Washington, DC., July 15, 2024 ——
Since regaining power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have turned the clock back for women and girls to ancient times, and have been the source of the world’s most egregious human rights violations. Gender apartheid in Taliban Afghanistan is a life of restriction, and those restrictions go well beyond erasing access to education, barring women from paid employment, preventing freedom of movement and speech, and blocking participation in community and government.
In early 2022, the Taliban barred women from working in humanitarian aid agencies, which put women and girls in crisis. In Afghanistan’s gender-segregated society, banning women from delivering aid means fewer women and girls will receive much-needed aid, putting them at a significant disadvantage.
But the Taliban went the extra mile and ordered the closure of all the beauty salons throughout the country, eliminating some 60,000 jobs for women. The move was not only an assault on the livelihood of Afghan women, but also another measure of isolation, eliminating a “women-only” space for socialization outside of the home.
Women and girls in Taliban Afghanistan are told what to wear, where they can go, who they are allowed to meet, and who they marry. Simple things that most of us take for granted: a walk in the park, playing and watching sports, traveling, and socializing with friends, are things that Afghan women and girls are not permitted to do. Their most basic human rights have been stripped away. Women who attempt to protect and defend their rights face horrific consequences including surveillance, harassment, assault, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture, and death.
In October 2021, I learned firsthand the lengths that the Taliban would go to eliminate women from public view when one of its members walked up behind me in Kabul and shot me in the back. I remember the force of the impact knocking me to the ground. I couldn’t breathe. I remember the warmth of the blood from my side. Thankfully, the vest I was wearing had plates that protected me. However, the bullet hit the corner of my vest, and it fragmented, and a piece of it impaled me, requiring surgery to remove it. Had I turned a fraction of an inch more, I would have taken the bullet, and not the vest. I don’t know why he didn’t shoot me in the head, but I know that I’m lucky to be alive. I could have very easily died on that street in Kabul. If I were there today, my fate would be far worse than a bullet to the back.
Death by Stoning
“We will flog women… we will stone them to death in public for crimes,” said Hibatullah Akhundzada the Taliban supreme leader in a message on 24 March this year.
Death by stoning is a method of capital punishment that dates back to ancient times. It occurs when a group throws stones at a person until the subject dies from blunt-force trauma. It is not instant. It is slow, it is painful, it is barbaric, it is torture, and it is inhumane. This is why only a handful of countries (Iran, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Brunei, Sudan, and parts of Nigeria and Pakistan) still stone people to death – most of the time, women.
In November 2015, in Firozkoh, Ghor province, Taliban members stoned a nineteen-year-old woman named Rokhshana to death for adultery. She had been forced to marry against her will and fled with another man. The couple was arrested a few days later. The man received a lashing, but the Taliban leader of the village ordered Rokhshana to be stoned to death.
A graphic video of the group stoning Rokhshana was published by international broadcaster Radio Free Europe. The horrific murder was filmed by spectators on their cellphones. The video shows Rokhshana in a pit with her head slightly above the rim. There are dozens of men in a circle around the pit. The men hurl rocks at Rokhshana at close range. Her cries can be heard on the video as she professes her Muslim faith while the men continue to throw rocks at her until her cries stop and she is dead.
Earlier in March of the same year, twenty-seven-year-old Farkhunda Malikzada was beaten and burned alive. Her crime: she argued with a sixty-year-old peddler who was selling charms to women outside of an Islamic shrine in Kabul. The peddler accused her of blasphemy and an angry mob of men grabbed her by the hair, kicked her, and beat her in the face. They dragged her to the river and set her on fire.
In the nearly three years since the Taliban assumed control, Abdul Malik Haqqani, the Taliban’s deputy to the supreme leader, said the Taliban had carried out 37 stoning sentences, and 4 sentences where persons were buried alive in a wall. All those sentenced to death were women.
No Recourse for Women
In Taliban Afghanistan being female is now a death sentence. Women cannot defend themselves. If a woman is accused of something she will surely be convicted and most likely killed. Before 2021, thousands of cases involving violations of women’s rights were vigorously prosecuted and the rights of women and girls were protected.
However, since the Taliban took control, the entire legal system has collapsed, and the constitution suspended. The absence of a functional legal framework undermines the rule of law and access to justice for all individuals. Previously, there were several options available to women falsely accused including the ability to appeal to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, Elimination of Violation Against Women in the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice and the office of the Attorney General. However, in Taliban Afghanistan, none of these options or services exist today.
Sadly, the crisis in Afghanistan has been overshadowed by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and multiple humanitarian crises. Afghan women and girls do not have the option to flee freely and start a new life elsewhere. Without intervention, life under Taliban rule will be constantly restrictive, miserable, and fearful.
The Taliban have committed crimes against humanity of gender persecution. These crimes fall under national and international courts. How the international community responds to the gender apartheid in Taliban Afghanistan will have deep implications for gender equality everywhere.
With gratitude… Lara
Photo credit: “Women of Afghanistan” by Eric Draper. Licensed under CC By SA 4.0
#thinkingoutloud #larakajs #genderapartheid #Afghanistan #humanrights #womensrights #womenofAfghanistan
Lara Kajs is the founder and executive director of The Genocide Report, a nonprofit NGO in Washington DC. She is the author of Stories from Yemen: A Diary from the Field, and the forthcoming, Assad’s Syria: Displacement, Torture, and Mass Execution. Ms. Kajs frequently speaks about atrocity crimes, forced displacement, and international human rights. Follow and connect with Lara Kajs on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn
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