At 75, Mahbouba Seraj runs one of the only women’s shelters still open in Afghanistan. “The needs are glaring”, she drops in an interview at the Duty. And the danger is constant for those who assist these women plagued by violence, distress and poverty. “But it’s my responsibility as a mature human being to stay in my country and do what I’m doing,” said the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize nominee.
The day after the fall of Kabul, a year and a half ago, the Taliban came knocking on the door of the refuge that Mahbouba Seraj has been running since 2019. “Men in Afghanistan – even before the Taliban took power – think that the shelters are brothels”, despairs the activist for women’s rights. “The Taliban wanted to come and see if there were any men inside. »
At their insistence, the septuagenarian let one of the Taliban enter after asking the women accommodated to cover their heads and gather in the same room. “He saw our work and he took notes,” she says. Since then, the shelter, which welcomes 63 women in Kabul and which receives financial support from the UN, has been able to remain open. “They know that I am available at all times to answer their questions. »
The idea that the services offered since 2003 by the shelter are essential also seems to have gained ground. “Police find women, beaten and confused, on the streets in the middle of the night, not because they committed a crime and should be taken to jail, but because they ran away from home. them to save their lives,” the Afghan woman breathes from New Delhi, where she was attending an international conference last week.
next to them
After spending more than two decades in exile in the United States, Mahbouba Seraj returned to Afghanistan in 2003 to dedicate her life to “being the voice of voiceless women”. When the Taliban regained control of the country in 2021, the activist stayed put.
“These women need someone to stay here for them, someone to work for them, to speak for them, to stand beside them,” says the one who was named one of the 100 most influential people of 2021. by magazine Time. “The danger is still there. But it was my responsibility to stay, she testifies. This country is my whole life. »
Now confined to their role as wives, women have witnessed since the Taliban came to power the elimination, decree by decree, of their most fundamental rights. They can no longer work or study in secondary schools and universities. Their face must be covered at all times in public. They need to be accompanied by a Mahram (a man in their family) to go to the doctor, take the plane, travel on public transport, etc.
Mahbouba Seraj says she has no problem traveling abroad. “Age is an important factor in Islam. I still can’t get my husband out of the ground and take him with me,” she quips.
To find a way through to improve the fate of the Afghan people, Mahbouba Seraj calls on the international community to sit down with the Taliban. “Find a way to talk to them and talk to the people who live in Afghanistan,” she thunders. But not behind closed doors. We’ve had enough [ce type de pourparlers]. You have to talk to the women and men of the country, in addition to the Taliban. »
To act
Naheed A. Farid, an Afghan MP in exile, also calls on the international community to act swiftly. “Now is the time to put the rhetoric into action and do something to concretely change the lives of Afghan women,” she pleaded in an interview with the Duty on the sidelines of his participation in the 67e session of the Commission on the Status of Women currently taking place at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
To do this, the one who found refuge in the United States after the fall of Herat in August 2021, asks international actors to engage more actively with “the [voies] alternatives to the Taliban”. “The young people, the women, the educated people, they are the future of Afghanistan”, she underlines. And online education for women and girls should be supported more vigorously, the politician adds, now fellow at Princeton University.
These women need someone to stay here for them, someone to work for them, to speak for them, to stand by them.
Naheed A. Farid is herself involved in an initiative enabling 500 high school girls and 100 university students to pursue an online educational program from Afghanistan. “My message to all Afghan women is: don’t lose hope and keep educating yourself by all possible means,” says the one who had no internet access when she herself was deprived of school during the first Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001.
political project
The 30-year-old salutes the resilience of Afghan women who are resisting, each in their own way, the Taliban’s desire to “erase them from society” and use their rights as “a bargaining chip” in their political negotiations. . “You have to understand that what the Taliban do to women is much more political than religious,” says Naheed A. Farid.
“It is also important to recognize how authoritarian regimes based on radical Islam support each other and inspire each other,” she said, citing in particular the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who recently adopted a decree preventing women from traveling without a male companion, or Iran, which at the end of February allowed the Taliban to have diplomatic representation in Tehran. Regimes that are all based on patriarchy and misogyny, she adds.
In 2010, Naheed A. Farid became the youngest female MP to be elected to the Afghan Parliament. “I was 25, the minimum age to be elected,” she recalls. One of his main feats of arms was to pass a law allowing mothers to register their name in the official identity of their children. “There is the name of the father, and even of the grandfather, but not that of the mother,” she protests. The law was passed by parliament, but the Taliban overthrew the government before the president signed it, the politician laments. “We wanted to give Afghan women this recognition so that the world knows that they exist, that they are important. »
When a woman gets married in Afghanistan, the invitation card says “(father’s name) daughter is getting married…” rather than the woman’s name, she notes with dismay. “However, being a woman is not a sin or a crime,” she rages. As Afghan women struggle to have their most basic rights recognized and reclaim their dreams, Naheed A. Farid calls out to women around the world: “If you have the freedom to work and study, seize this opportunity and develop yourself until at the highest level of your profession. Show the world that women are the future. »