According to a report by the UN Mission in Afghanistan, Afghan women feel scared or unsafe when they leave their homes alone because of Taliban decrees and enforcement campaigns over clothing and male guardians.
The report, released on Friday, comes days before a UN-convened meeting is set to begin in Qatar’s capital with member states and special envoys to Afghanistan to review involvement with the Taliban and the country’s crises, including its human rights record. discuss.
The Taliban who took over Afghanistan in 2021 during the final weeks of the US and NATO withdrawal from the country have excluded women from most areas of public life and prevented girls from attending school after sixth grade as part of tough measures they imposed despite initial promises. of a more moderate regime.
They also restrict women’s access to work, travel and health care if they are unmarried or do not have a male guardian, and arrest those who do not adhere to the Taliban’s interpretation of the hijab, the Islamic headscarf.
The UN mission’s report, published on Friday, said the decrees are enforced through arrest, intimidation and intimidation. Women said they are increasingly afraid to go out in public spaces because of the threat of arrest and the long-standing stigma and shame associated with being taken into police custody.
More than half of the women interviewed for the report felt unsafe leaving home without a male guardian, or mahram. The risks to their safety and their anxiety levels increased each time a new decree specifically targeting them was announced, the report said.
Women who dated a mahram felt safer, but noted the stress of having to rely on another person to accompany them. Some said their male guardians reprimanded them for wasting time when they wanted to visit certain stores or deviate from a route limited to completing basic tasks.
This undermines the chances of enjoying even micro-moments of stimulation or leisure time outdoors, the report said.
Some women said male relatives were also afraid and reluctant to leave the house with female relatives because doing so would expose them to Taliban harassment.
A spokesman for the Vice and Virtue Ministry, the Taliban’s vice squad that enforces such decrees, said it is nonsense and untrue that women are afraid to go to the shops.
There is no problem for the sisters (women) who have observed the hijab, said Abdul Ghafar Farooq. Since women are naturally weaker than men, Sharia (Islamic law) has called mahrams essential when traveling with them, for the sake of their dignity and respect.
He said harassing women is against the law.
Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch told the Associated Press that Afghan women’s fear of leaving their homes unaccompanied was devastating and devastating, but not surprising.
It appeared to be a specific goal of the Taliban to scare women and girls from leaving their homes, Barr said.
This begs the question what on earth is this discussion in Doha, where the UN hosts special envoys,” she said. “We must ask why the focus of this meeting and every meeting is not about this crisis that is unprecedented for women around the world.
The UN envoy to Afghanistan last year warned the Taliban that international recognition as the country’s legitimate government would remain virtually impossible unless they lifted restrictions on women.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: February 17, 2024 | 4:47 pm IST
