The girls and women of Afghanistan will rise again

AFTER my article,  A Dirge for Afghan Girls and Women?, bemoaning the fate of girls and women in Afghanistan under the resurgent Taliban against the background of the brutality the Taliban visited especially on girls and women the first time they were in power in Afghanistan, we now have reports of the rank and file of the Taliban again imposing draconian restrictions on girls and women in Afghanistan in spite of the promises and pledges of the Taliban leadership not to restrict women this time around. Of course, we have also seen the international system, under the leadership of the United States, which unceremoniously left Afghanistan after a 20-year misadventure without even a thought as to the Afghan helpers now left at the mercy of the rampaging and vengeful Taliban, not doing more than issuing advisories to admonish the Taliban not to oppress girls and women and minorities and believing that they could get the Taliban to behave well through such ineffectual and tepid statements. With the international system effectively turning its back on the Afghan girls and women, they now know that they have to rely on themselves to plot a future for themselves in the face of the new onslaught from the Taliban.

But the Taliban should not be joyous at this new and renewed opportunity handed over to them by the international community to reprise their brutality on the hapless girls and women of Afghanistan. For even without the concern and support of the international community, girls and women in Afghanistan would not simply allow the Taliban to ride roughshod over them and trample upon their humanity and dignity. And they are not going to allow the gains they have made in the last twenty years to go to waste or be rubbished and tossed into the winds by the Taliban. Afghan women are not just going to see themselves or allowed themselves to be seen as victims in their present conditions, which terminology would deny them of agency and the capacity to act for and on behalf of themselves.  Aryana Sayeed has argued that “the women of Afghanistan are not the same women they were 20 years ago … (they) are more educated and more self-aware than those the Taliban forced out of school and work when they last ruled Afghanistan … .’ And this especially as they are also known, according to Carli Pierson, as being “resilient, educated, powerful and (capable of being able to) run the gamut of opinions, desires and deeds … .”

These women have seen the progress they could make when the right and conducive environment and provisions are made and provided for unhindered living of the people. Without the brutalities of the Taliban, the record of progress has been staggering in the last twenty years: ‘the average life expectancy increased by 10 years. Literacy rates increased to 43 percent and, among young adults, reached 65 percent. Afghan girls and boys went to school in droves and women were allowed to work, becom(ing) politicians, journalists and academics.’ In particular, for the past 20 years, “women in Afghanistan have gone to school, pursued careers, and fought to achieve social standing equal to men. They have become artists, activists, and actors.” Today, “millions of girls don schools uniforms – half of Afghan women age 15 to 24 are able to read – double the literacy rate for women in 2000. And though their involvement in the labor market is still far below most countries, an increasing number of Afghan women have served in government, on the bench, and in the media.”

The Taliban, therefore, have a new force of girls and women to confront even as they attempt to reenact their suppression of the females in Afghanistan. They must be ready to be opposed by determined women with a long history of bravery and stoic persistence if they are intent on visiting their usual bestiality and atrocities on girls and women. As Lina Haidari puts it, the Taliban would be mistaken if they think that “the rights and achievements of women, which we have worked and fought for over 20 years” could be ignored under Taliban rule.  Afghan women would not simply allow themselves to be treated with disdain and inhumanity again – and this not because they are going to take up arms against the Taliban – but more in terms of their deep and unchanging resolve to stick to and defend what is right for them; what NelufarHedayat calls their ‘I can’t not do this’ stare and look of women who are fighting for their very existence.’ The struggle against oppression of the women by the Taliban would be more of the dare of these women to stand up for their own humanity, and not to brook anything that would dissuade them along the way in waging such silent but important struggle. We have seen elements of this resolve in the protests by women in Kabul and Herat since the new arrival of the Taliban in power in an unusual public challenge to Taliban rule.

Even without the Taliban settling down fully to power and governance, they are already being told in unmistakable terms that the girls and women of Afghanistan would refuse to be oppressed and suppressed this time around. According to some of the women protesters: ‘we follow the news, and we don’t see any women in Taliban meetings and gatherings. … We want to be part of the government – no government can be formed without women. We want the Taliban to hold consultations with us. … No government can be long lasting without the support of women. Our demands: The right to education and the right to work in all areas.’ And Rada Akbar, a Kabul-based photographer, painter and activist, must be speaking for all Afghan girls and women when she retorts about the Taliban: ‘The Taliban have been targeting women like me and my friends for the past 20 years … People must be so naïve to trust that they have changed. Twenty years of killing and destruction and overnight they change? No. They are the same. … The irony is that when they took Kabul they announced amnesty and they said, We forgive every Afghan. What do you mean you forgive us? You killed us. You forgive me for what? For being an artist? You forgive us for losing our lives?’

The implication is that Afghan girls and women would continue to resist the Taliban even if silently, without compromising, until the victory of a regular life is achieved for girls and women in Afghanistan.

This is why NelufarHedayat is convinced that the only route to success in confronting the Taliban ‘lives in the heart of every educated girl and woman who stands up in protest. It lives in the act of raising the Afghan national flag, forbidden by the Taliban militia, in provinces where the Afghan identity is worth living for. It lives, forever, in the hearts and the minds of the Afghans who will try to resist by continuing to build their homeland, educate themselves and push for freedoms so hard-earned.’ It must be for this reason and on the basis of this premise that Aryana Sayeed is of the opinion that this time around, Afghan girls and women ‘are definitely not going to accept this … fundamentalist Islam’ and that they will rise again even under the Taliban. And we agree with her.

• Yakubu is of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan.

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