Afghanistan war: Women afraid to leave their home, fear for their future after Taliban takeover
The Taliban is making assurances that this time will be different and it will respect women’s rights. But there are already ominous signs.
It’s been 20 years since the Taliban last enforced its brutal interpretation of sharia law in Afghanistan that forced girls and women to stop getting an education, banned them from leaving the house without being fully covered in a burqa and ordered them to stop working.
Under the law, women were unable to leave their home without a male relative by their side and were brutally punished if they disobeyed any rules.
While the Taliban is now working to assure the Afghan people, and the world, that it will not impose the same draconian rule it did during its 1996 to 2001 regime, it is a world that many still remember vividly.
For the women on the ground in Afghanistan, who have spent the past two decades being educated and going to work, a promise from the Taliban to maintain women’s freedoms so far means nothing.
Images and videos from this week showed terrified locals already working to protect themselves from potential Taliban retribution as they painted over advertisements featuring uncovered females.
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Kabul. pic.twitter.com/RyZcA7pktj
— Lotfullah Najafizada (@LNajafizada) August 15, 2021
And while thousands of people try to flee the war-torn nation, one Australian-Afghan woman is instead desperate to get over there.
Mahboba Rawi, who lives in northwest Sydney, has dedicated much of her life to helping Afghan women and children and started her foundation Mahboba’s Promise in 2001.
Her family fled Afghanistan during the war with the Soviets when she was just 15, before she settled in Australia.
Speaking to news.com.au toda, Mahboba encouraged the world: “Please, do not give up on Afghan women.
“Please stand by them,” she said.
Many Afghans are fearful of the Taliban regime, due to their notoriously harsh and violent history.
But not Mahboba.
“I am going to continue my work. I am not scared of the Taliban. Write that,” she said.
“Why? Because I am doing the holy work every day. I am doing the work our Qur’an said to do, to look after the poor and needy, to look after the displaced, look after the women and the children. I do that every day.
“So many pages of the Qur’an ask me to look after widows and orphans. If this Taliban is Muslim, they should pay respect to me, they should not stop me from working.
“When I say I’m not scared, I mean it.”
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During our chat, Mahboba was repeatedly fielding calls from women in Afghanistan, terrified at what their future could be.
Our call was briefly cut off when a 26-year-old woman named Latifa, who was raised in one of Mahboba’s orphanages in Kabul, texted her implying she was going to set herself on fire.
After a quick call with Latifa, the confusion is cleared up.
Mahboba realised Latifa, who spent years training as a teacher at university and landed a dream job, was instead tragically telling her: “You’ve left me alone to burn in the fire.”
“She’s lost hope for the future,” Mahboba said.
“The country is not going to give the young generation hope. They’ve studied for the past 20 years and their achievement is washed away … the feeling of Afghan women is so down. Even if the Taliban says nothing to them, they won’t come out. They’ll need a lot of encouragement.”
Latifa was one of hundreds of children raised in Mahboba’s Kabul orphanage.
The foundation has orphanages across Afghanistan to care for the many children left without parents due to the decades of war.
After the unrest in Kabul, Mahboba made the difficult decision to move 80 children to one of her other orphanages in the Panjshir Valley. It’s one of the only provinces now resisting the Taliban takeover and the children are stuck inside as fighting continues outside.
“They’re not safe there. It’s mostly young girls and tiny children. I want to get there … I have so much worry,” she said.
“I can’t say what I really want to say about the Taliban, the reason is because my orphanage is in Kabul and we’re working on ground for displaced people.”
Every day the foundation feeds 900 families with a big focus on getting milk for babies.
“If I am going to say something wrong [about the Taliban], they’d stop me from doing my work,” she said.
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Mahboba is desperately trying to apply for a visa for Latifa, who is “all alone” in Afghanistan.
“I’m trying to bring her here. She lost her mum and dad and brother and she lives with her uncle. She fears for her life because now it looks like all of her dreams are washed away,” Mahboba said.
“We worked so hard to encourage these women to become educated and get a proper job but now in the past few days all these women don’t know what to do. Many of them are scared. There’s a deep emotional violence in Kabul.”
Decades working to help women and children
Through her foundation, Mahboba supports thousands of children and around 500 widows. “Every one of them has five to 10 children,” she said.
“I feel responsible for all of them. It’s a difficult moment. I need money and resources to help them get back on their feet,” she added.
For decades she has worked tirelessly for women to help them “stand on their feet and to be self-sufficient”.
Mahboba urged Australians to help her in her battle for Afghan women.
“My message is that for the people in Australia to help me … give that positive energy for a revolution to help them come out,” she said.
“Afghan women are not the same women of 20 years ago, they’ve developed a lot … and every line of the Qur’an says women deserve equal opportunity in every walk of life.
“They’re overwhelmed and scared because they remember what the Taliban used to be. The Taliban is claiming they’ve changed. Let’s see if they have.”
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Mahboba is tragically aware of the privilege she has, sitting in her home in Sydney “looking at the trees and the blue sky”.
“It’s easy for me, but my wording is not to put Afghan women down, it’s to encourage and support them. All of you Afghan women are heroes,” she said.
“You don’t have to be scared, you just have to cover your head and go on with your life.”
Mahboba also has a message for the US.
“History will remember this dark day for Afghanistan. Did you achieve your democracy? The US just stopped helping our people. Afghanistan has lost trust in the Western world because of the US,” she said.
“They emotionally and mentally destroyed 30 million people. I don’t think our history will forgive them.”
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