Former Minister of Women's Affairs from 2002 to 2004 and first Afghan woman to have governed a province (Bamiyan), Habiba Sarabi returns for France 24 to the situation in her country, almost a year after the return to power of the Taliban, on August 15 2021.

Winner of the Simone Veil Prize of the French Republic in 2021, she had participated in the peace negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban in Doha, organized in Doha from 2020. The woman politician draws up an overwhelming record, especially for women.

Excluded from public life by numerous restrictions imposed on their movements, their clothing and applied in their workplace, Afghan women are the first victims of the new regime.

The "suffocating repression" of the Taliban "destroys the lives of women and girls", wrote the NGO Amnesty International in its latest report published at the end of July.

France 24: what is the current situation in Afghanistan, almost a year after the fall of Kabul?

Habiba Sarabi

 : The Taliban did not come to power, they took it by force.

They are not bureaucrats, so it is a dictatorial power.

They are people who rule by force to force the population to obey them.

For the past year, the Afghans, in addition to suffering from poverty and hunger, have suffered in their daily lives from the absence of social services, and of education and health systems.

And when people, men and women alike, dare to stand up to resist or make their voices heard – especially on social networks, since there is no more freedom of the press – they are arrested, tortured or punished with another way by the Taliban.

Unsurprisingly, the Afghan woman seems to be the first victim of the power in place...

In the past twenty years, we had achieved a lot.

Many little girls have been able to go to school, to the point of representing up to 40% of school enrolments.

Even women's access to higher education had been improved.

A number of Afghan women have been able to join the civil service and others have been elected to parliament or appointed ministers.

In summary, they were present in almost all sectors.

Unfortunately after taking power, the Taliban decided to exclude women as quickly as possible from all areas of life, from the world of work and even to deprive them of access to education.

The mobilization of Afghan women forced them to allow the opening of schools to little girls, but only until the 6th.

Despite international pressure,

the mobilization of Afghan women on the spot and abroad, the Taliban refuse to go further.

They don't care about women's voices, they refuse to listen to them.

This is why we call on the international community and on Muslim countries to put pressure on the Taliban so that they accept, not only to reopen the doors of education to Afghan women, but also to restore the most elementary human rights for put an end to the discrimination that complicates the lives of women. 

Nearly half of the Afghan population is under the age of 15 according to the UN Refugee Agency.

How do you see the future of this youth and that of women?

The new generation, young people and women as a whole are the assets of Afghanistan.

If with the return to power of the Taliban, which is a setback for society as a whole, the country cannot take advantage of these assets to develop, particularly economically, then it will collapse.

Afghans are human beings, they are part of the international community, they deserve to have a better life.

We have suffered for more than forty years from wars and conflicts, and every day is a bloodbath.

The international community, primarily the United States and NATO, made a mistake in Afghanistan.

Without any plan, they withdrew and handed everything over to the Taliban.

Now they have to fix it.

The international community must assume its responsibilities towards the Afghan people and Afghan women in particular.

I remain very confident and proud of one thing: Afghan women are very courageous, and after having had access to education for the past two decades and become aware of their rights, I am sure that they will continue the fight to improve their lives. and that of their children.

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