KABUL, Afghanistan — Her mother begged her not to go to the protest, even as Maryam Hassanzada was on her way out the door.
Ms. Hassanzada (24), reassured her mother and joined a dozen women protesting a Taliban order this month that required Afghan women to cover their heads from head to toe.
Their faces uncovered, the women chanted “Justice! Justice!” and “Stop tyranny against women!” They protested for about 10 minutes before Taliban gunmen roughly broke up the demonstration. Protesters claimed they were held for two hours by Taliban security officers, berated and questioned, then released with a warning to not protest again.
Ms. Hassanzada was not bowing.
“If we don’t protest, the world won’t know how badly Afghan women are oppressed,” she said later.
These are difficult times for Afghan women. The Taliban have shown no signs of relenting in their efforts to crack down on basic rights such as education and employment for women, but also on every aspect of public lives, from travel to deportment.
The cover-up decree also advised women to stay at home unless they had a compelling excuse to leave. It was a follow-up to a previous rule that required women who traveled more than 45 miles from their homes to be accompanied with a male relative.
In August, the Taliban pledged to be less restrictive towards women than under their previous rule in late 1990s. “There will be no violence against women, no prejudice against women,” the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters.
Instead, in a matter of months, the Taliban have imposed onerous decrees that have dragged women from the relative freedoms achieved over the past two decades to a harsh interpretation of Islamic law that smothers women’s rights.
The decree is not always observed on the streets of the capital.
In the Dasht-e-Barchi district, home to Hazaras, a predominantly Shiite Muslim minority, very few women cover their faces — except for surgical masks for Covid-19. Nearby Karte Naw, an ethnic Pashtun region, is where most women cover their faces with hijabs or head scarves.
Reporting from Afghanistan
Kabul women claimed that men in the street harassed them and berated their appearances in public with their faces exposed.
Most women outside of the capital seem to be following the decree. Women claim that Taliban enforcers have harassed them in the country, sometimes violently, and told them to cover themselves up.
Farahnaz, an undergraduate from the University of Takhar, stated that the religious police had established checkpoints to inspect rickshafts transporting women to class in the northern province. She claimed that anyone not wearing all-black hijabs was beaten up and sent home.
“I had a colored head scarf but they sent me back home and said I had to wear a black hijab and niqab,” she said, referring to a garment that covers the hair and face except for the eyes. For fear of retribution she requested to be identified only by her first name.
Anisa Mohammadi is a 28-year-old lawyer in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan. She said that she bought a Burqa because she was afraid her honor would be question if she didn’t wear it. She said that the religious police in Mazar-i-Sharif were closely watching women and ordered them to cover up.
In Baghlan Province, also in northern Afghanistan, Maryam, 25, a women’s rights activist who has refused to cover her face, said that a friend had been warned that she would be flogged if she continued to wear only a head scarf.
“I’m scared,” said Maryam, who asked that her last name not be published. “The Taliban told me that I’d better not come to the city again if my face is not covered.”
A Kabul university student of 24 years wearing a head scarf and no face cover to a popular recreation spot claimed she was struck on her head by a rifle butt by a passing Taliban gunman. He shouted at the student to cover her face.
Taliban gunmen have pointed weapons at female protesters, sprayed them with pepper spray and called them “whores” and “puppets of the West,” Human Rights Watch has said.
Local news media reported that Taliban enforcers had sent some female students from Kabul University home because they didn’t comply with the hijab order. Human Rights Watch reported that the Taliban religious Police attempted to compel. Afghan women working for the United NationsMission in Kabul to cover-up.
Muhammad Sadiq Akif (spokesman for the Virtue and Vice Ministry) in Kabul denied that any women had been accosted and punished. He stated that the ministry patrols had not made women cover up, but had only explained the decree to encourage full compliance.
He also denied that women were forced to wear black hijabs and said that they could wear hijabs in any color.
“Out of respect for the sisters of our country, we do not stop, summon or punish any women,” he said in an interview at the ministry, which has replaced the previous government’s Ministry for Women’s Affairs.
“The hijab is the command of God and must be observed,” Mr. Akif said, adding that the regulation for women was “for their own protection.”
The decree, ordered by the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, mandated a series of escalating punishments, including jail time, for male relatives of women who repeatedly refused to cover themselves. Mr. Akif said that some men were formally warned, but not penalized.
Some women detested this pressure. “My father and brothers do not have a problem with me,” said Mozhda, 25, a women’s rights activist in Mazar-i-Sharif who has refused to cover her face and asked to be identified by only her first name for fear of retribution.
The Taliban had been in power for 20 years before the takeover of last summer. Many women, especially those living in cities, grew accustomed to the more relaxed lifestyle.
“Women now are not like the women of 20 years ago, and the Taliban should understand that,” said Fatima Farahi, 55, a women’s rights activist in Herat, in western Afghanistan.
Ms. Farahi stated that she and many other women from Herat refused to cover their faces. She stated that so far, the Taliban had not threatened her or her colleagues.
In Kabul, the protesters, who call themselves the Afghanistan Powerful Women’s Movement, vowed to continue to protest and to use social media to urge women to defy the decree.
When Taliban gunmen ordered them to stop a recent rally, a protest leader, Munisa Mubariz, shouted: “You cannot stop our voices!”
The women claimed they were warned that if they protest again, they would be sent to jail for five days.
Five Western journalists and two Afghan reporters covering the demonstration were also taken into custody. They were questioned separately for two hours by the women and later released without injury.
Mr. Akif of the Virtue and Vice Ministry said that the women who protested had made a mistake, and “were given the right understanding” of the decree by Taliban officials.
“It is not permissible to stand or protest against any kind of Islamic ruling and it is considered a crime,” he said. “If they understand and the right way is shown for them, they will never do these things. I’m sure they will comply.”
Zakia Zahadat (one of the protesters) said “No way,”
“I’ll be back — I won’t stop protesting,” Ms. Zahadat, 24, said. “We’re facing an economic crisis, a social crisis and a political crisis, but the Taliban only care about the hijab? Does this mean if we wear a hijab all our problems will be solved?”
Jamila Barati, 25, another protester, said, “Women have to fight for their rights, no matter the risks. I won’t stop protesting.”
Many women claimed that their parents or husbands had begged them to stop. Women claimed they had received threatening telephone calls from Taliban security officials. Some claimed that they moved house to house in order to avoid detection.
Ms. Hassanzada stated that her mother had asked her not to go outside.
Ms. Hassanzada stated that she spent most her time at home because the Taliban had fired her from her job in a government ministry. She stated that she returned home from the most recent protest in good health and fulfilled a promise she made her mother.
“I said I would never leave the house — except to protest,” she said.
Najim Abed Al-JabouriHouston contributed reporting Safiullah PadshahAnd Kiana HayeriKabul.
Source: NY Times
