In one year Afghanistan has become a ‘suffocating’ hell for women

First modification: 07/27/2022 – 17:07

With our correspondent in Kabul, Sonia Ghezali.

Women’s rights are receding in Afghanistan, starting with the labor sector. Women were banned from political life. In the Afghan Republic, 27.7% of the seats in the People’s Chamber were held by women. They also had half of the seats in the Upper House. The political sphere is now exclusively male.

Few still work at the Kabul airport, in some security forces. Civil servants in several ministries were excluded, except in Education and Health and in the Interior. The authorities have asked them to send men to work in his place.

Full veils, banned schools and male escorts

Former employees of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Foreign Affairs told RFI that they have been asked to stay home. Now they only receive a part of their salary. One of them received 120,000 Afghanis a month, that is, 1,300 euros, under the old regime. Now the Taliban only pay him the equivalent of 218 euros a month.

Secondary schools, on the other hand, remain closed to girls. Women are required by decree to wear a full veil in the street. They must have a male companion when traveling more than 72 km. Many NGOs then have to hire their escort when they employ a woman.

►Read also: Burka in Afghanistan: “The Taliban confront men and women”

Amnesty International denounced these treatments in a report. “They all create a suffocating network that affects Afghan women in all aspects of their lives. Whether it’s their education, the way they dress, the way they work or even the way they travel, they are suffocated by the rules and restrictions imposed by the Taliban,” explains Marie Forestier, a researcher at the NGO.

Size of swimsuits

Agents from the Ministry for the Promotion of Vice and Virtue make rounds through the streets of the to verify that these regulations are being complied with. However, Afghan women continue to defy the bans. She is seen walking around with a simple veil on her head and her face uncovered.

In a certain way men are also affected. They are not subject to work restrictions, but beards are recommended. They chide those with trendy haircuts or no beards, some have even been beaten.

A Kabul resident told RFI that police officers went to his swimming pool to check the size of the men’s swimming trunks. Swimsuits that reach above the knees are prohibited. Likewise, by decree, minors cannot swim in the same time slots as adults.