Sanctuary to Prison: Women's Rights Under Taliban Rule!

Sanctuary to Prison: Women’s Rights Under Taliban Rule!

Farkhunda Hayat

Its August 26th, 2024, Here I am, in Kabul, Afghanistan, my homeland—yet, the sense of safety that should come with the word “home” has dissolved into a haunting uncertainty.

The comfort I once found in these walls has been replaced by a chilling choice: to leave everything behind or to remain silent, as if lifeless. We believe home is where we feel secure, where we seek refuge from danger.

But now, even within my own home, I am gripped by fear—fear of being taken, imprisoned, or worse. Can I still call this place my home? What once was my sanctuary now feels like a prison, confining my hopes and dreams, suffocating the very essence of what home is meant to be.

From Sanctuary to Prison: The Erosion of Women's Rights Under Taliban Rule! — Image: Powershift

Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, they have imposed countless restrictions on women and girls, systematically stripping away their rights and freedoms. The landscape of my homeland, once full of promise, has become a shadow of despair for women across the country.

In September 2021, the Taliban barred girls from attending secondary schools, silencing their voices and aspirations for education. By December 2022, they closed the doors of universities to women, extinguishing their hopes for higher learning.

“And then, as if to erase women entirely, the Taliban’s new “Law of Commanding Good and Prohibiting Wrong” of August 2024 decreed that even a woman’s voice—whether speaking or reciting the Quran—was deemed inappropriate and silenced. Their faces, their voices, their very existence in the public sphere were being erased.”

Women were forced out of their workplaces, told to stay home until a “suitable environment” could be created. Many never returned. By March 2022, most government offices and NGOs were forbidden from employing women, with only a few exceptions in the health sector. The professional lives of countless women, built over years of hard work, were erased overnight.

The Taliban’s grip tightened further in May 2022, with the imposition of a mandatory dress code requiring women to wear full-body coverings, including face veils, whenever they stepped outside. This was more than just a restriction on clothing—it was an erasure of identity.

Travel, too, was curtailed. In December 2021, women were banned from traveling more than 72 kilometers without a male guardian. By July 2022, this ban extended to international travel, leaving women trapped within the borders of a country that no longer welcomed their presence.

Public spaces once enjoyed by all were closed off to women. In November 2022, the Taliban banned women from parks, gyms, and even public baths. These places, where women once found joy and community, were no longer theirs to enter.

And then, as if to erase women entirely, the Taliban’s new “Law of Commanding Good and Prohibiting Wrong” of August 2024 decreed that even a woman’s voice—whether speaking or reciting the Quran—was deemed inappropriate and silenced. Their faces, their voices, their very existence in the public sphere were being erased.

Women who once served as judges, prosecutors, and legal professionals were dismissed in October 2021, their contributions to justice and society dismissed as irrelevant under the new regime. Even the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was replaced by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a cruel twist that symbolized the eradication of institutional support for women’s rights.

Media participation was stifled, with female journalists forced out of their roles, unable to appear on television without a hijab or to report freely. The ban on sports participation in September 2021 ensured that even the physical freedom of women was curtailed, with the Taliban citing that women’s bodies should not be exposed during sporting activities.

The streets of Kabul, once filled with the voices of women demanding their rights, were silenced by force. Protests were met with violence, arrests, and threats, leaving women with no choice but to retreat into the shadows.

Healthcare workers, too, were not spared. In January 2022, female healthcare professionals faced strict dress codes and limitations on their ability to travel to work, further limiting women’s access to essential services.

And so, my homeland, once a place where I dreamed and flourished, has become a landscape of fear and repression. The Taliban’s systematic dismantling of women’s rights has turned our homes into prisons, our dreams into whispers, and our lives into shadows of what they once were. In this environment, where can we find the safety, the security, the home that we once knew? Or has it all been lost to the darkness that now envelopes us?

References :

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. (2023, August 30). Taliban leader issues new laws restricting women’s voices and faces. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved from https://www.rferl.org

Associated Press. (2023, August 31). Taliban’s ‘Commanding Good and Prohibiting Wrong’ law targets Afghan women. The Associated Press. Retrieved from https://apnews.com

Human Rights Watch. (2023, August 31). New Taliban law further restricts women’s rights in Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org

FARKHUNDA HAYAT is the correspondent of Mahabahu from Kabul, Afghanistan.

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