In January 2020, two Afghan women joined my beginners’ English class, which was mainly for refugees from Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.
Maryam and Amina (not their real names) were sisters who had just escaped from war-torn Afghanistan with their husbands and children and were in the process of seeking asylum. While Amina spoke virtually no English, Maryam had learnt some through online classes and private study and both women were eager to learn.
Maryam was desperate to progress – and indeed she moved up to the next level class within a month. She told me that their only future was here in the UK, because of the problems accessing education that women and girls faced in Afghanistan.
The first Covid-19 lockdown in March that year led to the classes being discontinued and sadly, I lost touch with the sisters, but fervently hope they were allowed to stay in the UK.
Ban on girls’ education and other laws crushing women’s rights
Life was not easy for Afghan women in 2020, but since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan have been further eroded.
Secondary schools for girls were closed in September that year and, despite promises from the Taliban, were never re-opened, resulting in despair amongst young women. One told the BBC: “I feel like I have buried my dreams in a dark hole.” Taliban leaders justified this due to lack of a “safe environment” for girls and argued that the syllabus needed remodelling along Islamic lines. Yet no other Muslim-majority country bans education for women.
By the end of December 2022, an indefinite ban on university education for women was also made. This was especially cruel, as thousands of girls had only recently sat university entrance exams. Young women were understandably “distraught” that their “hopes and dreams were crushed”.
Some women, like Maryam and Amina, have managed to escape the country in order to get an education abroad, but most are unable to leave. Gordon Brown called the ban “one of the gravest and most indefensible injustices of our generation.”
Women’s freedoms have been further curtailed by restrictions on work and travel, the impositions of strict dress codes and a bar on women entering parks, gyms and swimming pools. By mid-2023, hair and beauty salons were also banned – one of the few places that women could gather in safety.
Yet women continued to resist these relentlessly cruel bans, setting up secret schools and salons in their own homes. Until recently, some even risked detention and violent punishment by marching on the streets.
Latest draconian ban on women’s voices being heard in public
It’s very hard to imagine life for women and girls with so many constraints, but the Taliban has now gone even further with a raft of new “vice and virtue” laws. Women must completely cover their bodies, including their faces – only head-to-toe burqas are allowed in public – and must not be heard singing or reading aloud, including from inside their own houses.
The BBC gained access to some women in Afghanistan, who told them they felt the new laws “treat them like animals”. An understandable reaction was fear: “We’re scared,” said one, too frightened to talk even amongst themselves in case the Taliban overheard them.
“Every moment you feel like you’re in a prison,” said a woman activist. “If we can’t speak, why even live?” said another. Unsurprisingly, mental health among Afghan women has deteriorated markedly. One psychologist reported that there is a “pandemic of suicidal thoughts” among women.
“We won’t be silenced,” say Afghan women
Even now though, in the face of severe threats to their own safety, Afghan women are voicing their dissent by posting videos of themselves online, singing songs about freedom. “Let’s become one voice, let’s walk together holding hands and become free of this cruelty” are the words of one song.
Some videos show Afghan women singing alone or in small groups, using hashtags such as “#My voice is not forbidden” and “#No to Taliban”. “I am not that weak willow that trembles in every wind,” one sang. “I am from Afghanistan.”
Another song says: “Their boots might be on my neck. Or their fists to my face. But with our deep light inside, I will fight through this night.” This show of resistance is incredibly brave and moving.
International condemnation is strong – but actions must follow
These shocking “morality decrees” have been condemned by human rights groups. Amnesty International posted: “This decree is yet another brazen attack on human rights and must be immediately revoked.” Amnesty and the UN have called it a form of “gender apartheid”.
Roza Otunbayeva, the special UN’s representative for Afghanistan, stated: “It extends the already intolerable restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls.” A leading Afghan lawyer argued: “This document not only violates Afghanistan’s domestic laws but also broadly contravenes all 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Similarly, the EU described the new restrictions as: “systematic and systemic abuses… which may amount to gender persecution which is a crime against humanity”.
In the UK, I was pleased to see a strong statement from the UK Government to the UN Human Rights Council, condemning the recent edicts as “appalling” and “unjust”. The statement continues:
“The UK will not stop fighting for the rights of women and girls and will continue to find ways to support them in Afghanistan…The Taliban must reverse this edict.”
Fine words, but we need some positive action. The Green Party voted at their conference to endorse Amnesty’s call for “safe passage for Afghan women and girls seeking asylum in the UK” and continued support for women’s organisations in Afghanistan.
I‘ve never forgotten Maryam’s strong voice and determination to learn English, in the hope that this would make it easier for her and her family to stay in Britain. We must continue to support Afghan women or they will become invisible and unheard.
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