With the Taliban on the verge of seizing power

The burqa trade is booming... and girls' education institutions are closed in Afghanistan

• The return of women to wearing heavy blue dress has become an obsession that haunts Afghan women.

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• A large displacement movement pervaded the Afghan cities.

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After the Taliban movement took control of most of Afghanistan and entered the capital, Kabul, and even the presidential palace, the features of life that were taking shape over the past two decades, after the movement was removed from the scene, seemed to evaporate and with it the dreams of many Afghans, especially women.

Journalist, Ruth Pollard, who specializes in covering conflicts in the Middle East, says in a report published by Bloomberg News Agency, that with the entry of the "Taliban" into the Afghan capital, Kabul, last Sunday, university lecturers gathered their students in a ritual that resembled a final farewell. The lecturers told the shocked young women: We may never meet again.” All lecturers have been evacuated, universities have been closed along with schools, offices and shops.

Pollard adds that she spoke on the phone with Aisha Khurram, one of the students whose dreams of academic study were shattered, and thousands like her. (Aisha), 22, was studying in the last semester of her studies in international relations at Kabul University, with only two months left On her supposed graduation, she says, "Now it looks like I'll never graduate."

Aisha Khurram's research topic was the reforms of the UN Security Council, and how those reforms would affect the missions of countries such as Afghanistan.

In Herat, the country's third largest city, which fell to the Taliban last Thursday, girls who were in their universities were asked to return to their homes, according to Khurram, who commented, "The education system is collapsing."

Yet one business is thriving, Pollard says. In the states, burqa shops are reopening, and thick blue head-to-toe clothing (the oppressive symbol of former Taliban rule) has become the pricey imperative, but not for everyone. .

"I see a lot of women, who were not in the previous (Taliban) period, saying that they will not stick to this oppressive dress," says Khurram, who was the representative of Afghan youth to the United Nations in 2019.

"I don't know what will happen to the younger generation of Afghan women, they were so wonderful, and now they are all sitting at home wondering what's going to happen, this generation shaped modern Afghanistan."

All that the citizens of Afghanistan can do is wait and worry. On Sunday, it was reported that dozens of helicopter flights took off over Kabul, as the United States and other countries rushed to evacuate their citizens, leaving the Afghans to their fate.

The Taliban now controls almost all of Afghanistan, from the provinces to their capitals, border crossings with most of the six neighboring countries, and now the capital, before the full withdrawal of US forces on August 31, and has asked its fighters to remain at the gates of Kabul until further notice.

But this is useless for Afghans, including the thousands of displaced people who have flocked to the capital to escape ruthless Taliban rule, where reports leak of ugly revenge killings, women being asked to leave their workplaces and back home, and men being asked to fire Beards, girls banned from going to school, and Afghans' dreams of a better future are now evaporating as they go straight back to the 1990s.

Despite the real dangers, many Afghans still speak out, with some interacting directly with Taliban spokesmen on Twitter, such as Moska Dastagir, a lecturer at the Kabul-based American University of Afghanistan.

"Afghans are tired of being victims, Afghan women will not hide, and we will not be afraid," Dastagir tweeted to a member of the movement's negotiating committee, Sohail Shaheen.

"The focus of the whole world is on Afghanistan, Kabul, (the Taliban) and what they're doing," he added.

From the moment former US President Donald Trump agreed to the agreement between the United States and the Taliban, which was signed on February 29 last year, which excluded the elected Afghan government, problems were beginning to appear, and Washington called for an initial troop reduction. and the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners.

In return, the Taliban pledged to cut ties with all terrorists, prevent Afghan territory from becoming a haven for militants, and enter into peace talks that were supposed to lead to a ceasefire and end decades of war, and this will confirm its sincerity in the coming days.

• All that the citizens of Afghanistan can do is wait and worry. On Sunday, it was reported that dozens of helicopter flights took off over Kabul, as the United States and other countries rushed to evacuate their citizens, leaving the Afghans to their fate.

• There is one business in Afghanistan that is thriving. Burqa shops are reopening, and thick blue women's head-to-toe clothing (the oppressive symbol of former Taliban rule) has become the inevitable, expensive dress.

• From the moment the former US President, Donald Trump, approved the agreement between the United States and the "Taliban", which was signed on February 29 of last year, which excluded the elected Afghan government, problems began to appear.

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