International reporting

In Afghanistan: Feminist activists risk their lives to defend their rights

Audio 02:49

Demonstration of around fifty women in front of the Ministry of Education in Kabul, Saturday morning August 13, 2022. © Clea Broadhurst / RFI

By: Sonia Ghezali Follow |

Clea Broadhurst Follow

3 mins

Deprived of education, forced to wear the full veil, banned from politics and the media, women are gradually disappearing from public space in Afghanistan.

The Taliban regime has implemented a rigorous version of Islamic Sharia law that leaves no room for those who represent more than half of the population.

Relegated to the rank of "minor under the guardianship of a male relative", women lost all of their acquired rights during the Afghan Republic of Afghanistan, supported between 2001 and 2021 by the international community.

Excluded from many jobs in the public service and in the private sector, the economic contribution they represented for the country has disappeared, and the UN even estimates it at one billion dollars, or up to 5% of the GDP of Afghanistan.

The future is a huge black hole

 ”, confide several Afghan women resigned to suffer their fate dictated by a regime that hates women. 

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From our special correspondent in Kabul, 

Cléa Broadhurst

, and our correspondent, 

Sonia Ghezali

Monday, August 15, 2022, in the streets of Kabul, hundreds of regime fighters and supporters celebrate their victory over the United States and its allies.

White and black Emirati flags flutter from Corolla and Jeep windows.

Loudspeakers broadcast

Nasheed

, these Muslim religious songs.

On the roof of a building, Zholya Parsi observes these scenes of joy, in the rain.

 Even the sky is crying over the misery of the Afghan people.

A year ago, Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Taliban and all the dreams, all the hopes of Afghan girls and boys were dashed

 ,” she laments.

Zholya, a former schoolteacher, has been campaigning for women's rights since the Taliban took power.

On this day, she wears a red dress to defy religious fundamentalists and a black veil as a sign of mourning. 

“I think they laugh at our death, at the death of our soul.

Their voices ring in my ears like an exploding atomic bomb.

They are celebrating the anniversary of our destruction.

They celebrate the misery of the Afghan people”

To defend her rights, Zholya Parsi takes risks, like Saturday August 13, when she organized a demonstration violently repressed by Taliban fighters who fired live ammunition in the air for long minutes. 

► Also to listen: Afghanistan: a demonstration of women dispersed by Taliban fire in Kabul

In the west of the country, in Herat, Niloufar chose to fight with his pen.

Writer, she publishes texts and poems against obscurantism.

She confides: 

"I'm very, very scared.

Every day when I put on my shoes to go out, I think to myself that I might not come back.

It's very difficult, but we try, the government doesn't like women working.

That's why we have to be careful.

»

The pressure is permanent for this feminist activist who teaches literature at the university and whose activist friend was arrested a year ago.

She says she is constantly on her guard.

I mentioned in class Syngué Sabour, the novel by Atiq Rahimi.

The heroine talks about her feelings.

One of my students exclaimed: Oh no!

You shouldn't talk about these things in class 

." 

Despite the risks, Niloufar refuses to give up his fight.

“It is our responsibility, our responsibility as human beings to remain mobilized.

I know that one day I might lose my life because of this, but it doesn't matter.

she exclaims.

August 15 is now a public holiday in Afghanistan.

For Niloufar and many Afghan women, this is a dark day.

► Also to listen

 :

 Afghanistan: women with a broken destiny envisage the worst

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  • Womens rights

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