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Arezo, the Afghan resigned but not defeated
The seizure of power by the Taliban on August 15, 2021 changed the destiny of Arezo, until then an active woman.
© Shahzaib Wahlah/RFI
Text by: Sonia Ghezali Follow
4 mins
A senior civil servant in Afghanistan, Arezo [her name has been changed] was thriving in her life as a working woman.
The seizure of power by the Taliban on August 15, 2021 changed its destiny.
She is now nothing more than a social shadow, forced to stay at home, simply because she is a woman.
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From our correspondent in Kabul,
“
All aspects of my life have changed
,” breathes Arezo.
She confides in the privacy of her modern living room.
The low tables are filled with dried fruits and biscuits, as required by Afghan hospitality.
"
Before, I made a good living, I enjoyed my job
," says the former senior civil servant on condition of anonymity.
"
Today the whole people are in the same boat
," she said.
“
We only think of one thing, our financial problems
”.
Born in 1972 in the Afghan capital, Arezo is a pure Kabulian.
She grew up with a large family incubated by a stay-at-home mother and a tailor father.
After a degree in foreign languages and English literature in the early 1990s, she embarked on a master's degree in political science and international relations at Kabul University.
A university course that will be disrupted by the arrival of the Taliban in 1996. Religious students from the south of the country take power and apply a rigorous version of Sharia, Islamic law.
Women are placed under house arrest, forced to wear the chadri, the burqa, and are not allowed to leave their homes without being accompanied by a
maharam
, a male chaperone from their immediate family.
►
To listen also: Women in Afghanistan: return to hell under the yoke of the Taliban
“
They were animals
,” Arezo says of the Taliban fighters of the time.
She recalls fleeing to Iran with her family shortly after religious fundamentalists took over the reins of power.
She is 24 years old and her life changes for the first time.
She only returned to Afghanistan after the American invasion in 2001, following the September 11 attacks.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is established and Arezo resumes the course of his life in his country.
With her diplomas in hand, she joined an NGO then in 2007 joined a service within a ministry in Kabul.
Arezo was for 15 years at the head of a mixed team.
Elegant and always affable, she received Afghans and foreigners in her office with whom she took the time to converse in English and never failed to practice the language of Molière with her French interlocutors.
At fifty, she still harbors a passion for foreign languages.
Position removed, salary reduced
After the Taliban took power a year ago, his job was stripped.
The new masters of the country replaced her with one of the employees she previously supervised.
A man she had to train on the telephone, the Taliban not allowing him to enter the premises of the ministry.
"
They told me to stay at home, without explanation, and they reduced my salary
."
Each month, she now receives 20,000 Afghanis (the equivalent of 216 euros) instead of 120,000 Afghanis (1,300 euros), her monthly salary for 16 years before August 15, 2021. She does not know how long this sum will last. will still be paid.
“
History keeps repeating itself in Afghanistan, unfortunately
,” she says.
Arezo speaks calmly, his fingers tangled, a light veil over his hair gathered in a bun.
She evokes her husband, lying in one of the bedrooms of his apartment in a family residence inhabited by the middle class of Kabul.
He has been bedridden for four years after suffering a stroke.
Arezo supports her family on her own.
A year ago, she withdrew her three children from reputable private schools where they were educated to enroll them in government establishments that could no longer pay school fees.
“
My son is in high school but he only has three out of seven teachers
“, she explains, adding that many teachers have left their jobs because they have not received their salary.
"
I no longer have hope for my near future
," she says.
“
The Taliban have not changed.
It's a dark regime
,” she says.
Her 8-year-old daughter, seated next to her, remains silent.
Next year she will go to secondary school in the 6th grade, the last year of schooling authorized so far for girls under the Taliban regime.
“
Mothers like me have to accept this situation for now
,” Arezo says.
"
Maybe the Taliban will rule this country for a few more years, but it won't last
," she wants to believe.
“
They will not remain victorious, because the people are not with them.
»
►
To read also: Afghanistan: one year after the return of the Taliban, the increasingly gloomy horizon of women
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