Afghanistan quietly celebrated International Women’s Day on Tuesday, with feminist activists living in fear of being arrested or detained by the new Taliban regime.
Since their return to power on August 15, the Islamist fundamentalists have swept away 20 years of freedom won by women.
They are now excluded from public employment, prohibited from traveling alone, or even obliged to dress according to a strict interpretation of Sharia, Islamic law.
“The Taliban have taken heaven and earth from us,” said an activist from the Women’s Unity and Solidarity group, on condition of anonymity.
The new masters of the country had however promised to be more flexible than during their first regime (1996-2001), when women were deprived of almost all their rights.
But the dreaded Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice quickly replaced that of Women’s Affairs.
“If you care about women’s rights anywhere in the world, you have to look at Afghanistan with great concern,” Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch told AFP. HRW).
“It is shocking how quickly the progress of the past 20 years has been erased, and how the international community is doing so little to defend Afghan women,” she said.
In fear
In the first months of the new regime, Afghan women wanted to oppose the restrictions imposed by the Taliban. They organized small demonstrations, mainly in Kabul, for the right to education and to work.
But the movement was brutally suppressed: at the beginning of the year, organizers of rallies were arrested and held incommunicado, some for several weeks.
Each time, the authorities have denied any involvement in the disappearances.
Since their release, these activists have lived in hiding, in fear.
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at least recognized the day of March 8, hoping that it would be “a favorable day for all women”.
The government will allow them “to have an honorable and beneficial life, in the light of the noble religion of Islam and our traditions”, he assured in a press release.
In one tweetTaliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called the day “an excellent opportunity for our Afghan women to claim their legitimate rights”, while protesting is prohibited unless specially authorized.
Behind the walls of the sprawling UN compound on the outskirts of the capital, an exhibition jointly organized by the UN and the Afghan Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry showcased products made by local women-owned businesses .
“We hope that women who are hiding in their homes for fear of insecurity will rise up in society, resume their work and activities,” said Tayeba Mashal, 47, owner of a business that bears her name.
No other public events were scheduled by women’s groups to mark the day.
Some were prohibited from collectively releasing balloons and had to do so each at home.
Members of the Powerful Women’s Movement of Afghanistan planned to donate blood at a hospital in Kabul, but there too they were refused.
The director of the establishment “declared that blood donation by women is not authorized, in accordance with Sharia”, explained to AFP one of them, Zakia Zahadat.