The brutal reality for girls and women in the Afghanistan crisis

Are we going back to 1996? That year women have robbed of all their basic human rights through the Taliban regime. Women were not allowed to work, study, did not have access to healthcare and mobility. They were not permitted to leave the house without a male companion and always had to cover up their face.

This time, the Taliban claim, everything will be different, that they have a plan to include women in the society, but they do not answer how. In their weekly meetings on education, the directors of the girls’ schools cannot attend because, well, they are women. The Taliban have already indicated that men will no longer be permitted to teach girls or women, making an already serious teacher shortage even worse. Moreover, all women are required to wear an Islamic hijab. Interviews with women show that they lose their motivation to study because they cannot see their future under the Taliban regime.

Is this the 21st century? For western women, it is not even imagined what Afghan girls and women go through at the moment. We are complaining that we cannot go to a party because of covid restrictions, that the shoes we wanted to buy are sold out or that we are too lazy to learn for an exam. Yes, it is normal to be in your bubble, but sometimes, at least sometimes, stick your head out of it and have a look at what others go through in that same moment. Be thankful for what you have and do what you can for those who need your support. Awareness is a very powerful weapon. Last summer the Afghanistan conflict was all over the news, but after a couple of weeks, it disappeared again, leaving women in Afghanistan left to their fate.

90% of the Afghanistan's workforce were employed by the government before the Taliban came, now all of them have lost their jobs and are just trying to stay alive leaving education a less urgent topic to deal with. Families are selling their daughters to strangers and child marriage is leading to an immense number of child abuse. Unprotected sex at an age way below legal age can lead to complications during birth because of their underdeveloped bodies.

This is the sad reality of girls and women in the current Afghanistan crisis and that it disappeared from the news does only mean that we need to spread even more awareness elsewhere!