« Today, without a doubt, Afghanistan is one of the worst countries in the world to be born a woman.” Dorothée was in Kabul on September 27, 1996, the day the Taliban first took the capital. “When these “soldier monks” arrived, the Koran in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other, the women disappeared from the streets.” Driven out by the Americans after the attacks of September 11, 2001, they have been back in power since 2021. The Taliban, from Uzbek and Afghani “student” or “researcher”, are Islamist fundamentalists from Koranic schools southern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Their goal: to enforce an ultra-rigorous interpretation of sharia – Islamic law which governs religious, political, social and individual life. With the Taliban in power, Afghanistan becomes the alone country in the world where girls are prohibited from attending high school and university. Women do not have the right to work and they can only leave their homes accompanied by a Marham : a male member of the family or their husband. Their access to medical care is limited, and no protection does not exist in cases of gender-based or sexual violence.
What is the impact of this law on women’s daily lives? Haven’t they already lost their freedom 3 years ago?
“When the Taliban first took power in 1996 it was an outright nightmare, the moral police were extremely strict, whipping Afghans in the street when they didn’t stop to pray. Women had completely disappeared from public spaces. But since their return in 2021, it’s different. Many women refuse to wear the burqa. Over the past three years, on the streets of big cities like Kabul, I have seen women wearing a simple veil, with a few strands of hair showing. Some were made up, sometimes wearing a Covid mask to hide their faces. I passed girls walking in a small group, without a chaperone. Above all, even if women officially no longer had the right to work, almost 40% of them still had a job. Afghan women are very courageous: they resist the Taliban, and do the minimum of what is imposed by the regime. In this context, the law of August 21 is clearly a call to order. The Taliban want to show that they are back and force women to submit. I fear that this law will change everything, and that they will no longer have any room for maneuver. »
As a female reporter, how do you carry out your job in Afghanistan? Have you ever had a conversation with the Taliban? Are they willing to talk to you?
“I spoke with many Taliban during my travels, or should I say, I spoke to them and they responded to my Afghan interpreter, without ever looking at me. It’s as if I don’t exist: a Taliban doesn’t look a woman in the eyes if she’s not from his family, “out of respect” they say. One day, I managed to invite two Taliban to the restaurant with my interpreter. I said I wouldn’t change tables, and that they would have to look me in the eye eventually. They shyly complied and we were finally able to have a conversation. They told me their vision of things, explaining that they had fought to “kick the foreigners out of their country”, that is to say the Soviets, then the Americans. When I brought up the issue of women, they first assured me that it was imperative to cover women from head to toe to “protect them from men”. They used the “chocolate bar” analogy. A woman who is not covered is like a chocolate bar without wrapping: the wasps jump on it. However, one of them, aged around 22, admitted to me that he supported women’s education. He wanted his fiancée to work. The young Taliban are ultra-connected, far from being cut off from the world as in 1996. They have access to social networks, Western films and TV series. They are confronted with the emancipation of women. Perhaps this new generation can represent hope. »
The media talk about Afghan women and the Taliban. But what about Afghan men, who are not Taliban? Do they agree with the way the Taliban treat women? Do they defend women?
“The problem is that a woman is the responsibility of her father, her brother or her husband. If she breaks the law, it is the men in her family that the Taliban punish, it is they who are sent to prison. They are therefore afraid of reprisals. I said that today’s Taliban are very connected, and therefore more open to the world, but that also poses a problem: their eyes are everywhere. Nothing goes unnoticed anymore, everything is constantly filmed and the restrictions on freedoms are even stronger. But society is different, and I met many Afghans who supported women’s education and work. For example, this family whose two sisters demonstrated for their rights, supported by the anti-Taliban father. Furthermore, part of the population opposed to the regime claims that it is only a matter of time that the Taliban will eventually allow women to work. However, this new law suggests the opposite. »
-According to the agency United Nations for Refugeesmore than 23.7 million Afghans in the country and 7.3 million displaced people in neighboring countries need humanitarian assistance in 2024. Do you think the regime will eventually fall, due to the humanitarian situation and the economic crisis?
“The problem is that despite the serious humanitarian crisis and the economic slump, the country is not collapsing: the Taliban are managing to hold on. THE investments Americans after 2001 failed to rebuild the country due to corruption. However, for three years, Kabul has changed its face. I saw the restored buildings, flowers all over the streets, less pollution and a smaller presence of a population under the influence of drugs. The Taliban have forbidden the cultivation of poppy seeds, used to manufacture heroin, and have created “detoxification centers” after decades of conflict and political instability. Moreover, the Afghan currency has not collapsed. »
Could the Taliban regime fall due to the cessation of women’s work? As Algerian writer Kamel Daoud states, how can a country develop economically if half the population is excluded from the job market?
“The only hope is the medical community. Sharia law, Islamic law enforced by the Taliban, prohibits men from speaking, touching or even looking into the eyes of women. The professions in which women must be affected cannot therefore be exercised by men, and this concerns the medical field in particular: how can a doctor treat a patient if he cannot see her body or handle it? ? For the moment, some women gynecologists, midwives, or nurses continue to work, but if the Taliban ban women from studying medicine, I don’t know how the country will cope. »
How do you react back in Paris after your stays in countries like Afghanistan where women have no freedom?
“Traveling to countries like Afghanistan and speaking with the Taliban, who have a vision of the place of women in society that Westerners cannot even imagine, made me take a step back from my own vision of feminism . I understood that my fight for women’s rights was not in France. Of course I support women who denounce sexist and sexual violence committed against them, but that is not necessarily what touches me the most, what really makes me want to fight. I want to fight for Afghan women, for Iranian women, and for all those who risk their lives every day every time they have the courage to take a step towards freedom. We also need to go beyond our borders and raise awareness about what is happening in these countries. »
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