Islamists to expand the exemptions to <cover all the aspects of humanitarian action,> Griffiths, who led a delegation of senior NGO officials to meet several Taliban leaders in Kabul last week, said. He said they were told <such arrangements would be forthcoming.> But when, or what those arrangements might look like was another matter.<We were told the guidelines are being developed by the Taliban authorities,> allegedly providing a role for women in humanitarian operations, Griffiths said.
<Let's see if these guidelines do come through,> he said.>> AFP
Read more here:
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230130-un-calls-on-taliban-to-let-women-help-give-aid-to-desperate-afghans

France 24
30 Dec 2022
By Pauline Rouquette
<<In retrospective.
With advances and setbacks, a year of struggle for women's rights
From the US revoking the federal right to abortion to Afghanistan mandating the burqa and gradually banning women from public spaces, FRANCE 24 takes a look back at the main events that marked the struggle for women's rights around the world over the past year. From one continent to another, women both achieved mile-stones and encountered setbacks in 2022. Iran has been dominated by riots and demonstrations provoked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian Kurdish woman who died in custody after the coun-try's morality police arrested her for violating hijab laws. In Afghanistan, more than a year after the Taliban returned to power, the situation is becoming increasingly worrying for women. Following several decades of social progress for Afghan women - and despite the promises of the Taliban, who had already imposed an ultra-rigorous application of Islam between 1996 and 2001 - they are once again being forced to wear the burqa and girls are banned from attending school. But the fight for women's rights has resulted in a few victories, which although they sometimes seem small are nonetheless symbolic. FRANCE 24 takes a look back at the main events that marked the struggle for women's rights around the world in 2022. |Note from Gino d'Artali: I took the liberty to 'only' concen- trate on the (unfortunately non-) achievements made by the Afghanistans' women.|
....
March: The Taliban regime strips away Afghan women's rights
Women are gradually disappearing from the public sphere in Afghanistan as they are being deprived of an education, forced to wear the burqa, and banned from politics and the media. The Taliban regime has put a rigorous version of Sharia law in place that leaves little room for women, who make up more than half of the popula-tion. On March 23, girls who were initially allowed to return to school after the Taliban decided to reopen secondary schools were asked to return home a few hours later. Afghanistan has thus become the only country in the world where girls are forbidden to attend secondary school. Since a decree came into force on May 7, Afghan women have once again been forced to wear the burqa. <Women who are not too old or young must cover their face, except the eyes, as per sharia directives, in order to avoid provocation when meeting men who are not mahram (adult close male relatives),> read the decree, announ-ced by Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada. In November, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice published a new set of rules: Women are now banned from gyms, swimming pools, parks and gardens. Previously, separate times and days had been set aside to ensure that men and women did not cross paths.>>
Read more here:
https://www.france24.com/en/culture/20221230-with-advances-and-setbacks-a-year-of-struggle-for-women-s-rights

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